Even if we are more sedentary at the moment than we are normally, we do take a trip to the surrounding area at least once a week. The one from yesterday took us to Walvis Bay, which is around thirty kilometers south of Swakopmund. Walvis Bay is the largest and only deep-sea port in Namibia. (South Africa did not hand it over to Namibia until 1994, after the end of Apartheid.)

The route from Swakopmund to Walvis Bay runs along the coast. On the left you can see the high dunes of the Namib Desert; on the right the Atlantic expands to the horizon. The cold Benguela current, which runs along the coast, also produces the fog, which is often only burned away by the sun around noon. But on July 1, 2021, a deep blue sky stretched over us.

We passed the container port and followed the coast to Pelican Point. On the way there, however, we did not meet pelicans but thousands upon thousands of elegant, long-legged flamingos. What an experience!

PS. If you want to know more about the Greater Flamingos in southern Africa, it’s best to read here.