Walvis Bay, Namibia
Walvis Bay is another stop we did on the Africa trip in 2022. The most exciting excursion here is to see the coast line and ride a jeep up all of the sand dunes. Stunning photos from the dunes when we did this.
We tried to book a round of golf. I did discover that the course is closed on Sunday and Monday. We thought about going on the course anyway and walking.
When we arrived there was a very dense fog. I’m surprised the ship was even able to dock. The fog eliminated the chance for any golf. We decided to take the shuttle bus to a shopping mall at the edge of town.
Walvis Bay is really a desert. Where the small city ends, there is nothing but sand. The main industry in Walvis Bay is the production of salt. Outside of the city, besides the sand dunes, there isn’t much to see other than huge piles of salt.
On the way to the mall we passed the driving range that was next to the golf course. The range was all sand. I don’t remember any grass on the tee box. I’m sure the course was similar but it was behind some buildings and it couldn’t be seen from the road.
The shopping mall was nicer than I thought it would be. The houses in this city didn’t give me the sense that people here purchased anything high end but some high end stores did exist.
The exchange rate here was great for the USD 1 USD = 19 Namibian. This made things incredibly cheap. We wandered from store to store and did make several purchases. Lot’s of goods made in South Africa and also from China.
We stopped at restaurant in the mall for lunch. When a great tasting 20 oz beer costs $2.12, you know you have arrived in the right place.
Even with the 15% VAT and tip, the lunch was incredibly cheap and the food and drink great. We took the shuttle back to the ship and we passed a large group of people selling souvenirs from a street corner just outside the port. We did stop and enjoyed the haggling.
Back on the ship, it was time to go through the customs agents again to turn in our exit form and get our exit stamp. Waste of valuable time but I guess it is a job for someone.
All aboard was 5:30 pm. This was a change from 4:30 pm that was scheduled months ago. This change really doesn’t give anyone more time as excursions have been planned weeks or months ago. The cruise director constantly pestered people to see the port agents to turn in their forms. Once you turned in your form your passport was taken by the ship and you couldn’t go back into the port. I’m not sure why all of the pestering before 5:30 as some of the folks could have been enjoying their time ashore. The hurry, hurry, hurry was really wasted. We didn’t leave until after 9 pm
We did team trivia after dinner. Hardest yet. What city is considered the birthplace of jazz? What is the full name of Eminem? What is the greatest selling album of all time? What year was Woodstock? Who is the lead guitarist of Guns and Roses? Lead singer of Aerosmith? Year and month Elvis died? Which guitar did Jeff Buckley use? Who sang the tune “One of these nights?” We did fair.
The evening entertainment was musician Gary Sletcher. Gary was from South Africa and played the penny whistle and the saxophone. He also sang. South African Music was his thing. The music was interesting but he was only a fair entertainer. He really had trouble communicating with the audience. Many folks left before he was finished. I’m always willing to see it through. I’m glad I went to his show but we won’t be doing a repeat. 5 …