Luderitz, Namibia
Luderitz is name for Adolf Luderitz, founder of the German Southwest Africa Colony. Diamonds were discovered in 1910 but today the mining has moved to a different area of the country.
The area off the coast is shallow and rocky and this is a tender port. The ship arrived at 8 am. Customs officials boarded the ship and every passenger needed to have a face to face meeting with an official. This of course was done in the dining room so the people of importance could have their cookies and muffins.
Every country has their own method concerning immigration and visitation. The United States probably has the strangest of them all. Try to immigrate legally and it is one hassle after another. However, cross the border illegally and you are invited to fly to different cities in the US where you will be given food and shelter.
A city like Luderitz should be paying the cruise ship company to have its ships stop here. Instead they hassle them and require forms to be filled out. Question #17 on the official Immigration Control Form is “Kindly state the amount of money you intend to spend during your visit?” Who comes up with this stuff? Of course I put 79 cents.
We waited in line to hand in the forms that went into the pile. A trash can should have been the place they were placed. After turning in the form it was time to get the “official stamp”. 2 official stamps in the passport book. I ordered the book with the extra pages. It is actually possible to be refused entrance if one does not have enough blank pages in the passport book to receive the official stamp and my book is getting quite full.
We are making two stops in Namibia. Tomorrow we stop in Walvis Bay. When we are done with the day we have to turn in our official departure form. Another form that will go directly into the trash.
Today we planned to have lunch at the Barrels Bar and Restaurant and also visit the Premium Namibian Cigar Shop. I visited the web site of the Cigar Shop but I wasn’t able to check out prices as every time I clicked on a cigar type I received a “sold out” message.
The tender ride was a little longer than most. The port had a narrow walkway when we got off the tender. Lot’s of sand in this town. Winds keep shifting the sands all over. The roads were covered in sand. We were able to visit today because there was little wind. We missed this port in 2022 because of the winds.
Some of the buildings had some great architecture. I’m not sure who actually lives in this little town. We started our walk into the town and stopped in a small store to buy a few items. Things were very cheap. Most things were made in South Africa, not China.
We went to a store and Terri found a much needed baseball cap. The clerk said they only take Namibian Dollars. We decided to stop at an ATM for some local cash and come back later.
We found the place that sold cigars. I asked the clerk where the cigars were. We are completely sold out, she said. The store doubled as a local art store also. We need nothing here. We went to the restaurant we had planned to stop at. It was only 10:30 but there wasn’t much to do here. The restaurant was closed on Sunday.
We passed other ship people up and down the streets. We saw Richard from our trivia team and he was with Mike, a friend he met on the ship. We decided to go to the Portuguese Fish Market Restaurant and have a drink and maybe some food.
It was a nice place that had tables outside. We sat and had some drinks. A beer was $2.62 USD. Hard to beat that price. We decided to have some lunch also.
We sat and chatted with Richard and Mike. Richard was lawyer and Mike a doctor. The usual banter between these two professions took place. The talk then turned to wine and our wine tour. Two young ladies sat down and decided to join us. One was curious about why I get a headache from smelling wine. I tried to tell her that I can smell the wine and know that it will give me a headache if I drink it. The whole talk of the table seemed to turn to wine and sulfites and the cause of headaches. I told everyone that I just didn’t have any interest in wine.
The one young lady called the men uncle and the women aunt. She told us that she was angry that her father died and left her. He had pancreatic cancer but didn’t fight hard enough, she said. She also told us about all of the racism and tribalism in the USA. It was clear after she spoke that she was very racist. The Germans killed almost all of her people. The Germans represented white people. She didn’t care for white people but here she was chatting with them.
Many more people from the ship joined us at the other tables. The owner was there and he seemed happy with the turnout.
We finished up with lunch and said our goodbyes. We stopped in a few stores on the way back as I had a $200 Namibian bill (about $10) to spend. The store with the baseball cap in it was closed. At another store, I found a cotton sweatshirt that said “Detroit, Michigan” on it. It seems that South Africa has capitalized on the USA branding. Lots of NYC apparel and I saw other Michigan apparel also.
We took the tender back and the pilot had trouble with the motor. Seems that the gas tank was empty. He started and stopped the tender many times and did make it back to the ship. No way to maneuver the tender when he was near the ship so he just gently crashed into the docking area of the ship and threw over the ropes. Interesting tender ride.
We had a drink before dinner with Joe and Ann and swapped stories about our excursions in the past week. A few weeks back they took an excursion that went to New Delhi and the Taj Mahal. Joe had some very cool photos.
The evening entertainment did not appear exciting enough for us so we played some cards up on the back of the Lido.
Early to bed. Walvis Bay tomorrow.