Grand Africa Cruise - Walvis Bay, Namibia

Cruise Day 49

Sunday, November 27, 2022

“You do not travel if you are afraid of the unknown.  You travel for the unknown, that reveals you within yourself.“  -- Ella Maillart

We've had plenty of sleep lately, so there was no sleeping in for us this morning and we were up at 8:00.  We are in Walvis Bay, Namibia today and have an afternoon ship excursion planned.  The weather is surprisingly cool and overcast, but at least it’s not going to be hot.  Since Namibia isn't a very familiar place to most of us, here is a link to some Namibia information.

Walvis Bay is the red marker in upper left corner.  We sailed here from Cape Town (bottom right blue marker) and our missed port, Luderitz, is the blue marker about 2/3 of the way from Cape Town to Walvis Bay.

The flag of Namibia.

Walvis Bay seems to be a very busy port as there was lots of activity.  Here is what Google has to say about Walvis Bay: "Walvis Bay is a port town on the coast of Namibia. Sheltered by the Pelican Point sand spit, its tidal lagoon is home to abundant birdlife including flamingos, pelicans and Damara terns. The harbor is busy with fishing boats and ships. Dolphins, whales and Cape fur seals inhabit the Atlantic waters around the Pelican Point Lighthouse. East of the bay, coastal sand dunes like Dune 7 mark the start of the Namiba  Desert." .

The Walvis Bay harbor was quite busy and there were ships docked on both sides of us.

After breakfast in the Neptune Lounge, we had to head down to the Upper Promenade deck to do a face-to-face customs check in with Namibian customs officials.  We found a very long line stretching from the middle to almost the front of the ship.  It moved quickly, though and we were back in our room a half hour later.

Val decided to catch up on her e-mail, so I decided to continue turning my notes from our safari into blog posts and made it through the third day by noon.  We opted to have lunch in the Neptune Lounge today so after I finished up, we headed down there.  Afterwards, it was back to the room, and I spent a little time doing a little cleanup on what I had written this morning.

Our tour today leaves at 2:00, but we have to be in the ship’s theater by 1:45 to check in.  We had some time to kill before that, so we relaxed for a while and got our things together for the tour.

We arrived at the theater just before our 1:45 meeting time and found they were already loading as we were immediately sent out to the bus.  The tour notes had a warning that this was an undeveloped country with very little tourist infrastructure and not to expect too much in the way of transportation or an English-speaking guide, so we were prepared for the worst.

It was a long walk from the ship to the bus, but to our surprise when we found the bus it was large and fairly new and our guide spoke very good English.  We boarded the bus and waited for everyone else to show up and then we were on our way.

Our tour took us from Walvis Bay (lower left red marker) to the Mondesa Township (upper red marker).  Along the way we stopped to see Dune 7 in the Namib Desert (red marker to the right of Walvis Bay).

Our tour today is called “Go Local: The Real Namibia” where we visit the Mondesa Township in the town of Swakopmund.  The Mondesa Township was created in the early 1950’s by the apartheid government to separate people by the color of their skin and divided them further based on tribal origins.  As unrest grew in the early 1960’s the Owambo, Damara and Herero people were forced to move there and each tribe  was separated into different areas of the township.  Each area had a different level of housing quality in order to breed resentment and mistrust between the tribes and eliminate any unity they might develop to protest apartheid.

Nelson Mandela exposed this to the people, and they did unite and apartheid was ended in Namibia when they gained their independence from South Africa in 1990, but the townships still remain today.  There is still a huge gap between the standard of living in Swakopmund and the township.  Here is a quote from Wikipedia that says a lot about that gap: "In 2017 the Swakopmund municipality erected a wall obstructing the view of the township for people entering town. The Namibian, Namibia's largest English newspaper, called it a "wall of shame"

Although the tribes now intermingle and can live anywhere, the areas are still denoted by their original tribal inhabitants and largely remain of the same area.  The purpose of our tour was to meet in the homes of several of the people and ask them questions about their life and in turn they could ask us questions.

As we drove out through Walvis Bay it looked neither opulent nor poor just like we might see in the US; there was even a large shopping mall as we left town.  One thing very noticeable was a distinct border to the town itself as anything outside the town was the Namib Desert.  There were huge sand dunes and almost no vegetation; this is what I would have imagined the heart of the Sahara Desert to look like.  We did make one quick stop to walk around one of the sand dunes know as Dune 7 that is part of Dorob National Park. 

The drive continued for another half hour until we drove through the outskirts of Swakopmund and then into the township.  The difference between the town and the township was startling.  I don’t quite remember or understand the differences and qualifications, but the government started building some housing in the townships in the 90’s with different amenities depending on how much income the people had to qualify.  The housing isn’t anything like we would expect, and the amenities might be either having an inside bathroom, an outside bathroom or no bathroom at all.  Without better knowledge on my part, I can’t really explain what this is like, but it was quite shocking to all of us.  This first area we were in seemed to have mostly government housing intermixed with some people living in nothing more than sheds built from scrap wood and metal.

As we drove into the area, we felt a little like intruders, gawking at the people living in such poverty in their own area.  We made our first stop and walked a couple of blocks to the home of a woman who would talk to us about her life.  She was uncomfortable speaking English, so her daughter was there to translate.  Our guide could also speak the language, but he wanted us to hear what she said through her own words from her daughter.  She told us she was 71 years old and lives on a pension of 1000 Namibian dollar a month (about sixty US dollars).  She lives in a two-room house with ten other family members.  They did have an outdoor bathroom and we were allowed to use it, but those who did said it was barely functional.  We learned quite a bit about her past and current life, and it was pretty humbling compared to how much we had.  After we left, Val asked the guide if he thought she enjoyed doing this and he said it was badly needed income for her and her family and that’s why they did it.

We got off the bus and in order to get a better insight on this area, we walked several blocks to the home where we would be meeting with the family who lived there.

This is the lady who talked to us.  She didn't seem overjoyed to be there, but she did loosen up after a while and smiled and seemed to be more at ease.

Her head covering is traditional, and because cattle are still highly prized in her culture, it resembles the horns of a bull.

This is the lady's daughter who translated for us and her child.

After leaving her, our drive through the township continued and we drove into a much worse area where the housing consisted of almost all dilapidated sheds, it’s hard to believe they are even inhabitable.  There was no running water and only occasional communal toilets.  We were told the residents bought their water from a central spot for ten Namibian cents a liter (about ½ a cent US dollars).  This is the worst poverty I have ever seen, including what we saw earlier on this trip.  There were also makeshift businesses in the area with the same makeshift construction of the stalls.  There is a school and some of the people have cars.  Our guide told us that the inhabitants who are working have to choose what to spend their limited income on and some choose cars or other things rather than housing.

These pictures were all shot from the bus window as we drove through the area

On the outskirts of this area, we stopped at a stall serving food and were given the opportunity to sample some traditional Namibian dishes.  I can’t remember the names of any of the dishes except one and that was fried mopane worms.  The food they served us was to be eaten with your hands and most of it was pretty bland and we didn’t really care for it, but surprisingly, I liked the worms.  Once you get past the fact that you were eating worms, they were really quite tasty with a bit of spice.  I ate quite a few of them, but then began to worry about what might happen later.  Val tasted one, but she just couldn’t get past that she was eating a worm.  I do have to say that if I had seen a picture of them before they were cooked, I wouldn’t have touched them.  There were several of us that liked them, but otherwise they went uneaten as did most of the food.

This is where we stopped to eat.

There wasn't much room inside, but eventually most of us squeezed in.  Some opted to stay outside and skip the food.

This is some of what we were served.  The white cake looking things were very bland.  The dip in the foreground was OK and it went well with the mopane worms when they were dipped.

A closer look at the worms.  They may not look too appetizing, but they look a lot better cooked than before they're cooked.

I actually like them and ate quite a few.  My only problem was I was worried about the effect on my digestive system later, but they went down just fine and stayed down.

Val didn't like them very well at all.  She just couldn't get past what she was eating so one bite was enough for her.

From there we continued our drive through the township until we came into a bit nicer and newer area that was all government-built housing.  The house we visited was small, but had a nice yard with a flower garden.  We met a lady there that explained to us about using different plants and trees for medicinal purposes.  She also talked about the native language that used clicks as part of speaking.  She and our guide tried to teach us some of it, but most of us failed miserably.  There was also a bit of entertainment as three young men who had formed an acapella group sang us several songs.  They were quite good, and we enjoyed it.

This was the nicest of the three areas we visited in Mondesa.

After that we left the township and drove through the resort town of Swakopmund on our way back to the ship.  There is such a stark difference between the township and the town it was hard to believe they were in the same world.

The township has a population of around 14,000 and the unemployment rate is around 52% with many of the employed working in the nearby uranium mine.  Even having jobs didn’t allow people to have enough money to move to better conditions.

Surprisingly, the township was very clean with little litter.  There is a township governing body that employs people to keep it clean and that provides an income for some.  They also have some schools, a limited medical clinic and some sports fields.  They also provide some other help for the residents, but there is obviously not enough help or money available to help these people out of their wretched living conditions.

As I said earlier, we felt like intruders and a bit uncomfortable, but surprisingly to us, the people were very friendly and welcoming and waved and smiled at us when we drove by them on our bus or walked along the streets.  I wondered whether maybe while we were looking at them, they were looking at us as strange beings like in a zoo.  Whatever the case, it was quite an experience, and we were glad we did it.  We learned a lot and made us feel humbled and very fortunate for the lives that we will be returning to.

We drove back to the ship along the coast, and it was hard to tell where the beach became desert as it stretched as far inland as we could see.  It had been a surprisingly cool day and we were glad we had brought our jackets. 

We got back after 7:30 which was later than expected and we were very hungry so as soon as we got onboard, we quickly got cleaned up and headed off for dinner, but first we had to do our face-to-face departure meeting with the Namibian customs, but there was no line and we quickly got the exit stamp in our passports and were off to dinner.

Dinner tasted extra good tonight as we were very hungry, and the worms didn’t really fill me up very much.  The ship wasn’t going to leave until late tonight as they were still refueling so the casino wasn’t open and we went back to the room and relaxed until bedtime.

The ship needed to refuel while we were out and about in Namibia.  Although this picture was taken before dark, they were still refueling late into the night.

Tonight, we set the clocks back again so another extra hour of sleep, the one advantage of heading back west.  Tomorrow is the first of two sea days before our next port in Angola and then there will be three more sea days until our next port so we are going into a period where we can rest and catch up on things.