Today was our first of two days in Walvis Bay, Namibia. The bay itself is an excellent harbor sheltered from the prevailing southwest wind which drives the highly productive Benguela Current offshore. We are at Latitude 23º south, and under the South Atlantic subtropical high pressure area where the falling dry air produces the famous Namib Desert. We have two days to explore this wonderful desert where nearly all the water is carried ashore in the fog which comes in at night from the cold offshore waters. Even though the desert is covered with extensive and very beautiful sand dunes with very little vegetation, life thrives here. We were able to find a number of the small animals which spend much of the day either buried under the sand, like the sidewinder snake, or the Namibian chameleon which hides in the little vegetation available to avoid the heat of the day.
One of the most exotic of the plants in the Namib is the famous Welwitchia mirabilis, a plant in a family of its own and endemic only to the Namib. After a day of driving in small groups through the dunes in search of the wonders of this amazing place, we all converged on a spectacular spot in the desert for champagne and oysters to watch the sunset and then to a very exotic little arroyo for a wonderful buffet dinner under the stars, including the Southern Cross which was high above the horizon at this latitude. At dinner we were serenaded by a wonderful group of a cappella singers and later returned to the ship – tired, but filled with memories of a spectacular day in the Namib Desert.
