Walvis Bay, Namibia
March 28, 2025
I was gently awoken this morning to a very familiar sound, fog horns. Having lived most of my life either in Seatle or in the San Francisco Bay area, the regular droning of muffled fog horns was a soothing reminder of home. We had to look at the on-screen map to see how close we were to shore because the fog was so thick. Our arrival time was scheduled for 11:00AM but it was pretty clear we wouldn’t make it.
After our delay we stepped out into bright sunshine and a light breeze nof about 68F, again very reminiscent of home. I had signed us up for a tour called “Go Local – the Real Namibia”. It promised to show the real life of locals and since I felt our South African experience was a bit “white bread”, and Tod was willing, off we went to take a very deep dive into this remarkable culture.
No big luxurious bus this time, but a 20-passenger van of which there were 16 of us, a driver and our guide who again, I’ll refer to as TG. Regrettably I never got his name, but he was a proud young Namibian, spoke with perfect English AND vocal inflections, so we clearly understood everything he said (except for his name that I assume was in his language).
He started by giving us backstory on his country of which, except for a couple of You Tube videos, we were completely ignorant. Walvis Bay, the town where we docked and were currently leaving was one of the best deep-water harbors on the west coast of Africa. It is used by many countries, particularly the land locked ones like Botswana, Zimbabwe and Congo. Namibia had been subjugated by the usual suspect countries that we have learned had marched around occupying parts of Africa and Asia in the last 400 years, but this time we could add Germany to the list. When we saw half timbered architecture in the towns, it was easy to see their influence. Namibia was handed over to become independent from SA in 1990, and TG was very proud to say they had just elected their first woman president. Population is around 3,000,000, and top industries are mining, oil production, fishing and a fledgling tourist industry.
Geographically, Walvis Bay and Swakopmund, the town to which we were headed, sit between the Namib desert and the sea. We were immediately astounded by the towering dunes of this, arguably driest place on earth. TG remarked that funnily enough, it had rained last week and that was their first measurable precipitation in 16 (!!!) years. I thought, how funny that some 15-year-old kids had never seen rain in their entire lives. The only thing that grows in the desert are some little scrub bushes and the only creatures are reptiles and some desert elephants and horses that can survive by the river which was about 2 hours away. Our drive would take us about 40 minutes on a well maintained albeit narrow 2 lane road that was essentially the main artery along the entire coast. We passed miles and miles of fat palm trees on either side of the road meant to prevent sand from drifting on it. The trees survive from the heavy fog which is a pretty much a constant due to the winds from the cold water meeting the warmth of the desert. He told us that the highest dune was about 350 meters tall which is just short of the Empire State Building. He said it would take him 2-3 hours to climb it, but described getting down as “very easy, you just have to roll!”. It didn’t sound very easy to me but then I’m not a 25-year-old guy.
We arrived in Swakopmund in short order and headed to the local market where it was bustling with shoppers. He said normally we would stop and wander around, but because this day was payday for all the residents, there were likely to be some men that were drunk, and they might “misbehave” by doing things we wouldn’t want to see. I chuckled to myself and thought it was just like my hometown that I avoid on a Friday night for the exact same reason. Some things never change no matter how much money you have or wherever you are in the world.
We stopped at a small area that sold local produce where he thought we’d be safe from the riff raff and explained to us about the items being sold. Understandably, everything was dried being that was the obvious best form of food preservation. They had dried fish, a dried green substance that he described as “spinach” which he said you took home, rehydrated it and then laid it out flat to dry again to be stored as thin cakes. They also sold ground millet which appeared to be their major source of carbohydrate. Cooking is an issue for most people because they have no fuel to power a heat source. Wood and gas are very expensive while water is not. You can get about 25 liters for 1 Namibian dollar which is about $0.05 US.
He then explained that there were 11 tribes in the country and there was also an active municipal police department. However, they were only called on in the most urgent situations leaving the tribes to deal with most legal matters or disturbances of which apparently, they did a fine job. We made stops at 2 different homes where we were greeted at each by an elder woman of two different tribes. At the first home the lady explained in her language how marriage and traditions worked in her tribe, with TG translating. Then we headed to the home of an elder herbalist who explained some of her treatments and the ingredients, of course in her own language. Since hers was the language of TG, they both tried to give us clueless tourists a lesson on how to say words that would change meanings depending upon how you clicked your tongue. (see video below) I think we failed miserably but we tried!
Next stop was for a drink and a snack of the local dishes which again I will show below. We were both relieved to be with a group that was respectful and not silly or sophomoric about the very obvious differences in our foods and cultures. After our snack we headed for the local township where people lived while waiting to have their name called for a one room government house. Again, in the US we would call it a massive homeless encampment but as opposed to the ones we saw in SA, it was very tidy and although run down by our standards, completely free from trash. In SA I thought to myself I’d like to invest in a local barbed wire company because there was so much of it topping virtually every wall. Here in all our driving about, we’d only seen it a couple of times and that was usually around a machine shop or the like.
The people all wore clothes just like anyone in the States, the kids were clean and well-nourished and appeared very happy. We passed at least 8 schools in Swakopmund where education is mandatory. What we found really interesting was that up until 4th grade, the kids are taught in their own tribal language. After that, the parents make the decision on what languages they will learn, but their primary one is always that of their tribe. It was a real contrast in mood, status and regard from the folks in SA.
After a mind-boggling day, we headed back to Walvis Bay and our ship. We did make a photo stop to get a picture of the dunes, but I was SO disappointed not to be able to grab a shot that showed clearly how big they were. I asked one of our tour mates to get us in front of one to hopefully show the scale, but he put the setting on “portrait” and although it is a fine picture of us, the dunes are just blur. Back in the van, and dejected I just happened to glance left (I was sitting in the middle), flopped myself on Tod, aimed out the window and was able to catch what has turned out to be one of my favorite photos on the trip so far. See at the end.
TG left us with the words that Namibia is a beautiful country based on peace, where everyone respects each other and lives in harmony despite their religious and tribal differences. We certainly can’t argue with that from what we observed and would happily return to learn more about this fascinating culture anytime.
Main Street - Swakopmund
Tod and local produce items. Note those booze bottles are recycled to contain oils made from local seeds.
Dried fish from the river
Typical neighborhood street. Note fake palm tree cell tower
Our first tribal elder with native costume
Our second Elder who was the herbalist and TG who was trying to teach us the various tongue clicks of their language
The root of the !Nara plant is used for medicinal purposes
The dung of the Aardwolf, a vegetarian hyena is very valuable in healing
Panoramic view of the township
Typical township house
Restaurant for our snack stop
Our snack - to be shared and eaten with right hand only! Clockwise from top left: millet cake, spinach, caterpillers and white beans. And no, we didn’t try but some people did! ;)
Local kids “high fiving” everyone but instead I did a fist bump. They looked so surprised that I think they’d never seen one before and had to run around the neighborhood showing all their friends!
Nice portrait but no dunes!
Monster dunes, but still you can’t gauge how huge they are
Finally from the bus at 70mph I caught this jeep and a couple climbing the dune to show how massive the dunes are. And this wasn’t even a big one. The ones in the photo before this are 2 to 3 times the size of this one!!