Travel Chapter 15- Beatrix of Nambia

Travel Chapter 15
Namibia 2

You can see the pictures of this post at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/akeyserlingk/Namibia20091?authkey=H3tNtDj9FwM#

We are now underway from Walfis Bay and Cape Town about 350 miles from Cape Town where we will arrive in the morning.

Yesterday we had a wonderful last day in Namibia when we met up with our friend Beatrix Hill. Beatrix, whom we met 2 years ago by chance, is a Namibian whose husband runs one of the many fish processing plants in Walfis. She was born in Luderitz in the south of Namibia and speaks English, Afrikaans and German. When our itinerary was changed shortly before our departure from a Suez Canal transit to an around Africa trip, I contacted Beatrix to set up a follow up meeting in Walfis.

We agreed to meet yesterday morning at 11.30. All this was done by email as I could not reach her on the phone. In fact, Beatrix ran into problems at the main gate and she was delayed. But being the resourceful lady she is, she parlayed her way through the security gate and appeared in her car just at the foot of our boat. It was a fun reunion as we had not seen each other in 2 years. Emmett was pleased to meet her as he had heard the story of how we had met on our last trip.

Beatrix took us to see the Spanish owned factory where her husband works. It is a fish processing plant which has five good sized fishing boats supplying it. The fish, mainly hake, is filleted and packed in ice. It is then trucked up to Windhoek the capital of Namibia and flown to Spain, packed for the supermarkets to be on the markets of Spain
Within 24 to 36 hours of landing. This is a huge industry in Namibia which has very rich fishing grounds due to the cold waters of the Benguela current which bring cold water up along the coast from the Antarctic latitudes. These waters are not only cold but rich in nutrients.

We then drove out to see the flamingoes and huge pelicans which thrive in the shallow waters of the huge bay which lies in front of Walfis Bay. In fact, the bird life of this area would make any birder very happy for many days. Theses same fish rich waters sustain a huge bird population all year round.

In fact, the little town of Walfis has thrived since we were last there as a result of successful efforts of the government in attracting foreign investments which have created new jobs and industry in the area. It is still a small place but its huge sandy seacoast makes it an attractive location. The result is that the harbor is humming with ships stacked up offshore awaiting their turn to enter the port. There are two floating dry-docks, there is a company doing repairs to oil derricks as well as cruise ship traffic and normal goods traffic. The stability of the government of Namibia is paying off although there is a limit to what can be done in a country of 2 million people where only a small percentage of the land is arable. A smart decision of the government has been to make English the national language rather then having a hodge podge of local languages trying to vying for position as is the case in countries like India and South Africa.

We then went off to a nice restaurant called the raft which stands in the bay about 100 feed from the shore on pylons. I once again gorged myself on Namibian/Chilean oysters and a good piece of kingklip fish. Life is good when living near the ocean… The only thing missing was a good bottle of cool, white, dry South African wine but that is no longer on my menu.

In the afternoon, we went into town as Emmett needed some sandals, shorts and shirts. Beatrix drove us to a local store where the prices were so low I could hardly believe what I saw. Of course, as a result, I bought lots of things I probably would not need but at those prices it would be cheaper to buy the things than have them sent to the ship laundry!
We walked out with a huge bag of stuff for Emmett, for our granddaughter in Texas and for me. Lots of fun.

We then drove to a huge beach development half way between Swakopmund and Walfis bay called Longbeach. Beatrix told us that they had just sold their nice house in Walfis and that they had decided to move to Longbeach. This is the place the actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie had come when she was pregnant. Their child was actually delivered in the hospital in Swakopmund. It is mainly a vacation complex but mainly people live there year round and commute to either of the cities.

And so our days in Namibia ended when Beatrix drove us back to our ship. It was fun to see her and it also gave us a little more insight into the country than one can get just being a tourist. We will return again one day. Thanks Beatrix.

We boarded the ship and at 8pm we slipped our lines and were underway. It was nice to be back at sea and everybody slept well, tired from their experiences and lulled to sleep by the gentle roll of the ocean. If one does not get seasick from the roll, it is similar to being rocked in a gently hammock. Babies love it and so do adults who love the sea.

Today, it is a beautiful day at sea with the sun shining and water calm except for long slow ground swells to which we are now accustomed. The amazing thing so far is how little marine pelagic life we have seen. Except for some flying fish and a rare dolphin, so far we have seen nothing. With ocean so large, it is a lucky thing to see whales and other creatures that probably scamper as far and as fast as possible away from our oncoming ship making huge amounts of noise in the water. But one continues to spend hours watching the sea in the hope of seeing something.

That’s all for today,
Cheers