Walvis Bay, Namibia
April 11, 2024 - We arrived in Walvis Bay, Namibia early in the morning on the 11th and were especially excited about spending some time on land since this port is our last one before 7 days at seas. We were in the theater by 8 AM to go through face-to-face immigration process before we were allowed to disembark. The immigration officers were very pleasant and welcoming — much more so than in Cape Town or any other country. We handed in our our forms, got our passports stamped and were on our way. We had an early morning tour which took us to see the flamingos in the bay and then took us to one of the many sand dune areas in the bay. Anyone interested was given an opportunity to climb the dunes, which we did. We did wish we had better footwear and a walking stick to aid in the climb, but we did give it a go and made it most of the way before the footing became a bit too challenging. Luckily the walk down was much easier than anticipated and it was wonderful to just enjoy the sweeping sand dunes and the ever changing patterns of the sand. In the 30 minutes we were on the dunes, the fog came in and out several times.
Possibly because there weren’t a lot of tourist attractions in Namibia to take us to, and maybe because they know 7 days at sea were awaiting us, Viking had a BBQ set up for us as a surprise at the sand dune. We had seen them loading trucks in the morning we coolers and supplies, and thought maybe they were doing something for the crew. But it was for us! It was a very nice treat. For those that didn’t climb the dunes, it was a nice distraction and for many who did climb a sausage roll and beer was refreshing. When we arrived back at the ship, we did walk out of the pier gates to look at the handcrafts being offered by some locals. We imagine they don’t get a lot of cruise ships here, so the sellers were quite agressive in trying to get you to buy their goods and/or pay them to take their pictures. They made it very difficult to say no, and we certainly wished we could do more to help these people than just purchase a couple of trinkets - especially as we heard from our guides the unemployment rate is over 40%.
We were back onboard in the afternoon, and had to go through a face-to-face departure immigration process again. All of these processes are new for Viking —- and likely the rules keep changing. When we went for the departure face-to-face process, they handed us our declaration forms to be signed. We found out there was some issue with how the forms we handed in that morning were filled out, so Viking filled out new forms for all 565 guests while we were on tours, so we just had to sign and then go through the departure process. Impressive customer service!
As we sailed out towards the Atlantic, we saw what looked like baby seals in the water. Given so many other instances where dolphins, whales, etc were seen in the water -and we missed it — we were glad we got to see this. Pictures didn’t do it justice, but we loved seeing them, despite the fog in the distance. According to our guide, Walvis Bay is one of the foggiest areas in the world - which was evident during our sail out. We heard the horn of the ship several times while we were sitting in our room. We were used to hearing it once each time we sailed out — as a “send-off” to the pilot boats. But we heard it several times, and realized as we looked out the window that the fog was extremely thick - we could only see a few feet out into the water from our veranda. Certainly an interesting way to start our 7 days at sea.
