What better place to spend our staff Christmas party weekend than Swakopmund, Namibia’s charming seaside resort town, where you can enjoy a walk along the beach in search of dolphins after a busy day enjoying some of the many activities on offer.
We stayed at Sandfields, a small five-bedroom guest house located in a quiet suburb just steps from the beach. The rooms here are spacious and beautifully appointed with fireplaces in each, perfect for snuggling up against the often misty coastal weather. After a delicious breakfast of fresh croissants, muffins, smoked salmon and an excellent selection of cheeses, we set off for Walvis Bay.
Walvis is the only usable natural harbor of any size along the Namibian coast and has historically been very important in allowing ships to resupply en route to the Cape of Good Hope. Today Walvis Bay Lagoon is a designated RAMSAR site and home to many species of birds including flamingos, pelicans, gulls, cormorants and terns. The port itself is a busy, busy port with huge Russian fishing boats, oil rig maintenance stations, and a large number of container ships. It is also home to large numbers of Cape fur seals, two species of dolphins, turtles, many birds, turtles, the occasional whale, and sometimes the mysterious Mola Mola, or sunfish. The rich, cold waters are fed by the Benguela Current, which brings nutrients to these waters and supports this incredible variety of species.
We did a morning cruise with Catamaran Charters. Based at the Walvis Bay Yacht Club, this highly professional company offers great boat trips right into the harbour. Here, guests can relax aboard the spacious catamaran, sip sherry to stave off the morning chill, and keep their eyes open for low-flying pelicans swooping down to snatch their freshly caught treats from the guide. We enjoyed learning a bit more about the Cape fur seal and getting to know a couple of them up close before the skipper took us out towards the lighthouse and Pelican Point. This famous landmark came to Walvis Bay in 1915 when the English seized it from a German ship that had to stop here for repairs en route to Asia.
A little further on is the edge of the harbor and the beginning of the open ocean where we are lucky enough to be chased by some Heaviside’s dolphins, one of the smaller species. Bottlenose dolphins are also found in this area, as well as the occasional orca and humpback whales. Riding the bow wave for a short distance, the dolphins deserted us and we continued on to watch the amazing display of terns, plovers and cormorants circling and diving along the sandtongue peninsula.
Near the lighthouse is a colony of Cape fur seals, and during December the sands are a vibrant mass of mating seals, small groups of kindergarten pups, and surfing females filling their bellies with copious supplies of fish to keep them going throughout the year. this hectic time. We were going to experience them first hand the next morning when we took a kayak trip the length of the peninsula and past the colony, an amazing experience!
But the rest of the catamaran cruise was dedicated to decadence, enjoying some fresh oysters from Walvis Bay (a driving industry in the port and employing approximately 150 local people), champagne, and other excellent seafood snacks. Around 12:30 pm we headed back to the Yacht Club and said goodbye to our crew, a little sun-soaked, a little seasick, and more than a little relaxed.