Walvis Bay - Seals and Pelicans

I joined a catamaran tour on Wednesday.  Me, a boat, the ocean and some wildlife.  What is there not to love?

As soon as we left the wall a seal jumped up aft. They probably lie in wait for the boats to launch as they know there's brunch on board.

They sit anywhere. Even leaning up against the passengers.

As we sailed we attracted a following who enjoyed the fish we had on board.


Such beautiful beaks.

I think this has to be best wildlife photo I've ever taken. Look at that cartoon look on the pelican!

I sat on the top of the cataman, wind in hair, blanket over knees and was handed a so-called 'Namibian coffee'. It's sweet sherry.

And as you'd expect, it didn't take me long to join the skipper on the bridge. 22 deg south - just north of the Tropic of Capricorn.

I spotted a lighthouse on the chart, which we ended up sailing quite close to.


A flock of cormorants.

Oyster pot markers.  The oysters are started off in Chile and imported here.  It's a huge business.

As we motored up the spit we spotted a couple of jackals on the sand.

It's a hard life waiting for dinner.

We sailed to the edge of the bay to the fur seal colony.

This ship looks beached, but it's just the other side of the sand bar.

A seal tiff.

Lots and lots and lots.


And a tourist (elephant seal).

A dead one being inspected for a tasty snack.

As we sped back to harbour a seal played in the wake of the boat.

Weeeeeeeee!

We then had a snack - oysters and other meat type delicacies which I obviously turned my nose up at.

Mmmm, oysters. Yum. Not.

But at least I had compensation!

What a lovely way to spend a few hours.  Muchly loved.

Swakopmund - Snakey Wakey!

On Tuesday I stayed locally: did some work, admin, a little sewing and then popped to the snake park for an outing.  Like the aquarium, it's not a large extensive place, and it didn't take me long to peruse, but it was interesting.

Black zebra snake.

Boomslang.

Burmese (yellow) and South African (black) pythons.

West diamond backed rattle snake.

Vine snake.

Leopard sand snake.

Black mamba.

Bearded dragons.


And the tortoise which I nearly stood on to get a better view of the terrapins...

After a while though I got a little creeped being surrounded by so many reptiles, esp those of childhood nightmares, so I wandered back to my book...

Swakopmund - The Little Five

Most people who have travelled to Africa on safari have heard of the 'big five' - that of the elephant, rhino, lion, leopard and buffalo.  On Monday I found out there was a 'little five' - namely a dancing white lady spider, web-footed gecko, sandfish skink (legless lizard), Namaqua chameleon and the sidewinder snake.  I joined a Living Deserts tour to find out.


Tommy is an enthusiastic, to put it mildly, desert naturalist who loves nothing more than leaping out of his Land Rover to run headlong into the sand pursuing a teeny tiny animal.


Tommy was often seen  running up a dune and digging madly to find his quarry, a gecko, lizard or similar.  Hilarious.  But uber knowledgeable and professional.

I had joined a group consisting 2 French, 2 Americans, 2 South Africans and 5 Romanians.  After a while we answered to Tommy's calls of 'French man', 'English lady', 'American man' etc.

Tommy first unearthed a skink, a tiny silver worm like creature which he proceeded to put in his mouth.  It's OK, he popped it out quite quickly and let it slither away, but he knew his stuff and what was safe to touch, or not.

I have no idea how Tommy or his colleague did it.  OK, they check tracks, such as for the side winder snake, but they'd spot these wee creatures from metres away and chase them down.

This was the first lizard we found.

Tommy showed us the difference between that an a gecko. For example, lizards have toes whereas geckos have webbed feet. Lizards also have eyelids.

We learned to sex a lizard too. This one is male.

This one had a good grip once it bit.

We took turns to be bitten.

Tommy and the Romanian children then let it go.

We found another one although I've named the photo as a gecko?  I think it's actually a lizard.

A Namibian sand gecko. Far more bobbly skin than the dry skin of a lizard.


A side winder snake. A recall seeing one of these at Sossusvlei.  Tommy has chipped a lot of these snakes as part of conservation work.

We look like we're having a seance! But it's the side winder snake party.

Tommy then found a horned adder which was treated with a lot of respect.



A tractrac.

Tommy enticed them onto our hands using maggots.

Across the desert is the disused Swakopmund to Walvis Bay railway from the 19th Century. It was initially built in the 1890s but kept getting buried by the sand. It think it was finally abandoned only in the 1980s.


And it was on a piece of this disused railway that we found our Namaqua chameleon. They have found this one in the same spot for the last 4 days.

It was amazingly quick to change colour. As soon as it stepped off the concrete onto the sand it lightened to green.

Tommy fed it a beetle which it expertly reeled in with its long tongue. Its tongue is longer than its body length.

Tommy's final party trick was to show us how much iron made up the sand. It was a mere 52 deg C (how he didn't wear shoes was beyond us). It was amazing to see how much ferrous material there was.

It was a great morning out - a lot of fun.

Swakopmund - Shark Surprise

I visited the small, but perfectly formed, aquarium on Sunday.  It consists of a central tank crossing two floors, with a tunnel through it on the ground floor and open at the top, on the first floor.

Around the tank there are cosy cushioned seating areas where you can curl up and watch the fish swim by.

Also on the ground floor are numerous small tanks containing fish and other marine animals, such as these lobster.

And a stuffed penguin display.

Namibian marine wildlife benefits from the Benguela current.  And there were various boards explaining that and other marine information.

Here's Ray.

I went upstairs to find the top of the tank. I sat down to watch the fish swim by and, lo and behold, this swam past. Made me sit up!

It's a Gully Shark. There were two of them swimming round and round - suppose there isn't much else to do in a tank.

Afterwards I wandered towards the lighthouse.

I dined here once but I noted, with sadness, that the restaurant has now closed.

Lovely flowers.

And guinea fowl.