We arrived in Namibia this morning at 8:00 -- right on schedule. It took a bit of time to clear the ship so that we could disembark, but we were entertained by a children's choir for a time while we waited. I've included a short video clip of them here.
As soon as we got off the ship we boarded buses for our scheduled orientation tour of Walvis Bay http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walvis_Bay and Swakopmund http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swakopmund. Walvis Bay is the small area just around the port and Swakopmund is a bit larger and about a half hour drive up the coast. Both communities have the Atlantic on the west side and large sand dunes on the east. Most of our time was spent in Swakopmund, visiting the Karakulia Weavers http://www.karakulia.com.na, the Kristall Galerie http://www.kristallgalerie.com, and walking around the town on our own. The shop of the Karakulia Weavers was my favorite. It was fascinating to see the preparation and spinning of the wool, and the weavers are experienced and talented, creating rugs and wall hangings from original photographs and drawings. The area has a heavy German influence, and although the official language in Namibia is English, only about 7% of the population speak it. Namibia is a very young country and sparsely populated since most of it is desert.
On the way back to the ship we drove through the sand dunes, which are numbered from 1 to 99. We stopped at Dune 7, the highest in the area. Although it is possible to sandboard http://www.namibweb.com/dune7sandboarding.htm many of us attempted to walk up the dune. A few made it all the way to the top, including 4-1/2 year old Christopher and his dad Ted, but alas, I made it just past halfway to the top. John and I are doing a trip on Wednesday that provides another opportunity to try, and I will have to think about whether to go for it again.
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