sea, salt and sand

Ship time: 2350
Latitude: 31 degrees 41.1 S
Longitude: 16 degrees 53.5 E
Course: 155 degrees

And I forgot to mention the last time...
Walvis Bay Latitude: 22 degrees 57.3 S
Walvis Bay Longitude: 14 degrees 29.3 E

Some may also be interested to know that time in Namibia and in Cape Town is 7 hours ahead of Eastern, 8 hours ahead of Central, 9 hours ahead of Mountain, and 10 hours ahead of Pacific time.

Yesterday we went with a group of 25 people to the Walvis Bay Lagoon. This area is a huge feeding ground for flamingos and pelicans, as well as egrets, terns and other birds. Most of the flamingos appear white until they spread their wings which are bright pink with black edges. They are spectacular to see, whether flying low over the water or walking forward in large groups.

Near the feeding grounds is a salt field where large lagoons are built and filled with sea water through a system of canals and pumping stations. Once most of the water evaporates and turns a beautiful pink color, salt crystallizes and is harvested. We had a tour of the grounds and a presentation of the process.

The lagoon also contains an oyster farm and the process of growing oysters was also explained. The seed oysters come from Chile and are allowed to grow for nine to twelve months. Here we ate the freshest oysters I ever hope to experience, served with champagne.

We did return to Dune 7 and due to the time constraints I decided not to try climbing it again, although four of the students managed to make it to the top in short order. Several of the students had gone sandboarding on an earlier trip, and said that it was very similar to snowboarding and not as painful to fall down (although some of them did have some pretty impressive scrapes!).

We left Namibia last night at 8:15 and have been cruising on fairly smooth water to Cape Town. Today was full of sessions to prepare for our arrival there tomorrow morning, but we had plenty of time to see porpoises, seals and birds from the decks of the ship, particularly during the life boat drill this afternoon. The porpoises in this area are quite small and in fairly large numbers -- that was really a treat!