Last Chance to Shop

At the dock this woman competed with the nearby stores to sell her wares. It was a last chance to shop before our boat took off for a half day cruise and champaigne luncheon in Walvis Bay, Namibia.

Seal Island in Walvis Bay

This is a tiny portion of one grouping of the seals in Walvis Bay and there are 16 of these settlements there. They are a constant frustration to the fisherman who compete with the seals for the same fish.

Dolphin Hello

The local dolphins aren't as outgoing as the ones in Florida (no jumps out of the water), but we did see over 20 swimming past the boat.

Coming in for a Landing

Pink Pelicans

In addition to the flamingos, the pelicans also turn pink when they have a steady diet of shrimp.

So Long and Thanks for the Fish

When he had enough petting and fish, Ottie climbed back on the platform and jumped back into the ocean. Pieter, the Captain said that there are 3 seals that will jump aboard the tour boats and that they have very different personalities.

Such a Face!

Ottie the Ham

Ottie kept getting up on this platform and posing before going back into the boat for more fish. He was a natural!

Surprise Visitor!

During a cruise to see the seal colonies this guy jumped aboard our boat. There are about 1.8 million seals in Namibia and the number continues to increase because they have very few natural preditors. The tour boats are now associated with fish treats and the seals know that "first come first served." This seal is named Ottie and he "can be a very naughty boy." He knows where the treats are kept and made off with the entire bucket of fish.

Flamingos of Walvis Bay, Namibia

1000s of flamingos live in Walvis (whale) bay year round because the weather doesn't vary much. They change colors based on what they eat. Lots of shrimp makes them turn a vivid shade of pink.

Namibia Rainbow

The Alte Feste-Winhoek's Oldest Building

The Alte Feste is actually a German fort built in 1890-1892 and was the headquarters of German occupied Africa. Today it is a museum with an interesting division of white history and black history in Namibia. The black history is all about the wars and struggle for independence. The white history has antique furniture and musical instruments used by the early German settlers.

Herero Dress

This woman is wearing the traditional dress of the Herero tribe. I had just spent several hours in Windhoek's excellent anthropology museum learning more about the different tribes when I walked past this woman in downtown Windhoek. She let me take her picture for 10 Rand (about one dollar).
This is my 7th African country and I have a feeling that Namibia has more of the "traditional" Africa that we Americans have come to expect - based on what we have read in "National Geographic" and what we have seen and heard in movies. For example,
I heard my first click today. In movies somewhere in my past I remember hearing Africans speaking with a clicking noise. Today at the museum, 2 women were chatting and the conversation was filled with clicks. My guide Etienne explained that the Dama language actually has 6 different clicking noises that are used as part of speech. It's amazing hearing all 6 of them - especially when I can hardly make one basic click. Six variations are impossible for me.
Secondly, the anthropology museum showed that there are several tribes who have decided not to dress as missionaries have taught - but to maintain their original tribal outfits. For women it means topless (except for beautiful jewelry) and a short leather mini skirt. The Himba, in northern Namibia continue to dress like this and also cover their bodies in a red clay.
I've been told that most tribes people will dress differently when they come to town, but at home, they wear the traditional dress.

The City of Windhoek

It's the capital of Namibia and has 240,000 people. Namibia has 1.8 million people.

Windhoek -100 years ago

This is the same church from the previous photo. The hotel where I am staying, the Thuringerhof, is covered in huge black and white photos of Windhoek's early days - and this is a photo of one of their wall hangings.

Christuskirche. Windkoek, Namibia

The name means Christ Church in German and it is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Windhoek. It is over 100 years old and has never needed any repairs to the exterior. You can see it through a beautiful park near the Namibia Parliament Building.
My guide, Etienne, said that a new Presidential Building is currently being built and costs have already exceeded 1 Billion Rand (about $150 million US dollars), and they are asking for several million more Rand to finish it. This seems a little excessive in a country where 50% of the population is unemployed.

Plenty of Room to Land

The Windhoek, Namibia Airport has one runway in an immense area. (The runway is the gray strip in the upper right hand corner of the photo. The ride to town was through beautiful mountains covered in green.
Namibia is one of the newest countries in Africa and this week it celebrates the 20th anniversay of its' independence from Germany. There are reminders of the German influence in its' architecture, religion (it's almost 90% Lutheran - my Mom would be ecstatic), and its white population - the descendents of the original white immigrants.
The original settlers of Namibia are represented by the 10 different ethnic groups (tribes) that live there. 50% come from the Owambo tribe and others include Kavango(9%), Herero/Himba (7%), Damara (7%), Caprivian (4%), Nama (5%), Baster (6.5%), San (1%), and Tswana (.5%). The white population (German and Afrikaner - Dutch/South African) make up 6%.

Namibia From the Air

Trip to Windhoek, Namibia

When the plane leaves Capetown, it flies northeast up the Atlantic coastline of South Africa. When it crosses the border into Namibia, it begins to head east toward the city of Windhoek and the terrain changes to desert and bizarre valleys. I wonder where the road goes that seems to end in the coils of the snake-like valley.

Leavin' Capetown

It's hard to take a bad picture of Capetown (this from the Queen of bad photography!) As the plane flew out of Capetown on its way to Windhoek, Namibia, I had a final chance to take a last few hundred photos.
Just before I left, I found out that Lance Armstrong and I have something in common. He was in Capetown early for their annual bicycle race, but he had been detained at the airport for several days because he didn't have enough pages in his passport. I have been fuming about Kenya and my experience there, but the problem wasn't Kenya - it was South Africa. It turns out that if South Africa doesn't feel that you have an adequate number of pages in your passport, they will actually put you on the next plane back to the city you came from. Kenya has enough experience with this happening that they are extra strict about it. So sorry Kenya, that I've been so angry with you. It should have been directed at South Africa!!
And a last comment on photography - Sonny asked me if all the photos in the blog are my own. Yes they are. If I use a picture from another source, I always acknowledge them in the text next to the photo. Considering that Sonny is one of the best photographers I know - this is one of the nicest questions anyone has ever asked me.

Downtown Capetown Scene

Fog Fingers

Every 4-5 days while I was in Capetown, the fog rolled in over Table Mountain and seemed to caress the top of the mountain like a giant hand. When this layer is very thin, the locals call it "the tablecloth."

Mandella Exhibit

Half of the exhibits at Capetown's Slave Lodge are dedicated to Nelson Mandella including his early protests against apartheit, his 27 years in prison, and his years as President, Statesman, and Nobel Peace Prize Winner. This poster shows when South Africa won the World Cup Rugby Championship which helped unite blacks and whites in South Africa. This event is the subject of the new movie Invictus which is playing now in theaters in the US. PS Locals I've talked to agree that Matt Damon does an incredible job with the extremely difficult South African accent.

Lovely Building for Terrible Things

The building is Capetown's Slave Lodge, built in 1679 by the Dutch East India Company to house 1000s of slaves. It has now been turned into a memorial to slavery and apartheid as a reminder of the horrors of slavery and the struggle for equality.

Bo-Kaap Neighborhood and Islamic Mosque