Skeleton Coast, Cape Cross Seal Breeding Reserve: 3/4

 Today we headed north to another wreck on what is called the Skeleton Coast. It runs about 300 miles  along the Namibian coast and fog, dangerous surf typically cause the problems. Many of the wrecked ships are visible by diving up to 30 feet along the coast. The bones of people and animals that wash up on the shore give it its name.

Water storage in a mostly vacation village. There
is little rain and no water infrastructure. People
have a tank on their roof and call a water supplier
for a fill when they need it.

A skeleton made up of a combination
of individualls

The Ziele, a decommissioned trawler that was 
being towed to India for scrap after her engine 
was removed. The towing rope snapped.

Our next stop was the Cape Cross Seal Breeding Reserve, a place where as many as 200.000 seals spend their time. Walls and walkways have been created for the seals and visitors. The number of seals in the water and on the land was astonishing. We saw lots of little ones, including several that didn't make it with nature taking its ruthless course.

The number swimming together was like 
seeing fish in a barrel.

We also learned about some of the lichen that helps hold the sand is place. This red lichen is very stiff. Interestingly, if you pour water on it, it gradually turns green. I took the 2nd photo a bit too early, but it is green at one side of the bottom.

The green is bottom right

Our tour bus --most of them look like thiis

Workers set up displays along the road to sell 
salt crystals that aren't big enough to be
commerically viable. Sometimes there are prices.
I bought 2 small crystals here and put my payment
in a locked metal box that will typically be 
emptied daily.

Transfer to Namibia, Explore Coastal Dunes: 3/2 & 3

Today we flew to Walvis Bay and took a bus Swakopmond (means mouth of the Swakop River) to our hotel to start our post trip. We met our new guide, Abraham, who has been terrific in every way. Our flight took about 3 hours and the drive to Swakopmond another hour. We are in an old hotel and got an amazing room - a two bedroom suite with a shared bathroom. This was a MAJOR improvement over the dinky rooms on the main part of the trip. As a loyal OAT traveler on my 31st trip, I am usually placed in an upgraded room, and this was the first one that filled that objective.

I had let Abraham know in advance that I needed medications and that I wanted a sim card for my travel phone. As soon as the rooms had been handed out and luggage delivered, he met me in the lobby and took me to a nearby pharmacy. Since I had a South African prescription, I was worried, but I shouldn't have been. Not only did they have what I needed in stock, they didn't blink at a foreign prescription and asked me to tell them how many pills I needed. I was shocked at how easy it was compared to several failed attempts in South Africa. I took my first dose that evening, and my 8 day nightmare was over.

The next day, we headed back to Walvis Bay to take a 4x4 tour of the coastal dunes with a lunch on the beach. We met our guides at the waterfront, and drove quite a ways before we reached the dunes. We passed an area with juvenile flamingos that are white with black tails. 

Pelican in Walvis Bay Harbor

Juvenile Flamingos above and below

Our next area of interest was a salt factory and ponds. They harvest 30,000 to 35,000 tons of salt each month and sell it to the companies that finish it for sale. A major shock was that they have ponds that produce pink salt -- like Himalayan Salt, it has added ingredients that make it a healthier choice. But locals prefer white. so the pink salt is typically cheaper. I was unable to find any pink salt in the Swakopmond groceries, unfortunately.

Some of the first dunes we saw had bunches of grass on them that looked like eyelashes. The sand goes on forever. We spotted some wildlife and finally we were driving on the beach. The area where we are will flood with the high tides and tours seem to be organized to start just after the tides have turned.

Pink water=pink salt

Above & below: spingbok

The two 4x4s we used

Jackals

Seals here and 2 below

UPDATE: As we drove along, we came to an area where the sand had a reddish color. We stopped and learned that the red color is from ground up garnets located in the ocean and washed ashore. One of the guides used our phone cameras to take major closeups of the garnet sand. The larger lump was completely invisible in the sand. 

Footprint in garnet sand shows color variation.

Extreme closeup of garnet sand

The dunes stretching along the beach made me
wish I could make a stained glass panel of the view.

Whale bones

Sand falls - the blurry areas are falling sand
while the erect sections are more compact and
resistant to falling

Wrecked tug-- helped rescue another ship but
got sand in her engine and lost power to save herself

The silver streaks are mica deposits 
in the sand cliffs. Gives it a very
sparkly look.

Lunch on the beach: sparkling wine, oysters,
chicken schnitzel, fried fish, beef/pepper skewer
with tablecloth and china plates

Jackal

After lunch, we headed up onto the dunes for the ride back. Maybe because the tide was coming in or just for fun. The drivers were clearly into providing thrills, going down and then up steep dunes. I took a couple photos with my camera parallel to the window frame to try to illustrate the angle.

The other 4x4 lined up with us and his front tire
was halfway into the sand. They also flattened
their tires a bit for better grip.

Oryx

Tracks on the beach

Two more oryx

Better view of pink salt water