Day 110 Walvis Bay, Namibia

We arrived right on schedule into Walvis Bay, Namibia. Once again, there was a huge amount of morning fog. The fog banks were incredible (see photo). We departed on my tour at 0800 and proceeded on the coastal road to the village of Swakopmund. I was lucky to hook up with my friends Bill & Barbara and Art & Yvonne in our 4x4 vehicle. From Swakopmund we headed to the Musical Rocks which are part of the Moon Mountains. It really does look like the surface of the moon. The rocks are called musical rocks because of the sound they make when you hit them together. Our group continued through the moonscape while our guide informed us about the desert plants. We learned about sources of moisture and nutrition that can be gained by animals via these desert plants. One of these fascinating plants, the lichens almost immediately came to life as soon as water in applied…. Very cool! In the Welwitschia Valley, we checked out the Welwitchia plants which were discovered in 1859—and which are a "modified tree that produces a single, turnip-like stem" that can be more than three feet thick and five feet tall. These incredible plants produce there first flower after about 20 years and has a lifespan of at least 1,000 years. The plants we were looking at we probably several hundreds of years old. Shown are a female (with pods) and male Welwitchia. We then headed for the Goanikontes Oasis, where we had a fabulous lunch. After lunch, we headed for the Namib Desert sand dunes. I climbed a huge dune (check out the perspective of the shot I took of the vehicles & people below). It was a difficult yet fascinating experience. After taking a million dune photos, A we headed back to Walvis Bay to the lagoon where we checked out flocks of juvenile flamingoes.