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Published: September 18th 2009
Bring Them All Home
We've made our way back up to Windhoek and then over to the coast, courtesy of some near-hands-free driving, by our bus driver to the the curiously-named Swakopmund (try saying it - it sounds almost like somewhere in Yorkshire) with it's pleasant yet slightly strange Mid-West-America-meets-provincial-German-meets-African style of architecture, where we stay in very pleasant Alternative Space boutique lodge (nice one, Sue).
Today is our day to go and do a bit of sea kayaking. As I'm sure you've guessed, this isn't purely in the interests of water sports and there's some animals involved in it somewhere.
Knowing who'd be doing the paddling in a tandem, individual sea kayaks have been ordered. However, two of our co-kayakers haven't been given individual kayaks due to a slight booking misunderstanding, so Tim's efforts to avoid being the motive force in this caper have been thwarted as the only decent thing to do is to offer to take their tandem off them. Given that it makes sense here to have actually been a kayak before going solo and Sue's general outdoorsy nature (or lack thereof) this is probably for the best. At least Tim can administer prods
of 'encouragement' from the more-commanding rear position.
It's a long drive up to Pelican Point where we set off in search of some Bengula dolphins initially. These are pretty small and shy creatures a bit like mini killer whales. We see some dorsal fins break the surface a few time and they're definitely curious about us but they don't get too close.
This minor disappointment doesn't really prepare us for what comes next. 20 mins of (Tim) kayaking later down towards the lighthouse and we come to the resident colony of sea lions (not seals - you can tell by the ears, as seals don't have visible ears, don't you know?!) Man, are they noisy, not to mention a bit smelly.
It's all made up for by the young sea lion pups, though. They are very inquisitive creatures and are determined to poke their noses in everywhere. You'd never think you could get that close and it's pretty easy to lure them in with an oar and then dangle your hand over the side, wiggle your fingers and they'll come over and touch noses to you. They swim all about and around you, making the occasional 'arp' and comical poses when they practice their sleeping-at-sea position and are so lovely that you really do want to take them all home!
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Sea lions, actually
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Lions..!
You will not find an ugly lion in Namibia - on land or sea! The best country in the world to bring up kids... people who normally speak 3 languages from birth - and on an average 7 languages. The beauty and the richness of the country make it just a step above Arizona..... The ocean, the food, the animals, the desert, the diamonds, and then - the uranium......