Dankie Jorrie en Josh
22 April:
There are a lot of bird photography opportunities in the vicinity of Walvisbay, and this morning was my only chance. With a promise to be back by lunch-time, I got moving early.
I was astounded by how busy the shipping lane is between Walvis and Swakop.
- Workboat
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- Line 'em up
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When I stopped on the promenade on the lagoon, it was just startig to get light. A flock of Lesser Flamingos stood feeding in the shallows, and I slowly started approaching them.
- Legs for miles
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- Touchdown
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Once the sun was up, it was time to move on. I followed along the shore, then at the entrance to the salt works, I took the road to Paaltjies. It was a saturday morning, so there were cylists, a jogger, and several fishermen along the way. The birdlife was fantastic
- Black-necked Grebe
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Though what really surprised me was this guy and his mate
- Jakkals
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- Paaltjiespad
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Everywhere were flocks of birds (in this case, a mix of Terns)
- Sterretjies
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Reaching Paaltjies, I headed back, and then took the road to Sandwhich Harbor. I knew I didn't have time to get there, and several people had told me that it's dangerous to go there alone, but I found a track heading into the dunes and took it anyway.
But by the top of the dune the track had disappeared, and since this is a national reserve with limited access, I thought I had better turn around.
- Spoorsny
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Coming back, I saw a group of vehicles climbing a steeper dune. The shape of one looked familiar, so I decided to join them.
- Toergroep
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Turned out to be a Y60, a 101" Forward-control Landy and a Defender with a BMW M3 engine. Chatting to the leader of the group (Hans, who drives the Patrol), they were on their way to Sandwhich. He invited me to come along as far as the beach, then follow the beach (5km) back to Paaltjies.
It was astounding to see how the two landies struggled in the sand. The two Patrols never had to take a second run, the Landies both took several tries at each dune.
Soon I was heading back along the coast. Flocks of cormorant shared the shore with fishermen.
- Cormorants
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- Cormorant
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Turns out the girls had forgotten about asking me to be back by lunch, and were somewhere in the town, and with no desire to drive up and down the town, I just took an afternoon nap. They returned at about 3pm, and then Megan (our youngest) discovered that she had left her phone somewhere in town, so back we went. No sign of the phone though.
I did get visits from Hennie Lacock (Sniper on sa4x4 community) and Graham (Tiny here), which was great.
That evening, Gerrit sponsored us for a visit to the fabulous Jetty1905 restaurant
- Jetty
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- Swakop
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