Flying Fish 2015-1

We parked the truck one afternoon to race the sun to the Dead Vlei area about two miles away. Mary stayed in the car shaded by a large bush.

This oryx wandered over and fed on the opposite side of the bush.

After spotting Mary it walked back to its afternoon shade Egret arrived in Walvis Bay and anchored off the yacht club. What a great bunch of folks – as soon as we hit shore in the dinghy a member picked us up and drove us to the various offices to clear. Then it was back to the club to meet the members and have a touch of spirits. What a pleasure to meet such a friendly group.

Namibia is best explored inland, but Brad and Angelina were holidaying in the next town north and their entourage had sucked up every rental car not taken by tourists. There wasn’t a single car to rent in the country, but fortunately we were able to procure a four-wheel drive pickup from a yacht club member and off we went. The first trip was a run south along the beach to a shallow water pool full of flamingos, where a small whale was feeding on baitfish just outside the surf. We felt we could have waded in and touched it. Nearby was an abandoned home nearly swallowed by sand. Namibia is one of the few countries in the world which is growing, rather than losing shoreline to rising water. The dunes are constantly moved west by the wind and slowly gaining land along the coast.

The next few days were some of the best in our travels. Driving the truck inland we wound our way over washboard gravel roads to the Namib Desert. There had been scattered sprinkles of rain, and portions of the desert had a slight green patina from grass shoots. The desert animals had moved in for the feast. There were several types of antelope, including oryx and the giant kudu, as well as ostriches. We were not to know just how close we would get to an oryx a few days later.

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