COVID-19 update
Thinking about a happier place and time, our thoughts have turned to Sandwich Harbor, which is the theme of the pictures for this week.
Sunday night and Monday morning the area known as Twaloloka in Kuisbmond burned down to the ground. It’s an informal settlement, and there was a loss of life. So, the news feed definitely had an extra flavor this week.
Of course, the aid to these poor people instantly got politicized. After 30 years of failure, Namibia’s governing bodies are now feeling the pinch of loss of support.
We are watching the number of cases rise in the rest of the country as well as Walvis Bay. Despite people dying, there are still individuals that are not taking this threat seriously.
Weekend
The weekend was quite peaceful, with some people visiting us. We even might have picked up a lead for some work at the end of the year. Movie work, too. Which is always nice. 🙂
Weekly picture theme – Sandwich Harbor
The theme of the pictures on our page this week was Sandwich Harbor. The British spelling of Sandwich Harbour is slowly falling out of use, even though when we learned English this was a British colony. This is also why you will find us driving on the right-hand side of the road.
With not much else to talk about, you might be a little entertained by factoids and nice pictures of Sandwich Harbor.
This image above was taken early in the morning on one of the many trips into Sandwich Harbor in 2019. As this is just one of the many day tours that you can pick from, the place is just as special for us as the first time we went.
Some mornings can be cloudy or foggy. When these clouds start breaking up, these wonderful patches of light starts revealing the depth and form of the landscape.
Sandwich Harbor is home to a variety of wildlife, and these Ostrich is spotted quite often. The young chicks are spotted much less often, of course! Should you be lucky enough to see them, be sure to grab a few pictures.
Of course, with their young around these birds become very protective and can kill a human with a kick from their very strong legs, so keep your distance.
At the lagoons of the harbor, there is a wetland that is home to the same bird species as you can see in Walvis Bay. Here, the environment just looks so much more untouched. In this photo you can see some juvenile Flamingo that have yet to turn pink like the older ones.
Being filter feeders, they prefer shallow waters with a muddy bottom, and do their very distinctive dance to kick up some mud and yummy critters.
Access to the lagoons at Sandwich is tidal, and it’s always a good idea to check the tides for the day of your visit, should you decide to come see this place for yourself. When the tide is closing the access, the waves start hitting the dunes and it’s time to get out of there, or stay until the next low tide.
This particular picture was taken from the top of a dune on the dune road back. As we have a general wind direction, our dunes form slip faces where the sand is literally as steep as you can physically get sand to go. This feature also makes the dune road a one-way road, as the tour vehicles cannot climb up a slip face of a dune.
In this picture you can see our trusty FJ80 Land Cruiser SUV, parked on the purplish sands near the mudbanks of Sandwich Harbor. The purple of the sand is due to sand-grain sized garnets and iron mixed together. The high iron content in the sand dunes make radio communications … interesting.
The mud banks themselves is the remains of a river that used to flow into the ocean at Sandwich Harbor, but eventually the dunes covered it over, and now it only flows underground.
Springbuck is almost always spotted at Sandwich Harbor, and this little herd of about 30 or so Springbuck is always hanging around in the same place. Sometimes they’ll cross some of the dunes in search of better grazing, and then the pictures you get are amazing!
The Black-backed jackal is a feature of the Namibian coast, and can be seen all along the coast.
