Wednesday 23rd October

Breakfast, then out on to a boat to see the seals and dolphins in Walvis Bay.  Masses of seals, but no dolphins. They reckon almost 2 million seals live on the coast of Namibia. Also colonies of flamingos and Cape Cormorants. Pretty cold going out on the catermaran against the wind, so we were offered sweet sherry to counteract the cold. Lunch onboard, fizzy wine and very local oysters plus sandwiches.

Afternoon we had a flight over the desert. Flight was bumpy as we were flying low (one of our party (not either of us) used the paper bags provided). Around two hours 30 minutes. Saw Zebra, Ostrich and a dead whale (the latter beached on the coast). I have no idea what the Zebra could be eating.  Started out cold as we took off from a rough track near the coast. As we headed inland, the sun arrived. Warmed up to 30.

Saw a couple of disused diamond camps, salt pans and wrecked boats now in the sand dunes, plus a dead, beached whale. The dunes were fabulous, rolling on for ever and ever. Far point of the trip was the river which now runs into the dunes and disappears.
One wrecked boat, beached in 1909, and now lying 400m from the sea, had been a supply ship for the German diamond hunters.

In the evening we had a very good buffet supper in a local restaurant. This was in a former railway station. Drank a bottle of Meerkat Sauvignon Blanc. The nearest we got to Meerkats on this trip.