The only reason we came here was to do some birding at Walvis Bay. The birding along the salt pans is one of the best places to see waders in the world. We visited here when we just started birding but we didn’t identify any of the specials of the region (as we just didn’t know what we were doing then in comparison to now). We were not disappointed with our 3 hours of birding this morning.
It is about 30 minute drive down to Walvis Bay Bird Sanctuary where we started our birding. It is just a series of ponds really which you can drive off the main road down to. No need to get out of the car even and everything can be identified with your binoculars. First life was seen at the first pond we stopped at. We knew it was going to be a good morning right away.
We then headed for the salt pans. Besides the birds (which were amazing and everywhere), it is fascinating seeing the production of salt. The constant stream of salt from the conveyor onto the pile of salt was something to behold.
The number of birds was just about the same amount as grains of salt at the salt works. Everywhere you look there were flamingos, plovers and numerous waders. It was hard to keep track of everything we were seeing there was so much. Most of the birding was just done by stopping the car at a safe spot and then birding from our seats in the car. We drove all the way down to Pelican Point – it is about 15 kms of road through the salt works to the point.
In the end we added 6 lifers today and 24 to our trip list. I am now on 102 and H on 105 for the trip. It has really been a good trip for birds so far. At Sossusvlei we saw all but one of the special birds in the area and today we saw 60% of the specials for Walvis Bay. At one point today H said “I am not sure I can tell a plover from a sandpiper any more and what we have seen and what is new”. It was pretty hard to keep track and then you look at something and think ‘Have a seen that before’ and then spend some time and realise you have already seen it earlier in the day. But then suddenly you realise that is actually different and something we haven’t yet seen. You can only do that for so long and then you need a break.
We got back to our apartment by midday and we have just spent the balance of the day relaxing. We did go out this afternoon to get supplies for the next 6 days as we will be self-catering and in places without any shops. We had googled and found there was a Woolworths in Swakopmund. We thought lets go there and get our supplies. Big mistake, it was tiny and very poorly stocked. Couldn’t even buy meat really. Half the shelves were empty. We bought what we could and then stopped at the SuperSpar for the balance of what we needed. You can feel sorry for the people of Swakopmund as the selection there was also not great but we at least have some supplies now for the next 6 days.
WiFi is going to be problematic most likely for next 6 days so the blogs might be more infrequent and certainly will have less photos. In case you never got the blog from 2 days ago (it seems some people did and some didn’t and we can’t figure out why), it is on the website (www.templetravels.co.za) and you can read it there.
Until tomorrow (hopefully) …
P & H
