Walvis Bay, Namibia

We'd not been to Walvis Bay. We decided against taking the ship's shuttle to a shopping center and did a lot of walking instead.

 
There were some interesting boats of various types that we saw during the sail in.

Three dry docks, which each had a vessel under repair.

All manner of merchandise was offered for sale just outside the port gate.

We were headed to a lagoon that Dean had read about, but along the way: a pleasant neighborhood.

After we had crossed the peninsula to the edge of the lagoon. There was a mixture of birds. Those pelicans were huge.

A line of those large pelicans flew overhead as we continued to walk.
Note: For reference here, those cargo cranes on the far side of town were located in our port.

 
There were a few Flamingos at this end of the lagoon, but just a little farther south there were thousands.

 
Also, some Ruddy Turnstones waded in the shallows.

Wow. What an amazing place. These huge pelicans were so beautiful.

We continued walking toward the point.

There was a group of historic houses, which turned out to be resort cottages.

The flamingos did not care...

We talked to this group of guests who were visiting from Cape Town. We told them that we'd had great adventures there.

We continued walking.

 
The birds with the gray legs and head with only the palest of pink feathers were the immature Greater Flamingos. So these two birds might be a family grouping.

A group was getting a running start to take off.

As we walked farther along the road, we saw a flock of Lesser Flamingos, which were walking and feeding as a large group.

They were somewhat smaller and with a heavy black bill, but it was their group behavior that was the most obvious difference. They were running and feeding with their heads bobbing up for a look around before dipping down to feed again.
It was these birds that inspired the Flamenco Dance.

On the other side of the road, some rugged excursion vehicles were stopped for a repair.

When we reached the point, we went down on the hard-packed sand for a closer view of the birds.

A Lesser Flamingo... There are six species of Flamingos and this is the smallest.

 
A Black-Winged Stilt and a Cape Cormorant mingled with the Great White Pelicans.

These pelicans are huge up to five feet tall and their yellow and pink bills are suitably large, as well.

 
We walked back toward the road through the glassworts, a salt-tolerant, drought-tolerant succulent that is common on many type of beaches, but this stand was impressive.

 
We'd crossed the road into the desert. A hardy shrub was effective at holding onto the sand.

Of all our various lunch spots around the world, this little sand dune was one of the more barren. We squiggled our butts into the sand and used our packs as tables.

The dunes were wonderful.

If you looked away from the road and the shore, you'd think we were in an isolated desert-maybe even Mars,
except for the wonderful Pelicans flying overhead...

...and these little beetles that moved a large amount of sand relative to their body size to make their nests.