The day starts with a marine educational cruise on one of our luxury catamarans at 09h00 (check-in at 08h30) in search of the marine big 5: Whales, Dolphins, Mola, Leatherback turtle and seals. While serving hot coffee and tea, our initial route takes us past oyster farms as we approach Pelican Point with its landmark lighthouse and 60,000 resident cape fur seals. In season (July to November), larger mammals such as the Southern Right Whale and Humpback Whales are often spotted, while other whale species, such as the Gray whale and the Pygmy Right whale have made appearances. Bottlenose, Heaviside and Dusky dolphins are regularly seen, as are Mola Molas and Leatherback Turtles. Accompanying our four catamarans throughout are a variety of seabirds, such as the Kelp Gull, Hartlaub’s Gull, Pelicans, Skua and Cape Cormorant.
Our journey from Pelican Point takes us past some of the more interesting ships and oil rigs in the bay as we serve fresh oysters with sparkling wine, savoury snacks and desserts together with light drinks, cooldrinks and water. We return to the Waterfront at about 12h30, where your Sandwich Harbour 4x4 guide will meet you for your afternoon Sandwich Harbour excursion.
On the way to the Sandwich Harbour Area we stop at the Lagoon to view the flamingos, before we head towards the Kuiseb River Delta via the Walvis Bay Saltpans. Depending on the tides and the swell, we will try to reach the Sandwich Harbour Lagoon along the beach, one of Southern Africa’s richest and unique wetlands and also one of Namibia’s five Ramsar sites. Alternatively, we will take an exciting dune ride to our lookout dune to get an aerial view of the Sandwich Harbour Lagoon. We have lots of time to stop along the way for photography. We stop along the way to enjoy our world famous oysters, sparkling wine, drinks and cooldrinks. Depending on the weather condition, we do this on top of a high dune overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, on the beach, or amongst the dunes. The route homeward will take us past the area’s typical fauna and flora, including the endemic !Nara plant. Animals which have developed ways to adapt to the desert include the black-backed jackal, fog-basking beetle, dancing spider (‘white lady of the Namib’), golden mole, shovel-snouted lizard, palmato gecko, springbok, oryx, brown hyaena and ostrich. We return to Walvis Bay at 16h30.
