Cape Cross

We are spending our last weeks in Namibia in Swakopmund. We thought that would be an appropriate Grand Finale to our Namibian Adventure. We arrived on Saturday to stay in our favorite beach house in Vineta. Vineta is a nice neighborhood located at the northern part of the city. On our way, Karin, the woman who keeps an eye on the place texted us to tell us, “the geyser has given up the ghost!” The geyser, by the way is the hot water tank, so when we arrived, the repair people were on their way to install a new tank, I mean geyser. I’m always tickled when I hear such expressions. Not to worry, they didn’t bother us as we made our way to the supermarket and most importantly, THE BEACH. Love being able to say we’re spending a week at the beach in the middle of December.
Swakopmund, although situated at the edge of the Namib desert is usually always cool. This is why people vacate Windhoek in droves to come here during the summer stickiness. The Benguela current is responsible for the cool westerly breeze that characterizes the area and the chilly, chilly water. The Benguela rises up from Antarctica. Frequently, the rising cool air off of the ocean colliding with the desert warmth will produce a heavy fog that shrouds everything in greyness and it was indeed one of those grey days when we arrived. Sunday also presented itself in the same manner, so we headed up the coast to Cape Cross to see the seal colony. By afternoon though, the fog had burned off and it turned out to be quite marvelous.
Cape Cross is noted as being one of the first places that Europeans ever set foot in Southern Africa. Diogo Cao, a famous Portuguese seaman, erected a cross here in honor of John I of Portugal. The cross was later “appropriated” by the Germans who recognized its historical value and now it sits in some German museum back in Europe. The cross that currently resides there is a replica. We took pictures of it anyway since we’ll probably never make it to Germany to see the real thing.
What makes Cape Cross interesting , though, is that it is home to the largest population of Cape Fur Seals in the world: 80,000-100,000 at any given time. Cape Fur Seals are actually a type of sea lion according to scientists. The way they can tell is that they have visible ears, whereas true seals do not. The females give birth in late November and early December, so we got to see the pups: thousands upon thousands of seal pups. The stench emitted by all of these clustered mammals is indescribable. The combination of ammonia smell from the excrement along with rotting carcasses of pups which have perished due to abandonment, sickness or trampling cannot be conveyed by mere words. This combined with the awful bellowing of mothers who have misplaced their pups or pups who’ve misplaced their mothers or big bulls trying to make themselves seen and heard is truly something that can only be appreciated if experienced firsthand. We managed to withstand it for about a half hour.
There is a picnic area within the reserve, but we were too grossed out to try and partake of any lunch. Additionally, we’d made the mistake of leaving our windows slightly open and Ole Bess was filled with flies—the big green, bottle flies that usually alight on feces. We drove many kilometers with the windows down to blow them out and headed for Henties Bay and the Fishy Corner, family owned restaurant which had been recommended by the Powells. We weren’t disappointed. The food was quite good. It took a bit of time though and we didn’t make it back to Swakop until mid afternoon. By this time, the fog had burned off and we had a nice walk on the beach. Tomorrow, Tommy’s Living Desert Tours!