Swakopmund
07.01.2008 Thankfully Mark believes that birding should be a pleasure, so we only had to leave the house at 7am in search of the Dune Lark – an easy find near the municipal nursery – just stopped on Mark’s instruction, jumped out and there it was in front of us! This little bit of “road” gave us a chance to test the Land Rovers true 4×4 ability – though I suppose that is pretty much proved, so I guess it was Sion’s ability to take on a sand dune that proved itself. Talking about dunes, what would a trip to this end of the world be without a stop at Dune 7. It’s impressive majesty was hopefully captured on camera from the bottom as we weren’t at all keen to climb it! Much of the rest of the day was spent collecting a few more lifers around the salt pans – thanks Mark! Whilst Trevor and Mags opted to go in search of lizards and the like, Sion and I chose to look around town – Sion had spent 2 years doing his army service here and I was keen to see where he’d been. Of course the most spectacular sights were at the Walvis Bay lagoon with the arrival of the flamingoes and other waders as the tide was going out. We had a delectable dinner at The Raft – a must if you’d like to treat yourself. With a window seat it was like sitting in an airport watch tower at the busiest terminal ever. There were flamingoes flying in every direction with a pelican or two thrown in for good measure along with a few hundred sandlerlings and the like. It was an indescribable experience and though we tried video’ing the scene, I don’t think anything can do it justice, it’s just something you need to experience first hand.Swakopmund