On April 14, 2011 we arrived in Luderitz, Namibia. Luderitz is a very small town that was settled in the early 1800’s by German Lutheran missionaries. The area around the city is noted for diamond mining and vast sand dunes. Most of the streets in the town are dirt/sand. The architecture has a German colonial influence.
For our visit to Luderitz we decided to just walk the town and see the local happenings. We climbed to the high point of the town where stands the Felsenkirche (the Lutheran church that was built in 1911). Of course we did a little shopping before we headed back onboard, no diamonds purchased! One of our passengers was confronted by two men with knives who stole this person’s camera. This is the first incident that we have heard about on this cruise. We departed at 1:30pm en route to Walvis Bay, Namibia.
On April 15, 2011 we arrived in Walvis Bay, Namibia. This is a large modern town with a growing sea port. There is plenty of local industry and the city is surrounded by sand dunes. Some of our passengers elected to venture to the Namib-Naukluft National Park and explore the dunes and the desert. This tour was full, with a waiting list of approximately 80 persons, so we were not able to go. Since there wasn’t anything very unusual in the city, no photos are included. We depart here at 6:00pm tonight and have 4 sea days before our arrival in Lome, Togo on Wednesday, April 20, 2011.
