April 15, 2026
Walvis Bay is sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean and a desert of sand dunes. You can see the dunes in this photo from the balcony of our stateroom. It reminded us a bit of Abu Dhabi.
We didn’t find a formal tour at Walvis Bay that interested us, so we took the QM2 shuttle into town. Actually, we took a car provided by the QM2 because the Namibia busses couldn’t accommodate Dottie’s pushcart. The streets were wide and there was limited traffic. We drove through several neighborhoods of single-story homes whose yards were enclosed by stone fences, which reminded us of the American southwest.
It turned out that the only shuttle stop was at a mall. The mall was modern and well maintained. We, of course, found an art supply store, where among other things we bought an outstanding African cookbook. We’re planning on making some interesting meals when we get home.
We ate lunch in the Mall at the Mug and Bean, a chain we’d enjoyed in Abu Dhabi. Here, the menu included a few African foods, among them sweet corn fritters. The fritters are named because they contain sweet corn, not because they taste sweet. In fact, they had a peppery aftertaste, which we liked. And the cookbook has a recipe for them. The restaurant was definitely up to Western standards, as you can see by the carrot cake they served.
One store in the mall was dedicated to biltung. You can see various kinds of biltong in the photo of the counter. We looked up the recipe in our new cookbook, and it turns out that biltong is made by marinating sliced raw meat in a mixture of salt and vinegar for 24 hours, and then simply hanging it in the air for several days to dry. Okay . . . We bought some anyway, and it’s very good. Mal specially liked the smoked version.
We took the car back to the QM2, and on the way the driver bent the rules for us and stopped by a group of vendors on the beach. We were the only ones there at the time, so we received lots of enthusiastic attention. This wasn’t Dottie’s favorite situation, but the vendors were polite, and we enjoyed ourselves.
We bought an African mask there that Mal enjoyed negotiating for, and through his skill he probably only paid twice what the seller would really have taken.
Next stop, Senegal,
Dottie and Mal
