Walvis Bay and Swakopmund, Namibia

Walvis Bay is the major port town in the middle of the long stretch of Namibia from South Africa to Angola. The first Europeans here were the Portugese in the mid 1400's. Long before them it was the land of the Topnaar people. The British colonized the Walvis Bay and the Germans colonized the Swakopmund further north primarily for a military presence. Walvia Bay is the major port and was part of South Africa until, I think 2004?, when it was given to Namibia. The name Swakopmund comes from the Topnaar word for diarrhea, because of all the debris washed down the Swako River to the sandy beach resembles the spew of a lose bowel.


There are an extraordiany number of marine and shore birds along this bay.





Greater Flamingoes





Pied Avocets





Caspian and Fairy Terns, Black-headed Gulls, Common Greenshanks, Black-bellied Plovers, Bar-tailed Godwit, a Curlew Sandpiper, and Ruddy Turnstones.