Eight intrepid South Africans & one British citizen stood in the freezing cold at Walvis Bay Harbour on Thursday 2nd July '09, waiting for the twin hulled motor boat ‘Antie’ to pick them up for a tour of the Harbour. 
The boat came into view with the captain and another passenger who on closer inspection appeared to be a seal!  The boat came nearer and the passenger slid into the oily waters. We had to walk a very wobbly plank to get into the craft and we were told to stand along the sides of the boat and leave the long, vinyl covered seat empty.  Leaving the mooring we then found out why the seat was empty – a large shiny form jumped onto the stern and then onto the seat. 
Mossie, our captain informed us that this was ‘Spotty’ a Cape Fur Seal who lived in the harbour waters and loved to check out the occupants of ‘Antie’ on a daily basis.  He or she (the sex of seals is very difficult to determine) was so beautiful with a sleek dark coat and large brown eyes.  Some of the passengers seemed a little afraid of ‘Spotty’ but Norman and I stroked her (she was too pretty to be a male) and found that underneath the wet fur was a layer of very light coloured, dense fur.  She loved the attention and stared at us with those huge eyes.  Mossie fed her fresh fish, always offered head first so that the fish would slither down her throat easily.  Off she went again and now our attention was taken up by seven pelicans that were bobbing about right next to us. 
Mossie opened the boat’s throttle and the birds were left behind until our captain let out an ear piercing whistle, the pelicans ran along the water’s surface, took off and landed next to us.  I didn’t realize just how colourful these birds are with salmon pink and apricot bodies and creamy yellow beaks and pouches. They had their fish too before flying away.  Then guess what – back came ‘Spotty’, Mossie asked me to sit across the seat and put a towel over my lap, I was very confused.  Another whistle and “Spotty’ jumped onto my lap and snuggled right close up!  After the initial surprise a big, big hug for this delightful creature.

All this time we were heading out to sea and looking back we could see the extent of the very large harbour of Walvis Bay.  There was an oil rig in for maintenance and another one waiting off shore for a berth.  The rigs come from Angola and used to travel to Cape Town for the service but now Walvis has the facilities needed.  As we got further out a fog was coming down and soon the tops of ships were lost to sight.  On our left we could see a long sand bank that would eventually end as Pelican Point. A large community of Cape Fur Seals was on the bank and their smell came before their sighting.  There were huge bull seals and their harems of females with cubs of all sizes.  A few minutes later two kayaks were spotted and one seemed to be in trouble so off we went to investigate.  One chap had capsized his kayak and it was waterlogged and very low in the water, so he was dragged into our ‘Antie’ and taken to the sandbank where a 4x4 vehicle was parked.  The man was very cold, the sea was something like 12 C, and a bit shocked but gave a merry wave as we went on our way.  We were then told to look out for Benguela Dolphins, the smallest of the dolphin family, that can sometimes be found in this area.  They were there but we could only see quick flashes of fins and creamy tummies as they flashed by the side of our boat.

By this time we were all quite cold even though Mossie had been keeping us all warm with small tots of “Namibian Coffee”, please note Carol that this is not available in a tin, only in brown bottles!  He opened the throttle once again and took us into the lee of a moored fishing boat and took out tasty snacks, champagne and fresh oysters.  I had always avoided them as I thought that they looked really slimy.  This time I decided that this was the time to stop being a wet blanket and after putting all the trimmings on, ate my first oyster and found that I rather liked the experience and had a few more.  Susan also took her first oyster and the facial expressions were a sight to be seen.  On disembarking along same wobbly gangplank we found out that we had been out for over four hours. 

Everyone had had a super time and Norman and I thought that it was one of the highlights of our tour and would highly recommend the experience to anyone.  For myself I had had two really special experiences, falling in love with ‘Spotty’ and eating non-slimy oysters!!