The original plan was to get laundry done, look around Walvis Bay, and then head up to Swakopmund. Since Swakopmund is only a thirty kilometer drive the late start wouldn't be an issue.
We went to the lagoon to see the flamingos (50 percent of southern Africa's and almost 5 percent of the worlds population of flamingos is supposed to live here. There were a lot, but not nearly as many as I imagined (several hundreds, not several thousands). After having our fill of the pink birds we continued out along the road to the salt mine. On the way we picked up two girls from the hostel that had been walking - we were way out there, so they were very happy for the ride. There's a 4x4 only road that continues 50 km down the coast to Sandwich Bay but it requires a permit. We decided we'd go as far as the guard station just to see what the road was like. There was no guard station so after a rough road through a surreal setting of weird sand hills we ended up at the beach. The water was freezing so swimming out, but there were a lot of fishermen and the weird assortment of things they were catching kept us entertained for a bit.
The others have decided they want to take a relaxing day and stay here again tonight. I don't mind having a dead day but I think we should have gone up to Swakopmund and take it there - Walvis Bay is just to boring of a town to justify the extra time. Oh well. The others spent the afternoon napping. I caught up on my journal and read.
