Travel Guide Walvis Bay

Historically, the shallows of the ocean, which line the entire western coast of southern Africa, have prevented large ships from docking. The first to discover Walvis Bay was the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias in 1487, when he tried to bypass Africa to find a route to Asia. Then came whalers from all over the world who heard about the abundance of whales in Whale Bay. Finally, the English were the first to plant their flag on the coast. The area was demarcated and officially incorporated into the British colonial empire in 1878. The port developed thanks to the copper deposits discovered inland. At the beginning of the 20th century, Walvis Bay had to face competition from the neighboring town of Swakopmund, founded by German settlers. In 1922, the first large ships finally reached Namibia. Since then, this commercial port has given birth to the town of Walvis Bay, laid out according to an orthogonal plan, which the South African government only ceded to independent Namibia (since 1990) in 1994 (February 28), after long negotiations. Walvis Bay, isolated by the Namib Desert, is now home to about 80,000 inhabitants whose activities are mainly related to the commercial port, fishing and salt works. The town is growing rapidly, new residential areas are being built near the large lagoon, and there is a lot of tourist activity, especially with the various excursions to the sea and to Sandwich Harbour. And for good reason, all around the city, the numerous lagoons and the gigantic beaches have remained a paradise for birds. Thousands of flamingos (pink and dwarf, whose size and color differ due to the diversity of their food), pelicans, cormorants, terns, sandpipers, gulls, color the smooth surface of the waters trapped by the sand. Sea lions, dolphins, mola-mola and again whales frequent its waters. On the road, on the ocean side, Langstrand (or Long Beach), halfway between Walvis and Swakop', belongs to the community of Walvis Bay. The first villas were built after 1990, date of the independence of Namibia. The South African government was determined not to let the newly independent Namibia profit alone from the massive annual influx of tourists from their country to the Namibian coast. Thus, Langstrand developed on the beach, between the dunes and the ocean, as a "South African" beach town