Sandwich Harbor Tours

Over the last few days I did some day tours down to Sandwich Harbor. Sandwich Harbor is really an amazing area. One drives south from Walvis Bay, one of Namibia's coastal towns. Once you pass the salt works on the southern end of the town, you are in a landscape of dunes, salt flats and beaches, with very little to remind you that there is a town only a few kilometers away.

I did the tours with a company called Turnstone Tours. I have been familiar with the company for some time, but this was the first time I had actually done tours for them. Turnstone have been one of those companies I have admired for some time. It's small and the owner, Bruno Nebe, still does many of the tours himself. The main reason for liking the company is all the feedback that I got from my own guests over the years at Sossusvlei Mountain Lodge who had done tours with Turnstone. Of all the companies at the coast, the feedback that I got about Turnstone was by far the best.

Sandwhich Harbor is uninhabited, but once was the a rather important spot on the coast due to fresh water springs.  Today the fresh water is getting less and the dunes have covered most past human activity.  The lagoons and mudflats support huge numbers of birds and the area is a ramsar site.

The tour runs for a full day from Swakopmund.  If you are planning to spend some time at the coast it is certainly worth doing the tour, and I can say with certainty that Turnstone is the company to do it with.  It's not a place to take lightly in terms of the driving.  The dunes, dangerous salt marshes (with quicksand if it gets wet,) and the tides that can trap you along the dunes all mean that it's a much better tour to do with a local expert than to try to negotiate it yourself.  You could loose your car.

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