It is not a simple matter, reaching Sandwich Harbour, just 50-odd kilometers south of Walvis Bay on the Atlantic Ocean coast of Namibia. Lying within the Namib Naukluft National Park, it is jealously guarded by towering sand dunes that plunge straight down into the cold waters of the Atlantic, leaving very little flat and firm sand at the water’s edge, even at low tide. There is no easy access.

However, for keen birders, it is worth putting in the effort required to reach this important RAMSAR site where, at times, there may be upwards of 200,000 birds present. The area between Sandwich Harbour and Walvis Bay is also home to around 90% of the world population of Chestnut-banded plover.

We decided not to drive ourselves on this challenging trip, but to rely on the experience of a local tour operator who, as we understood it, ran regular trips to the isolated spot. Hmmm. We left Walvis Bay at about nine in the morning and were very soon deep in the “Sand Sea” that makes up the Namib Desert between Walvis Bay and Luderitz Bay. No roads. No Tracks. Just dunes, one after the other without end.

The Land Rover Defender coped quite well with the soft sand, although it was defeated by many of the steeper dunes of soft sand that had us sliding backwards or, perhaps worse, semi-sideways, when forward momentum was lost. It was not possible to reach any of the firmer sand at the edge of the sea because the tide was too high and access blocked, and eventually our guide advised us that we would have to walk the last stretch.

Fair enough. Off we went.

At about eleven o’clock, still making our way down the coast, knee deep in ice-cold water most of the time, our intrepid guide said that he would return to the Land Rover and see whether he could find a way to Sandwich Harbour as the tide would be retreating by now. We should carry on just a little further and we would reach Sandwich Harbour, where he would join us shortly. I never saw him again until after 5 o’clock! That is, after I had visited Sandwich Harbour on my own (Jane was really ill and, finding a wonderful spot with lots of bird activity, sat out the last stretch to Sandwich Harbour), and after I had walked back to where we had left the Land Rover. Thank goodness not all guides are as irresponsible as this thoughtless soul!

The bird life is astonishing along this stretch of coast, though, and that was the main reason for the trip. Gulls, terns and plovers of all varieties. Flamingoes. Avocets. Herons. Ducks. Cormorants. All in numbers that would be difficult to find elsewhere.

Incidentally, in spite of its name, Sandwich Harbour has never been a harbour at all, although it served as a refuge for whaling ships and the like in years gone by. A misnomer, really. Like calling the fellow who drove us on this trip a “guide”.

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