The ship docked before dawn in Walvis Bay and at 6am when we went on deck there was a heavy fog, so we could not see a lot. This is a town of about 90,000 and is the main entry and exit point for goods, so it hosts 3000 ships per year. There were many ships in the harbour, but all were dwarfed by QM2. It could be seen from 20km away when the fog lifted.
The tours were all expensive here so we had to miss out in order to keep to our budget for the trip, and they required everyone to be passport stamped off and on the ship and fill out arrival and departure forms. We just leaned on the rail and watched the buses and 4by4s leave and arrive. There were freight trains arriving and leaving with containers all day, and the cargo cranes were right alongside our ship. They were using dredges to extend the wharf areas.
The Purser sent us a letter telling us that we were now on our second cruise with Cunard after leaving Cape Town and because we had travelled for more than 20 days, we were classified as Gold Members of the Cunard Club and received a badge. This entitled us to attend a cocktail party with the Captain and all other club members (presumably several hundred), which we will not bother with. More importantly this entitled us to two hours each of free Wifi, so Malcolm spent the morning loading photos onto the blog while most people were away from the ship and the uploads were going faster.
The fog lifted at 11am and we got a good view of the desert which surrounded the town on three sides.
At 2pm we went to the movie theatre to watch a great film - The Imitation Game. It showed how Alan Turing and his team cracked the German enigma code and shortened the war by two years and saved a million lives. After the war he was sentenced to two years prison for engaging in homosexual practices but was allowed to accept chemical castration instead. He committed suicide at about 40 and has only been recognised as a war hero in this century. At dinner time Geoff and Joan told us about their tour across the desert to a town built by the Germans and how lovely and popular it was as a resort. The singers and dancers gave us Viva Italia in the theatre. Lyn has been trying to find a suitable word to describe life on board. Malcolm suggests "indulgent".
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