Swakopmund (Namibia): 2nd Sept 09

This morning we went dune surfing – basically climbing up dunes and coming down on a piece of board very fast.

OK, confession time...Matt and I were on such a high yesterday after the Sky Dive that we drank and smoked far too much so we were feeling a bit rough this morning. We got to the dunes full of high spirits, but they rapidly faded as we climbed the first dune.

Jeez – have you ever climbed a sand dune? It’s a freaking nightmare – like walking in porridge! This one was 80 metres tall, which is pretty high – even the fittest people in our group got a bit out of breath, but for me, with the lardy belly, hangover and lungs of a 90 year old, having smoked 40 fags yesterday evening it was an absolute mare!

I made it but the last couple of metres involved me pulling myself up on my belly wheezing, sweating, practically crying and saying – I can’t bloody do this!!!! Oh well, I gave it my best shot. So Matt and I decided that we’d surf down and then go and chill by the van whilst the others surfed, climbed, surfed and climbed. They climbed the dune 6 or 7 times in total – the freaks!

The surf down was actually good fun – although because this was the first one it was also the easiest – we went really fast though and I can see why people like to do it – it’s just not worth the climb up in my books, so after about 15 seconds of high velocity my dune surfing days are well and truly over – good riddance!

The afternoon was much more successful – after chilling by the vans and re-charging with 3 cans of sprite each Matt and I felt back on top of the world and ready to conquer the world of quad biking. This was SUCH fun!

We both opted to go for the automatic bikes, rather than the ones with gears, as we didn’t want to go too mental (also, Matt had bruised his rib on the dune surfing so was in pain) so we were in a relatively slow group to start with – everyone has to go in single file behind an instructor.

After about 10 minutes our instructor asked if we wanted to join the big boys in the ‘adrenalin’ group – Yes please! So whilst Matt nursed his bruised rib and explored the dunes at a leisurely pace, I ripped it up with the adrenalin junkies (only just keeping up in my inferior buggy). It was such fun though! In 2 hours we covered 60 km, riding up and down the dunes, sometimes practically vertical – it was scary but exhilarating too – and the dunes were so beautiful, I’ve never seen anything like them before except some in India a couple of years back but these were a totally different scale! At one point we rounded a corner and in front of us, taking us all by surprise was the Atlantic ocean, over 100 metres below – really cool. Matt and I both agree that Quad biking is one of the most fun things we’ve ever done and we’ll defo do it again!

Tomorrow we leave Swakupmund and have a couple more days in Namibia before hitting South Africa!