Sand Dunes and Swakopmund (Monday 5th October 2009)
on Susan Somers (Namibia), 09/Oct/2009 10:54, 34 days ago
Just back from a fab weekend in Swakopmund! Emails have been flying back and forth for almost 2 weeks to plan a weekend trip to the costal town of Swakopmund; cars to be hired, accommodation to be sorted and places to be confirmed. In the end, there were 12 of us in 3 cars (Jo, Alan and their kids in their own car/tank and the rest of us - Kat&Steve, Katie&Kev, Louise and her boyfriend Will and Sanne - hired 2 (tiny) cars.) We borrowed tents from VSO, hit the road– well everyone else did - and on Friday night 11 Windhoek Volunteers arrived in Okahnadja.We went next door to the Reit Club for dinner. There was only steak and burgers on the menu - but they were out of burgers so we all had steak, probably a whole cow between us judging by the size of the pieces of meat. Rare meant blue and 300g steak meant the size of a dinner plate! After that we had a drink in the bar while the owner did his own country karaoke /one-man-band thing– the likes of which you’d only see in the outback of Australia, mid west USA or the Porter House on a Wednesday night! The local Afrikaans farmers were very keen to get us up dancing and bought us shots of cherry vodka, but they were ultimately disappointed cos we all went home by midnight andeven with all my beds there were still people on the floor of my living room.We hit the road at 7.30am for the 3½ hour drive across the desert to Swakop. After a stop for coffee in Usakos we arrived in the town at 11am. We set up our tents (dodgy camp ground but it only cost N$20/2 euro per person) and I was glad of my previous African camping experience which made putting up the VSO tents (brand new versions of what I was used to) very easy. After lunch we headed down to the beach and looked at the Atlantic (too rough and cold to even consider swimming – plus it turned cool and almost misty on Saturday afternoon) and strolled around town.Later in the afternoon we headed off towards Walvis Bay to find dune 7– the biggest/steepest/tallest(?) sand dune in Namibia/Africa/the world(?)! After acting like 6 years old when we got on the sand first (jumping and running around) we faced the challenge of climbing the infamous dune. I struggled up - 1 step up ¾ of a step back – out of breath and taking lotsof breaks. The view from the top (in fact throughout the desert) was amazing and well worth the climb. We walked along the ridge, took a million photos and watched the sun set from the top of the dune, before running down for a glass of wine from the eskie.We then headed back to Swakop for dinner in the lighthouse restaurant (I had oryx schnitzel and Katie had the biggest burger I’ve ever seen.) After a quick drink in the Swakop Lodge (where I stayed when I was here over 3 years ago) we headed back to our camp site for more wine and some seriously needed sleep.We got up at 8.00 (since its pretty impossible to lie-in in a tent once the sun is up) had breakfast (but no showers since they were gross– and it wasn’t worth our while anyway!) and packed up. We were then picked up to go sandboarding – which basically holding on to a thin piece of hard board as you shoot headfirst down a sand dune. There was also duneboarding which was snowboarding in the sand (more difficult and less fun, Ithink!) The going down was fun but the climbing back up was a bitch! I only did 3 runs for this reason but really enjoyed myself because hanging out in the picturesque dunes was no hardship! Then they gave us a sandwiches and beer before they dropped us back to the car. The journey home felt long and I was aching all over (still am – too much exercise in 24 hours for my lazy bones!) but luckily I wasn’t driving and I slept most of the way.It wasn’t an expensive weekend by home standards (it only cost about €150 for everything including car hire, petrol, camping, food, drink, sand-boarding and bit of shopping) but that’s nearly 2 weeks wages here! Still that’s what my savings are for (ie FUN!) I hope there’ll be lots more!