Swakopmund - more German than Germany?

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After leaving the seal colony the drive down to Swakopmund wasn't too long and was once again through beautiful scenery. Namibia is a very arid country but despite this there is a lot of beauty here in the desert.

We arrived at our hostel, Swakop Lodge and made our way to our dorm rooms. We had to take everything off of the truck as it was going to be in a compound for a few days so within no time at all we all had our stuff laid out and it was a good chance to sort through it, repack it and wash all our clothes. One of the first things we did, as in Victoria Falls, was watch a DVD of all the activites that were on offer whilst we were there. Swakopmund is known for being another adrenaline junkies dream destination in Africa so there was lots on offer. Quadbiking in the desert, sandboarding, skydiving etc etc. I had decided before we got there that I wanted to do sandboarding and the DVD confirmed it. I was then chuffed to find out that even if you didn't have any snowboarding experience you could try the stand up sandboarding as well as the lie down boarding as apparently it was much easier to learn on sand. You also didn't need to worry about getting hurt too much as sand is very soft to crash out on - ha ha.

Having booked to do Sandboarding a few days later I ventured out of the hostel to explore Swakopmund and most of the others headed to the KFC they had all been dreaming about for weeks. Now, Swakopmund is described as being 'more German than Germany'. Having never been to Germany I cannot make a totally accurate estimation as to how true this statement is. However, I can say that it is how I would have EXPECTED Germany to be! It is a very quaint town, laid out in blocks with some pretty colourful historic bui;ldings. It was very easy to find my around quite quickly and was nice to relax and explore the place, stopping in one of the many excellent coffee shops for a drink whilst doing some people watching. I went into one of the local supermarkets and it was full of German things, including some fresh Apple Strudel of which I bought a big piece and devoured very quickly. We are in such a different Africa now and I kind of felt a little sad to have left the old, what I feel is the 'real' Africa behind.

In the evening a lot of the guys on the truck did the Centurion Challenge which is basically consuming 100 shots of beer in 100 minutes. One per minute, every minute without being able to leave the table for any reason, without being sick and without eating anything during that time. Everyone who began the challenge completed it and then some carried on. The eventual winner made it to 161 shots. Crazy times!! I played pool whilst having a few beers and checked in on the challenge every now and again to see how it was going. Locals who come to the hostel bar watched on in amusement! Ha ha.

The next day Bear, Kelly and I found a beautiful little cafe for breakfast. I had a lovely cheese and tomato omlette which came with toast and wait for it ..... yes, my first proper cup of tea (English Breakfast Tea - yummy). This obviously helped with the slight hangover I had. I decided to spend a lot of the day by myself exploring the town. First of all though I got on the internet and finally managed to get loads of photos on Facebook (not on here yet but they will be soon I hope). Wandering around town, and being in a fairly developed place for the first time gave me the bright idea of getting a haircut. Mine had already grown loads and it was basically just too much to have in all this heat. So I popped into the local hairdresser and made an appointment for later that day. A hot chocolate and a wander around the bookshop later and I was in the hairdressers having my hair washed (heaven), cut (not the best but not the worst I have ever had), dried and straightened (total luxury).

After a good nights sleep, the following day we were up early to go sandboarding. We drove out of Swakopmund to the dunes. After getting our boarding boots on and picking up a snow board each we next needed to hike up a huge dune. It took about twenty minutes and was exhausting. Luckily we would only have to walk up about half of what we had just done each time we went down it. Once we got to the top we got about 10 minutes instruction before we were let loose. We had to wax our boards first to ensure that they would glide along the top of the sand surface (we had to do this before each run). I let some of the others go first whilst I got up the nerve to have a go myself. It was weird having my feet strapped to one board, and also the thought of shooting down a very steep dune on something I as yet had little control over was quite scary.

The first run down was SO strange. I think I fell over about ten times but congratulated myself that everytime I fell over I fell backwards and not forwards (i.e. I didnt keep falling over because I was too hesitant to go fast down the dune, more that I hadn't the balance quite right yet). Already absolutely covered in sand I headed up the dune again, the hike up in the heat was just exhausting and each time I had to have a little rest at the top before going again. Each run I fell less and less, managing about 5 runs down in all and by the last one I did I only fell twice and that was because I felt the need for speed and really shot down the dune! It was great! In between all this we also got to try the lying down sandboarding. we got two runs down a very long, steep dune and it was fantastic. My fastest run was 67Kmph which is good, but not as good as you can do (we had a head wind). At one point on one of these runs I went over a bump and got some air under me, landing with a thud and a mouth full of sand (see the photo).

After the sandboarding we had a really good lunch and a chat with the instructors and video guy, I asked him to make me look good and cut out all the falls! Ha ha. So today I learnt that I love shooting down hills at great speed, and also that I don't think snow boarding is for me, but 'll definitely try skiing sometime soon. I also learnt that it is impossible to spend a day on a dune and not get sand everywhere including your eyes, ears and up your nose. It will take me a week to get rid of it all! We got to see the DVD in the evening which was great and then some of us headed out to a restaurant called The Tug. The food here was absolutely beautiful and some of the guys said it was the best fish they had ever eaten. I had deep fried camembert (mmmm cheese) and some raviolli. Best meal I habe had since coming to Africa.

Our final day here in Swakopmund has been fairly relaxed. I was up early and went out for breakfast with Mel after trying and failing to back up my photos onto DVDs. We headed down to the markets near the waterfront to see if there were any souvenirs we wanted to buy. Having a scout around we decided what we might be interested in and then went away to decide whether we really did want the stuff we liked and if so what we would pay for it. Later today we went back to the market, did some haggling and I picked up my things for the prices I had decided I wouldn't go above. So I am now the proud owner of a really nice wooden bowl, and some bookends which are made out of stone and carved into a Rhino. They will be the bookends for my travel section on my bookshelf in the future. The guy I bought the bookends off of was a realt character, called Joe and made me promise to always remember him for giving me such a good price (which he really did). Bless him. I promised him I would remember him everytime I look at it. Ha ha.

We are leaving Swakopmund at 6am in the morning so an early night is needed. Die Hard 4 is on TV tonight though and I haven't seen TV for so long I may have to stay up and watch it!

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