Day 11: Desert Camp - Swakopmund

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Today we had a short drive to Swakopmund vis the Walvis Bay airport. Unfortunately en route to Cape Town, Erica's bag was lost on one of the flights. Hettie had arranged for us to pick it up at the Walvis Bay airport. Once Erica had her bag back, it was the happiest I remember seeing anyone, it was really quite funny.

Anyway, it was a really nice drive. To the left of the truck was Walvis Bay, an up and coming beach side town. On the right was just miles of desert. It was cool, it was as if it was one massive beach with a road running through it, it was surreal. Once we arrived in Swakopmund we had an appointment at the activity center to book our activities for the 2 days we were in town. I booked skydiving and fishing. I know, total opposite spectrums of the thrill factor. The skydive was to happen that afternoon, so we had to rush back to the hostel where we were staying, eat lunch and go. I was going with Anna and Anita which was nice considering we are already becoming friendly with each other. Anna had dived before, but it was mine and Anita's first ever dive. Once we arrived we had a 30sec safety demonstration. Seriously, that's how long it lasted. I guess because we were doing a tandem dive we were going to be in safe hands anyway.

After waiting a little while, the girls went up first while I waited on the ground. As I watched them come down, I thought something went wrong when I saw a parachute open then something continue to fall. It took me a moment or two to realise that the thing still dropping was the cameraman. After they landed safely it was my turn to go up. I actually didnt feel that nervous (although my face in the photos and video tells a different story). Soon it was time to jump. It was an amazing feeling, just dropping towards earth. It didnt feel real, it was just like I was laying there, the only clue that I was moving was the wind in my face.

After I landed, the girls came over to me and we all decided we wanted to do it again (for free, we wernt going to pay again). This of course was out of the question, so back to the hostel it was. For dinner we went out to Napolitanos restaurant, where I ordered an Oryx pizza. It was ok, a bit tough but flavoursome. After dinner we stayed for a few drinks, where the guy on the guitar at the bar played Whiskey in a Jar (the Metallica version). This is one of my favourite songs and I was really surprised to hear it in Namibia of all places, but it just goes to show that Metallica is popular worldwide.

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