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Published: November 27th 2008
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Going Out in Swakopmund
Left to Right: Tove, Dena, Toni, Sarah, Me, Holly Monday afternoon we arrived in Swakopmund. We're staying at the Swakop Lodge close to the town center. When we arrived we got situated and watched the activities video. Swakopmund is basically a town for adrenaline activities. Skydiving, quad-biking, sandboarding, horse riding, etc. In the evening we went to the bar/club in the hostel and basically just hung out until about 3 am. Good times... Tuesday afternoon we went quad-biking in the sand dunes! I was expecting it to be good, but it was spectacular! Seriously amazing! We need to do more 4-wheeling at home! It was cool to be in the sand dunes as well. That was what really made it awesome! Swakopmund is on the coast and there's a big long strip of sand dunes right along the coast just outside of the town. So we were in the dunes and then we went up on the tops of the dunes for amazing views of the ocean. Really cool!
In the evening we went to an Italian restaurant. I got game meat and it was delicious! Kudu, oryx, and springbok. We were supposed to have zebra as well but they were out. Disappointing! The springbok and kudu were surprisingly tender
and all of it was delicious!
Wednesday guess what I did? I jumped out of a plane over the Namib Desert! 10,000 feet, 220 km/hr, 30 seconds freefall...basically amazing! It was really good! Different than the quad-biking, but just as good in its own way. It was cool to see the whole area from the plane as well. It's hard to describe what it's like. A trainee jumped out halfway up and we just saw him flipping over and over and falling extremely fast towards the ground. That was when I started getting a little nervous. I was in a plane with Craig and he jumped first, then me. When he jumped he just kind of disappeared over the edge. The first couple seconds were the best because you flip around a little bit. Then the rest of the free fall which goes by REALLY fast and doesn't feel like 30 seconds at all and then the gentle parachuting to the ground. Once the parachute was out we rode the air currents and spun in circles and I even got to control/steer us! Definitely want to do it again sometime! In the evening we went to a German restaurant
(because Swakopmund had a huge German influence and is full of Germans) and then stayed up really late again.
This morning (Thanksgiving!) we (Dena, Toni, Sarah, Chandy, Lucy, and I) walked down to the beach and just walked along it for a while. This year is my first year ever without a Thanksgiving dinner! We (Sarah, Toni, Chandy, and I) decided we were going to cook one because it sounded like fun and no one has ever had a Thanksgiving dinner before, but about 50 Swedish people invaded our dorm and for some reason they all seem to hang out in the kitchen so we decided it was going to be waaayy to much of a hassle so it's a no-go. Way disappointing though! It would've been fun! I'm still going to try to make pumpkin pie this afternoon but I'm not sure I will be able to find pumpkin... or a good recipe... we'll see...
Swakopmund is a really nice town! It's pretty small and quaint. There are tons of cute, delicious cafes everywhere that are good for breakfast and lunch and then amazing restaurants for dinner. And everything's relatively cheap too! Not compared to Asia of
course, but compared to Zambia! Swakopmund reminds me of New England/small East Coast towns. Everyone's really nice, you can walk everywhere, it's right on the coast, basically a really nice town! Pretty touristy because that's basically the only reason for its existence, but it's still really nice! It's cooler too because we get a nice breeze off the ocean. It feels more like Alaskan summers and I even put on a sweatshirt yesterday evening! I could live like this! 😊 It's nice to be sleeping in an actual bed as well! With a pillow! And eating at real tables! Simple pleasures.
Tomorrow we head out south towards South Africa, spend a couple nights in the dunes, and then reach Cape Town the beginning of December. Half our group leaves there...most of my favorite people, so that will be depressing! Smaller group from there though; we only gain 3 new ones.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
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Marie
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:)
Happy Thanksgiving, Eryn!!