Adventures in Namibia:
Fish River Canyon: Second biggest canyon in the world after the Grand Canyon. We arrived when it was pretty much rendered invisible by the fog and clouds, but it cleared and it was just beautiful! I really wish I remembered what it was like to visit the Grand Canyon because I’m not sure how impressed I should be =)
Sossusvlei: I think these are the world’s highest sand dunes and they are really amazing to see. I walked about 3 miles to visit the dunes and then it was a grueling 20 minutes trudging through super soft sand uphill. Because the sand was so soft, it kept giving way underneath and it really felt like every two steps forward meant one step back. But I made it! I had an incredible 360 degree view of the sand dunes around me. As a group, we visited the famous Dune 45 and hiked to the top during a lightning storm. Pretty scary (yet amazing!)! What is particularly wonderful about this place is how untouched by humans it is… It is one of the major tourist destinations in Namibia yet I felt very much like I had the dunes to myself. There wasn’t another person in sight and all you see around are these massive dunes.
Tropic of Capricorn: Stopped by the side of the road with a sign for the Tropic of Capricorn: Saw a snake, took a picture. Wasn’t scared of snakes before, but now I am. Great!
Swakopmund: Cute little town where I celebrated my birthday, stocked up on biltong and booze, and took advantage of the wonderful (and free) wi-fi Internet!
Quadbiking: Quite possibly one of the most terrifying things I’ve done… I started the day having heard two very scary stories of people getting seriously injured while quadbiking. They gave us minimal instructions and then we were off! It is very scary to be a small person on a very big, loud, and powerful machine. You follow a guide through the sand dunes …. up and down… sometimes doing figure 8’s, or what they call rollercoasters … You feel gravity working against you as you’re almost completely sideways on an incline and precisely when you are most terrified, you have to will yourself to accelerate and beat the gravity pull. It was foggy and you couldn’t always see what was ahead of you but the guide would give a hand signal to slow down and you knew something big was coming, usually one of those stomach-turning drops that would sometimes make the backend of the quadbike fishtail. SO SCARY. The steering was super sensitive and sometimes you’d get jolted on the dunes and the jolts would force the steering awry and you’d end up off course. (EVEN MORE SCARY because they said whatever you do, don’t go off course because of potholes and whatnot.) At one point, the visor to my helmet slipped down and I couldn’t see a thing! It happened precisely as I was banking a turn on a steep hill… Those were definitely a few seconds of sheer panic. In the end, I was fine (and had fun…) but during most of the afternoon, everyone else seemed to want to go faster than me. And, though I had the accelerator down all the way at times, I hung back a bit from the group and sort of got my own private guide. He’d take me on his own paths and on different rollercoasters and it was very cool almost feeling like I had the dunes to myself.
Sandboarding: Amazing!!! I think because the sand dunes are so massive here in Swakopmund, you have such unique opportunities to enjoy them. I’m pretty sure that quadbiking here is unlike anywhere else in the world and from what I heard from other people, the sandboarding is too! I started off with standup boarding. I hadn’t been on a board since I sprained my ankle two years ago. I couldn’t quite manage toe side (as I never could on a snowboard) and did a couple runs heel side. One unfortunate thing about sandboarding is that there are no lifts. So you ride down and then you trudge up a mean and massive hill to get back to the top. After about three runs, I decided that the walk up wasn’t worth the ride down and I switched to lie-down boarding. This was UNBELIEVABLE! You go down headfirst on, basically a piece of plywood. Because I switched from standup boarding, I didn’t have elbow pads or shoes like the others. So, very nervous and feeling ill-equipped, the group started on its highest hill yet. I FLEW down that dune! I clocked a speed of 72km per hour (!), the fastest speed of anyone on that run. I eventually got beat out at 74km/ph and the overall record for that part is 83km/ph. So crazy!
Sea Bass: Fishing is also one of the activities on offer in Swakopmund and two guys from the truck went out in the morning. With crew, there were four guys in total and they caught about 120 fish!! The guys brought home about 1/3 of the catch and we had an incredibly delicious sea bass dinner. For any fishing enthusiasts, the guys said this was some of the easiest and most rewarding fishing they’d ever done.
Up next: We'll be bush camping for a couple nights and then visiting the Spitzkoppe rock formations and the Etosha National Park. I think I arrive in Botswana on May 14th! I also bought a Namibian SIM card valid until then... In case you want it: +264 81 6912931.
Random: I have the blogs of two people who are doing this overland trip with me in case you want a different perspective. Michael's blog: http://mcottam.posterous.com/ is updated pretty frequently and has a lot of pictures from my birthday. Matt and Jen's blog is updated as well I think and can be accessed here: http://mattandjenworldtrip.blogspot.com/ . Happy reading!
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