Swakopmund: the
“adventure” capital of Namibia.
Here you can do any of the following: sky diving, kite surfing,
4-wheeling, and sand boardi
ng.
Okay, I’m
familiar with the first three, but before this trip, I had never heard of “sand
boarding”. Seeing as I was pretty
happy to leave the sky diving for another day, and the kite surfing for the
crazies who preferred to be in the freaking freezing cold water, that left the 4-wheeling and
sand boarding open for business.
Four-wheeling
is just that: sitting on a big 4 wheeled bike and drive through the dunes. And sand boarding is just like snow
boarding, but on sand.
If you know me,
you know that things strapped to my feet that sends me down the hill with
little to no balance to guide me as I’m not what you would call “graceful” is
not a really good idea. So this
whole notion did not sound so appealing to me. However, we discovered that there was another option: sand
boarding on your belly on a flat board down the dunes. Score!
So we decided
to do a 3 hour quad-bike tour combined with sandboarding. After having a delicious breakfast and
watching rugby at the German café, we headed to the sand dunes with our trusty
guide, Mervin.
These dunes are
simply breathtaking. And even more
peculiar, they are literally less than a mile away from the coast. Evidently this is common in Africa:
deserts and seas in close proximity.
But being as this was new to me, I just took in the sights and got ready
for our 2 hour quad bike tour and 1 hour sand boarding.
At first, I
struggled to get my bearings on the bike in sand. Mervin, evidently used to taking people on a regular basis,
seems to know this, so we went fairly slowly and gently through the dunes. If you’ve seen photos of orange sand
dunes topped with deep blue skies, then you know where we drove. Absolutely SPECTACULAR.
After about an
hour of driving through the dunes, we stopped to do the sand boarding. Since this particular company only
offered the flat board lie-on-your-stomach sand board, we all seemed to be in
equal ignorance on how to proceed.
At first, Anya and I felt that this was going to be too scary; going
headfirst down a hill of sand?
Hmmm…
Luckily, the
boys were more fearless and did it without question. After they did it, we realized it wasn’t that dangerous. So we went.
Freaking
absolutely AWESOME! It felt like
riding down a sled in winter.
Except it was warm and the snow was orange sand.
So we went
again and again and again. After
the first hill, our guide took us a wee bit higher (probably about 100
feet). This ride was even better
than the last. We flew down that
dune like we knew what we were doing.
Of course, what
goes down…
I’m not sure if
you’ve ever tried to walk uphill in sand, but if you haven’t, allow me to
describe the experience: it’s like walking up stairs. Stairs that sink.
Don’t get me
wrong; it’s a fantastic workout.
But walking up sand that is conditioned to blow in the wind equals not
very conforming when trying to climb up an 80’ hill. But I took on the challenge as part of the adventure and
climbed up up up, just so I could slide down the hill again…
After about an
hour of sliding down the dunes, we continued on with the quad bikes. This time, our guide could see the
excitement in our eyes so he took us on some bigger hills, to which we rolled
into like pros. Of course, we had
a few hiccups along the way: Matt’s bike broke down completely at one point,
and so did Anya’s, so we had to share bikes for a while until someone from base
could bring us a new bike. But
that just added to the fun!
We rounded back
into the town about an hour later, to which Matt and Ron decided they were
ready to take things to the next level: this particular company only offered
lie-down sandboarding. But there
was another company in town that offered stand up sandboarding. So we decided to book a morning “ride”
with them the next day on our way out of town.
You’re recall
my comment about not being so good with things strapped to my feet? Luckily, they too offered lie-down boarding
so while Anya and the boys strapped into snow boards, I went on my own with a
huge group of British tourists and down we went, on various depths of snow
dunes on our bellies. These hills
made the previous day’s excursion look like bunny slopes: our first hill down
was 150’!
 |
| Matt sandboarding |
But it made it
more fun. And I was grateful for
the previous day’s introduction.
Because I think I would have been way more nervous doing these bigger
hills, on my own without Matt or Ron and Anya doing them with me. But no, I took to these hills with
excitement and enthusiasm. On the
bigger hills they clocked our speed (I finished the last hill going
68km-41mph). Awesome!
Of course, as I
said before, what goes down…I climbed up dunes at least 7 times. In the dry desert heat. In sand that sinks as you walk. You could say it was a fantastic work
out. :)
Of course, no
adventure can go without its mishaps.
Since the boys and Anya were doing their own thing with the stand up
boarding, they were on their own hill.
Matt is an avid snowboarder (or was, in our previous life), but It’s
been several years since he’s gone.
Not to mention, he’s never snowboarded on sand before. So it is natural to know that he took some wipe outs. Except he took two wipeouts and landed
on the same place on his chest both times. Since his hand broke his chest’s fall, he left that day
pretty convinced he cracked a rib.
 |
| The injured brothers after conquering(?) the dunes |
Ron, on the
other hand, decided that the stand up sandboarding was too wimpy, and decided
to do a run or two on the lie down board.
On the highest dune, called the “Dizzy” where you can ride down as fast
as 50mph, Ron found himself slowing the sandboard down with his face. As he reached the bottom, he shuffled
forward and met the sand head-on.
The way the board is designed, you pull the front of the board up with
your hands as you slide down. As
he reached the end he didn’t pull the front of the board up high enough,
causing him to stumble into the sand with his face as the bumper. Poor guy got a cut under his eye from
his sunglasses that immediately turned into a black eye.
Luckily, Anya
and I fared way better than the boys.
But, they didn’t let a little thing like cracked ribs and a shiner stop
them from doing the Big Daddy of them all…
Literally
called the Big Daddy, it’s a sand dune that reaches up to 3000’ vertical. And we climbed it. In less than 2 hours. In our socks.
The British
group I met while sand boarding had visited the national park the day before,
and had gotten up before sunrise to see the dunes as the sun came up. Then they walked one dune that is
called Dune 45 (45 ways to walk up it?
45 meters high? 45 ways you
want to kill yourself if you walk up in wrong shoes? Beats me!). They told me the best way to walk up
the dunes was in your stocking feet, as the sand gets mighty hot as the day
comes on so socks act as a good barrier while not weighing you down like normal
shoes (boy was he not lying. That
first day of walking up the sand dunes in running shoes certainly did not make
it easier to run!). But climbing
up Big Daddy in our socks was not only easier, it was fun! I mean, when do you walk around sand in
socks?
Not that it was
easy. Big Daddy is called Big
Daddy for a reason. A lot of
vertical walking. Uphill in sand. But the views were spectacular. And when we got to the top, we were
blown away at the views.
 |
| At the top of Big Daddy!! |
We weren’t
really sure the best way to get back down the dunes. Originally we thought we’d
have to walk down the way we came until we witnessed a group ahead of us
running down the side of the dune.
We all looked at each other and said, why not? So off we went, running down the sand. Which is actually a heck of a lot
easier than walking up the
sand. And so much fun. Ron and Matt made a game of leapfrog
going down the dunes as Anya and I skipped down the way. Of course, what we didn’t anticipate
was how hot the sand would feel…on our legs. We literally got burned on our calves from the heat of the
sand. Not the sun. The sand. But that didn’t stop us. We just kept hopping and running down
the dune until we reached the bottom (it was sooo much faster getting down than
it was getting up!!) and was met with a massive saltpan. From here we walked across the
saltpan (mirages included) to the car.
We were appropriately wiped out.
And full of sand in all parts of our bodies.
 |
| Overlooking a saltpan in the desert |
 |
| Flat tire in the middle of nowhere |
After 3 days of
playing in the sand, we said farewell to Swakopmund/Sossuvlei and headed to
more mountainous areas. But not without a little more adventure: a flat tire in
the middle of nowhere. Luckily we had two strapping young men
to fix it, once they could figure out how to use the tools the rental van left
us, we headed out of Soussuvlei an hour later than planned but still full of
happy memories of our days in the sand.
I think some of our biggest fun happened in the Namib Desert. It was definitely a walk I will
remember.
Anyway, we
spent about 2 hours taking in the views and reading a little about the
topography and the people who used to live in the area (the Africans who speak
with clicks of their tongues and so there are no words to translate their names
or words. Even some of the words
listed were followed by the phrase “cannot be translated into English”. Since right now is their dry season,
there is barely any water running through the canyons, but when the rain does
come (it’s been 2 years since a heavy rain has fallen in Namibia), Fish River
Canyon flows with fresh water and would add more beauty to the already gorgeous
area.
An interesting
thing we noticed about looking over the canyon: we were literally looking
straight down the canyon with no railing
or fence to stop us from falling over.
There was one area that was barred off, complete with picnic tables and
lots of lookout areas, but along the rest of the canyon’s ridge, there was nothing
to stop you from taking
a headfirst dive into the depths of the rocks, save your own conservative
judgment. Which, you’ll be relieved
to know, we were quite conservative.
Once we were
happily satiated (again), we made our way back to the campsite, where massages
were waiting for Matt and me.
Well, a massage was awaiting Matt, a Fish River Canyon salt scrub was
awaiting me. It was lovely, and
$30 each! After our massages, we
joined Ron and Anya in the hot springs pools and truly enjoyed our time
relaxing in the water. Since this
was our last night in Namibia, we were all feeling a bit nostalgic; we sat
around the campfire and talked about the amazing journey we’ve been on and how
much we love the nature and the quiet.
We finished our night sipping amarula and eating s’mores. A perfect camp ending.
