As Jim already mentioned, Namibia is one of the least densely populated countries in the world. This means that the distances between towns are great and the other cars on the road are few. To get from the airport to CCF, from CCF to Etosha, around Etosha and then from CCF to our current location of Swakopmund, we had spent a great deal of time in the car. Our muscles were feeling neglected from so much inactivity and we decided to remedy this by participating in some of the sand sports that this little German-influenced beach town is so famous for.
We started the day yesterday by going sand-boarding on the giant sand dunes nearby. This was basically snowboarding but on sand – pretty awesome although my wipe out on the last run just reconfirmed my preference for skiing. I’m still digging sand out of my hair and places where…well…sand just does not belong.
In the afternoon, we drove the other way, away from the dunes into the flat dessert, where we went land yachting. This was exactly like sailing but instead of a boat, the sail was a attached to a little 3-wheel dune buggy. This was super fun – we raced through the desert at crazy speeds, probably reaching 20-30mph. My day’s shitty luck continued and during one large gust of wind, my dune buggy (along with me) was blown over, bruising my collar bone. (I’m ok, mom and dad, don’t worry)
We are gluttons for physical punishment so this morning, we headed out at the break of dawn to give our arms a workout kayaking at Walvis Bay – a nearby town. We kayaked out into the seal colony and the seals were so happy to come play with the strange looking creatures floating in colorful plastic banana boats! The seals followed us around and kept looking at us curiously. Once in a while, they would playfully taste our paddles and then splash us with a dive. We also saw a couple of dolphins some distance away but the seals were definitely the highlight.
After so many days of inactivity, our muscles are hating us for the stuff we put them through over the past couple of days. They’ll be thankful tomorrow when we get back in the car for another long, bumpy ride to the larger dunes of Sossusvlei.
-Veronica
Shredding Dune 7 outside Swakopmund (right before wiping out)
Land Yachting
Playing with the seals
