Villa Wiese Swakopmund

... the lie down sandboarding (where you go down the dune on a piece of plywood) and I managed to clock 67km/hr. Chris was not brave enough to try that one! It was pretty intense! After our work out we sat at the bottom of the dunes enjoying our much needed celebratory drinks!

After boarding we headed back to the bungalow to get changed and remove the sand from our undergarments! After a GREAT and much needed ...

... video tape and take pitiures of the whole event. I wasnt nervous at all...well until my legs were hangin out the side of the place hahah.then i had an OH **** moment and thought what the hell am I doing! But sine I was strapped to someone...I had no choice but jumped out!! I did 30 seconds of free falling from 10,000ft at 225km/hr! and it didnt even feel like i was falling..no rolleroaster feeling or ...

... to the base of the dunes we were given a drink( beer for me) and had a great lunch of fresh salad and meat rolls. An excellent day. So it was back to the lodge and another shower to get the sand out of everywhere. I was still getting sand grains working out of my eyes the next day!!!! Later that evening we watched the DVD in the adventure company’s office and were each given a copy. We chilled in our room that night and had take away in bed while watching a ...

... Hamsbach will actually attack if you get too close and so they learned to creep stealthily within 6 feet in order to shoot it with their poisoned arrows. Then, the group would sit and eat as much as possible as traveling with the meat was prohibitive. Apparently an adult could eat 10 kilos of meat in a day! When times were scarce the elderly would walk away or be left behind in order that the whole group could survive ...

... a city. For Ben's birthday we drove down to cape point, had an English picnic, we saw whales on the way down and then for dinner we went out and drank too much red and had a smashing night.

We are looking forward to the next section of our trip (which is the same rout but ends a few weeks quicker). We are not sure what we ll get up to after that, hopefully en up in Egypt for a couple of weeks and then we ll see.

Whew ... thats us up to date and now I ll try and up load some photos.

... out to a seal colony which is unbelievable - there are so many seals! And the noise they make is bizarre, part human shouting noises, part sheep??!! The smell is pretty gross at times. We also see some oyster farms and we're given the opportunty to eat some oysters which I decide against but the others give it a go, along with a glass of champagne. It's all very civilised :)

Once we're back on dry land, we head back to the bungalows and all take a nap before ...

... a sidewinder snake, and also a small gecko. The sidewinder is unique in that it moves sideways as it slithers, to keep its body off the hot sand. It's amazing how much can survive in the dunes. Tomorrow morning we push north up coast a bit more, check out a seal colony at Cape Cross, then head inland, making our way towards Botswana. I've been so impressed with Namibia...it has a lot to offer for a country that is off the beaten path. I really expected the desert ...

... to be back in the land of eternal wifi!!

Also finding it hard not having a mobile, especially after being so contactable in SA but we had best get used to that.

Guess what? One morning I got up at 6:30 and went to a spin class with Sarah and Martin at the local gym. Me... up at 6:30 to go to the gym?!?! What the??? It was great. Used to be addicted to spinning in London, totally forgot how much it burned though. Martin and I bailed out after the first 45 minutes and ...

... your nose inches from the sand whilst holding the board up in front with your hands and making sure your elbows and feet were not dragging in the sand.. Sarah C went first and used her feet most of the way down and achieving only nana speed. Cesca in usual dare devil fashion ignored the brakes and clocked 65km/h on the speed gun. I followed and much to my chagrin only managed 64 k's although I did get some air on the jump at the bottom unlike my smug wife. Lastly ...

... day we drove to Orange River which borders Namibia. The campsite was great, as they all were, with amazingly clean and pretty facilities. I actually didn't really feel like I was roughing it too much suprisingly! The river itself was lovely and the water was warm. When we first arrived I took a dip in the river with a few others. We swam out to this surboard attached to a buoy and I had a bit of fun with one of the aussie girls trying to stand up on it, which I succeeded somehow ...