Day Seven - Swakopmund
Swakopmund,
Namibia
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
We woke up early this morning to catch the sunset, and took lots more photos. Breakfast was at 8am and we then set off at 9am for the drive to Swakopmund. We decided last night to take the faster, nicer road, rather than the scenic route which takes two hours longer and is on bumpy roads as we've all had enough of being thrown around in the truck. We arrive into Swakopmund (and the smell of fish) around 11am, and set up for an early lunch (picnic on the beach!). We then head to the activity centre to find out about the different activities which are available to us. Swakopmund seems like a really nice little town, lots of little shops and restaurants, completely different to the desert that we've just come out of where you can literally see nothing but desert. After getting the chat about activities, we all book our activities for the following day, deciding to spend the afternoon checking out the town. All the girls decide to do the dolphin tour in the morning and then quadbiking in the afternoon as we're assured there is a slow group and we can just pootle round the dunes and stop often for photo opportunities.
We drive to our accomodation, some funny looking triangle buildings - called bungalows even though there are two floors. Dan goes in the downstairs room, and then Hilary, Lisa, Julie and I go upstairs. The bed is soooo comfy, but probably any bed would be comfy after five nights of camping! We end up faffing around for so long that we don't have a lot of time before our group dinner tonight. We go to the internet cafe for an hour and check our emails quickly and then head back for a quick shower before dinner.
We go to an Italian restaurant for dinner which has been recommended by the activity centre girl. It's great! Luca and Kieran are a little drunk before we even go to the restaurant which causes great hilarity, especially when we get Kieran to make a speech. The food is really good, especially Evie's whose pork is the size of a family roasting joint - it's as big as she is!
After the restaurant, we go to the bar next door and have a dance. Slightly weird as some locals start trying to dance with us (almost like a dance off) and then filming everything on their mobile phone. Afer a while we decide it's all getting a little bit weird and we go to play some pool. Luca and Kieran are challenged by Russ and Dan, who promptly beat them easily due to the amount of alcohol that Luca and Kiaren have consumed by this point. The girls eventually give up just after 1am and walk back to the bungalows to take advantage of having a bed for a night (the boys make it home at 4am!). However, by the time we've had a chat and sorted ourselves out, it's almost 2am so the benefits of having a bed slightly went out the window.
