Our arrival at Windhoek spelt the end of the penultimate, and start of the final, leg of our trip. Aaron and Katherine, goodbye; Adrian and Leanne, hello!
The self-proclaimed adrenalin capital of Africa: Swakopmund.
We ventured for sandboarding, Aaron and Andy went for the stand up version while Katherine and I went for lie-down. Standing up seems pretty similar to snowboarding which the same technique used to turn and manoeuvre.
The lie down version is more, lie on the board and go down hill as fast as you can! We all had a fantastic day playing in the dunes but why can’t somebody put in lifts like you get a ski resorts?!
For the record: Aaron was fastest at 72kmph, while Louise and Andy both got 70kmph. Which feels mighty fast with only 5mm of hardboard between you and the sand!
About 120 km north of Swakopmund, on the coast of Namibia, is Cape Cross Seal Reserve. The beach is covered in hundreds of thousands of seals all barking to each other.
The smell of the place is awful and lingers on your clothes of hours afterwards. Dotted throughout the colony are small pups, all about 6 months old. The better fed ones are plump and satisfied in their waddles. The others are underfed, some starving. Littered in with the seals are the skeletons of the pups that didn’t make it – appropriate to the name of the area, Skeleton Coast.
A few casual prospecting jaunts on the drive turned up some interesting gem stones – rose quartz, magnetite, schorl, and a few other unidentified lumps. Louise even found a diamond! nice shiny stone!
