freefall!

The Namibia tour ended with a stop in Swakopmund on the west coast. Swakop has lots to offer: I chose skydiving. Isabella and Karen from the tour were very keen to do it too, so we headed off to the airport, all very excited.


Swakopmund airport, a dirt runway in the desert, next to the ocean.


This little plane on right took me up to 10,000 ft, door open the whole time, and then I (while strapped to an instructor, Paul) jumped out. It was nuts, and so much fun! The wind was screaming as we fell going faster and faster getting louder and louder. I opened my mouth to take a breath but couldn't close it again, we were going so fast. I thought the wind was going to tear everything off me, watch, shoes, and goggles. We free fell for about 30 seconds to around 3,000ft and then Paul pulled the chute. And instantly everything went quiet. We floated down from there and he gave the controls to me to do some spins and dives, awesome time. The view on the plane ride up was really cool, the Atlantic ocean crashing into an ocean of sand dunes with quad bikes driving all over the dunes. I also got a DVD of the whole thing.


blue steal.


Away we go. Isa and Karen went up after I made it back down, the plane didn't have room for all of us at once.


Coming in for a soft landing.


Glad to be back on the ground. Smiling for the video camera on Paul's arm.


Karen, Me, and Isa after returning to earth. From here we headed back to the guest house, cleaned up and went out to dinner at Cape to Cairo with the whole group from the trip, a great end to a great day.

...Since then I've spent the Easter weekend in Windhoek hanging around trying to organize some hiking in the Fish River Canyon, with no success. Then I took a bus south to Keetmanshoop, where I've been for the past two days, but still haven't been able to sort out a hike. Sadly, the Fish river is massively flooding at the moment, so no hiking in the canyon. I tried to organize a hike outside the canyon but couldn't get permission to go it alone, must pay for a guide, and there's few other travellers in the area to come along. So, I'll just have to save it for later. Next up, Cape Town!

whatever's clever

Welcome to Namibia.


After meeting back up with Isabella in Windhoek, she twisted my arm and made me go on a 4 trip around the country taking in some of the highlights. We headed off from Windhoek in the morning and were quickly out of city and into the bush or 'veld'. From there we headed to Sesreium through Solitude and then onto Soususeveli and the huge sand dune ocean. A very cool sight.


The beast from the east, another Toyota Land Cruiser. On left is our guide "Beanie," Isabella, and Katie.


Massive Cricket. There were honestly thousands of these all over the roads. They come out after the rainy season to eat and get run over by the hundreds by our fast moving Land Cruiser.


In my hand, they are big and apparently delicious.


Beanie looking funny taking photos of the group with everyone's cameras. She was a fantastic guide, lots of fun.


View from near our campsite, day 1, walking to a dune.


Hiking from camp to one of the dunes to watch the sunset.


Hiking up a dune at Sousesevlei at sunrise on day 2.


Sun up scene over the dunes.


Rob, a Kiwi (New Zealander) hiking up one of the dunes. Later in the day, Rob and I hiked up the "crazy dune" which is aptly named because it is considered crazy to hike up it. It was straight up and very hard to climb as the sand would just slide down covering our feet and making progress quite slow. Two steps up, one step back...


Water in the desert? It's not a mirage, the rainy season just finished and this will be gone soon.


Next up was the dry lakebed of Deadvlei, a nice hike over the dunes under the punishing sun.


dead tree in deadvlei. These trees are preserved by the dry air and have been here for hundreds of years.


Katie, a friendly American law student, hiking up part of the "crazy dune,"aka "big daddy."


Rob on top of the "big daddy"dune, cool view, completely exhausted.


Me on top after a heck of a walk up. You can see where we came from below in the background left. I was glad I had two liters of water, drank it all and then some more when we made it back to the truck. It was an awesome run/fall/crash down the face of the dune, really steep down back to the dry lake bed below.


Scenery from the top overlooking the Namibian desert.


another dead tree at deadvlei.


A nice walk through Sesriem canyon later that day.


I just like this photo, I think it came out well. We found a baby 'horned adder' snake in the parking lot, very poisonous with cool little horns on its nose. Sorry, couldn't get close enough for a photo, as it was very poisonous and seemed a little bit angry.


Springboks.


Isabella, the cool German doctor who was kind enough to put up with me for the past few weeks, is looking none to pleased to have her photo taken whilst overlooking the scenery on the way to Swankopmund.


eat at your own risk.