Still trying to get the sand out of my shoes

Photos are of Swakopmund, Ruacana Falls and Cape Town (table mountain). They’re in random order, but you’re smart people and I'm sure you can probably figure out what's what.

If you were thinking to yourself this weekend, “I wonder what is Hannah doing right now?” you probably wouldn’t have been able to guess. This weekend I went to Swakopmund and pretty much lost my mind from all of the excitement. Swakop is a coastal town that lies between the Atlantic Ocean and sand dunes. On Friday, the Oshakati group bussed for about 12 hours to get to Swakop. Although the drive was no fun at all – we were stuck at the back of the bus, with no AC, and we weren’t allowed to open the windows because apparently it makes the bus sway back an forth on the highway- it was totally worth it because the trip was amazing. At 6pm we arrived at our weekend house, which was basically a two-minute walk from the beach, and dropped all of our bags off and got ready for a nice dinner in town. We were going to meet the Windhoek group that had the easy task of taking a 3-hour bus to Swakop and spending the afternoon on the beach waiting for us to get there. Although they did complain about being really tired from all the sun bathing, the Oshakati group had very little sympathy them.

We all shared a nice dinner together. It was nice to get to see everyone again and catch up with each other, but the food wasn’t that great. I tried shark for the fun of it, but it turns out shark is horrible. However, now I can at least say I’ve tried it and never have to eat it again!

After dinner we all walked home from town, which took about 40minutes, and took us right by the beach. (It was really nice to be near an ocean again). Swakop is so different from northern Namibia, because the air is so moist and there is always a breeze rolling through town. Oshakati is always really dry and generally pretty warm. Swakop is also really different from Oshakati because the population is predominantly white and walking into the restaurant on Friday was a huge shock because there was only one black person in the entire building. Up until this weekend the biggest group of white people I’ve seen at Oshakati has been the 6 of us. So it was quite a surprise to be in a practically all white city that claims to be more German that Germany…

The Windhoek group got to stay on a house right on the beach. That’s right! They could literally walk from their back yard, onto the beach!! We got a short tour of the house on Friday night, but I was going crazy/ cranky from exhaustion that all I could really think about was getting into bed. Speaking of beds, I’ve been sleeping on a really thin foamy that has basically formed itself to my body and thinned in the centre so that I can feel the wood planks of the bed frame, so when I go to bed to relax, I wake up feeling stiff and sore, which seems counterintuitive but if you saw my bed you’d understand. The beds at the weekend house were deluxe, soft, yet firm and totally perfect for a relaxing weekend.

We woke up on Saturday, well rested, and walked back into town with the group and found a breakfast place. Even though I could tell the restaurant wasn’t that great, the food seemed like a real treat because I’ve only come across two restaurants in the north: Wimpy’s (a British fast food chain) and a pizza place. The mere selection of restaurants was overwhelming and the food was a nice change from the regular peanut butter toast I’ve been eating for breakfast for the past 5 weeks.

After breakfast we split up, some went to the beach and others went and roamed around the town, I decided to go home for a nap because I wasn’t feeling very well. At around two Alison woke me up and we both got ready for dune boarding. Jon, Vince, Alisha, Michelle, Sol, Annie, Sarah, Alison and I all got picked up at the beach house and were driven to the dunes which are literally located across from the beach. I kept glancing to my right and left over and over again because I couldn’t understand how a desert and an ocean could live so close together (but since this was a vacation I decided not to go researching the geography of it all, so I just ignored my curiosity and played up my enthusiasm for the dune boarding instead.)

Once the driver parked the car and we got out, the instructors gave us a quick lesson on how to steer the “high tech speed machine,” which was actually a 3-foot sheet of wood. We then trekked up the side of the dune, which we were told would get easier the more times we did it (I still have no clue what they were talking about because the trip up the dunes was pretty hard every time I did it). On our first trip down the dunes, we basically did a bunny slope and although I was a little nervous, I was really eager to try it and so I hopped on my tummy and slid down the slope. I got a little bit of the “elevator stomach” feeling on the way down, but it was still an amazing trip down. Even though I was worried that I would get sand in my mouth, I couldn’t help but smile wide the whole way down!

We all trekked back up the dune and did the slope again, this time not stopping at the sort of landing, and instead going all the way down. This trip down was better than the first and I was totally enjoying myself. After the second time we walked back up to the top, this time my thighs and calves were burning, but my desire to get back to the top and come back down was so strong that I pushed myself up as quickly as I could. The third time down, we moved to a dune that was so steep that we went down at about 40km an hour. The fourth slope was 80km an hour. Even though It’s going so quickly, you can’t feel very scared at all because you can’t really fall off of your stomach, and you can’t break your bones on sand.

On the last ride down, we got to ride tandem, so Alison and I shared the ride down. The first part of the ride was awesome, but the finale was pretty horrible considering we hit a rock and were flung from the board. We both landed laughing and I looked up the dune to see everyone laughing at us too. When everyone had made it down, one of the leaders came up to us, holding the rock we had hit in his hand, and said “there is only one rock in the desert and you managed to hit it!” We totally destroyed their bored, but they found it so funny that they didn’t mind, and we didn’t have to pay them back.

On the last two slopes I took off my runners and used my bare feet as brakes. The sand was so soft, that even going so quickly down the slope, the sand just tickled my feet. I can’t really explain how good it felt to go out into the dunes and go up and down and up and down for about 2 hours, but just let it be known that I couldn’t wipe a smile off my face for quite a while after we returned back to the house in the evening. Everyone went for a quick shower to get the sand out of the nooks and crannies (effort = futile). Dinner was at the Lighthouse restaurant. Alison and I shared some mussels and pizza and I was so content with the meal that I couldn’t speak for a while because as some of you know, if the food is really good I get waves of euphoria and can’t really talk until I’ve finished eating- A good sign I think. Alison and I decided to share a bottle of wine and realized after seeing the bottle, that we had actually been the winery when we were in Cape Town… Again, I’ve forgotten the name, but it’s German-y sounding and the wine was nice.

After dinner I went home, chillazed with the group, and fell asleep listening to Harry Potter on audio book (I’ve been listening to all 7 books in no particular order this entire trip and couldn’t be happier. Also, I found the third movie in the department store nearby and have watched it a couple times already!)

The next day we all woke up bright an early and made our way the beach house to get picked up for quad biking. Only 6 of us went, but it was so amazing that I think the others ended up regretting not coming. Jon, Vince, Alison, Annie and Sarah and I got picked up at 830am and were driven into town to fill out some waivers and pay before being driven to the dunes to start biking. I have to admit; I was feeling pretty nervous about the entire adventure. Quad bikes are four wheeled (duh), motorized bikes that are essentially the most amazing vehicles known to man and I’ve decided to quad bike around the world as soon as the rest of the world has discovered how great dunes are and decides to import sand everywhere and make the entire world sandy. (dad: I know I’m babbling.) At the dunes we got fitted with helmets and then got to pick our bikes out. Once we were all sitting on our bikes the instructor stood in front of us and began to tell us about the hand signals, but just started laughing instead and couldn’t get through a sentence for about a minute. When asked why he was laughing, he said, “ you’re all just so quiet,” and after looking around and realizing that all of us were seated neatly on our bikes, hands on our handle bars, listening politely to the instructor, I realized how funny we must have looked, considering we were about to do some crazy awesome stuff that is neither polite, nor quiet. After giving us the instructions and starting our bikes for us the instructor got on his bike and we all drove out of the parking lot and into the dunes. And, by “we all drove out of the parking lot,” what I really mean to say is that Annie and I had somehow turned off our bikes and were stranded in the parking lot watching the rest of the group veer straight into the desert/ the best time of their lives, until a nice young fellow came by and pressed the “on” button on the bike and got us going right away. I wish I was as smart as him! Before going any further I want to explain what the first few minutes of quad biking is like. The steering feels wrong ‘cause it’s really hard to turn and you think you’re going to flip the bike. The accelerator is also pretty crazy because it’s just a little knob on the handle bar that looks a lot like a regular bicycle bell, except it’s more dangerous and way more fun to push. Needless to say it was really hard to stay on track and found myself veering on and off the course for the first few minutes. Aryeh, I’m sure you remember the first time you took me driving and I’m bet that you can imagine what I looked like on the bike veering hither and thither with no idea how to go straight. If there had been curbs to drive up on, I would have driven up them all (and probably hit all the fire hydrants too.) Fortunately, there was only sand to be hit, and hit the sand I did! Annie had somehow gotten ahead of me and was also doing pretty miserably on the bike. She, however, has never driven in her life, and thus is excused from ridicule. Although, I have to admit that watching her almost lost control of the bike on many occasions and practically drive over the top of a small dune was pretty entertaining. [After reading this section over my shoulder, Annie has requested that I tell everyone that she redeemed herself quite quickly by “ripping it up” and being “fucking rad, bad-ass, and with the skills of a ninja.” So there you have it.]

Once I had gotten a hang of the vehicle (ie; 10 minutes in) I was having a blast. At first we just drove on flat ground with the dunes all around us, but then we started to veer onto the sides of dunes so that our bikes were basically driving sideways up the sand mountains. We did a few small “roller coasters,” as they’re called, and then moved on to the big ones, which probably got to about 30 feet high and meant that we were driving perpendicular to the ground for a few seconds before diving back down to the dunes. The sensation of going up and down over and over was very similar to the sensation of riding a roller coaster, except you’re the one in control of the ride, which makes it so much better.

We took a short break on the top of a dune and the driver whipped out juice boxes, which we DESTROOYYYEED!! I say this because we looked really lame sitting on our bikes, with our huge helmets, sipping away at our juice boxes. By this point everyone was having an amazing time and we were already regaling each other with tales of speed, sand blowing in the wind, quick turns, amazing ups and downs and lots of cool helmet action.

The rest of the quad biking was amazing and as I got more comfortable on the bike I got much braver and made quicker turns, went faster (sorry mom) and definitely had an amazing time. I was going so fast, that I woke up with a sore thumb from pressing so hard on the accelerator. Like I said before, I want to go quad biking everywhere.

After we were finished, we were driven into town and we were just in time for brunch. We met up with the rest of the group and told them how much fun we had had on the dunes. Afterwards we all walked to the nearby market and I tried my luck at bartering. It turns out that knowing French and living in Ongwediva/Oshakati, worked in my favour. Most of the salesmen were either from that region of Namibia or could speak French, and when this was discovered, they were much easier on me in terms of prices. Therefore I got lots of goodies at the market (and souvenirs for everyone!). Dying for some ice cream, Alison and I made our way to the beach, just steps away from the market, and scarfed down some gelato. And after seeing how welcoming the water was, we taxied home, got into our bathing suits and went down to the beach. I thought the water was going to be freezing but it was actually really refreshing. I would have gone swimming, but the waves were so crazy, so I just played around in the knee-deep water, staying away from the rocks. The best was lying down on the sand and waiting for the waves to creep up on me and totally immerse me. It was so relaxing, I just lay there thinking, “I never want to leave!” But alas, I had an appointment with a horse and the sunset to get to.

After a quick shower I got ready to be picked up and driven 30km outside of Swakop. Michelle is an avid horseback rider, and had invited me to come join her horseback riding in the “countryside.” I think I’m being misleading. Michelle got to horseback ride. I got to mule-back ride. Just as fun I think. My mule was super cute, I secretly kept calling him Eyore when no one was listening. His actual name was Spock, and he was très adorable. He walked uber slow and the instructor and Michelle had to keep stopping to wait for me and Spock to catch up. We rode around in this desert-y place, that wasn’t like the dunes and had darker sand with shallower rises and dips. We rode around for a while and got to watch the sunset from way out in the bizarro dunes. It was really relaxing. I got to just listen to horses footsteps and feel the breeze on my face (and the instructor telling me how slow I was going—but I was totally satisfied with the speed at which Spock and I were moving.) The instructor, tired of the pace, told me that I should try trotting. (Alex: thank you for the lessons, they came in handy in a major way. I remembered to keep my heels down and I stayed on!!) I actually really enjoyed trotting, I’ve never been able to get the hang of the rhythm on other occasions, but this time I just went for it, and wasn’t nervous at all. By then end of the ride I asked the instructor if we could trot the rest of the way home! It was fantastic. Once we got back to the barn, Michelle and I poked around and saw bunnies, guinea pigs, turtles (all in the same pen), guinea fowls, puppies and horses galore. It was glorious, and I am now totally sure that I want to live on a farm for the rest of my life.

Michelle and I got dropped off at the Tiger Reef Café that lies just on the beach, and met up with the rest of the group to grab a bite to eat. I grabbed a drink at the bar (Appletiser and vodka- best thing ever) and joined the group in watching the waves role in, mere feet away from where we were sitting. Aside from the cold, it was really nice to just sit back and watch the sky turn dark, and feel the ocean spray. Dinner was fun because it was so casual and we all squished into the picnic style seating arrangement and dug in to our fish and chips/ burgers/ tiger dogs (which thankfully do not contain either animal). After eating, we went back to the beach house and started a bon fire. We tried to make s’mores, but were entirely unsuccessful because we couldn’t find graham crackers and used these baby cracker-like dealies instead and substituted Hershey’s chocolate for a thicker and lower quality chocolate and settled for strawberry-flavoured marshmallows instead of plain. Even though the s’mores were totally disgusting, I’ve decided that it’s more about whom you’re sharing the bonfire with, than what you’re eating at it (Aaaawwww!) and I had a really great time hanging with the other interns and replaying great moments of the weekend.

Alison and I dashed to the beach quickly and filled up an empty water bottle with some sand. We forgot to do this at the dunes (stupid) and tried to make up for it by using beach sand, which is totally not the same at all. The dune sand was super fine and soft, while the beach sand was coarse and really colourful. I don’t actually know why I’ve digressed so far and have begun talking about sand qualities, but I’ve come to terms with it and I’m not embarrassed to be such a nerd.

After the bonfire, we said our goodbyes to the Windhoek group, who didn’t have to get up at 6am the next morning to grab a bus back to Oshakati. Goodbyes are sad, and I got a taste of what the goodbyes will be like in August when the program is over. I am not excited.

Sleep came easy, even though I was really sad about the weekend ending. Alison and I had complained the entire time we spent packing up all our stuff randomly crying out, “If only we had one more day!” One more day indeed!

We woke up at 6am, but weren’t picked up till 730am, so we all stayed at the beach and walked up and down the shore. Although I had already said my goodbyes to the beach, I wasn’t sad to see it again. A text from Richard told us that we had to get back to the house because the bus had arrived, so we all turned our backs on the water and walked back up to the house.

I had one of the most amazing weekends of my life and can’t wait to show you all the photos I took and act out all of the things I did (I feel like my description of the quad biking really didn’t do it justice and Jon has a video of us biking up and down one of the dunes which I will watch on replay over and over until I feel like I’m there again.)

Anyway, I’m missing everyone lots and I can’t wait to see you in five/six/seven? Weeks!

Photos are of Swakopmund, Ruacana Falls and Cape Town (table mountain). They’re in random order, but you’re smart people and I'm sure you can probably figure out what's what.