Dune Sea and Swakopmund

2-16-09

Dune Sea and Swakopmund

        I had no plans for my last day in Namibia, and decided to play it by ear. I woke up when breakfast opened, and waited until I heard some plans that sounded fun. My friend Claudia convinced me to come ATVing with her in the Dune Sea, and boy am I glad she did! We headed for Dune 7 as soon as we were done with breakfast. They have a little stand for adventure sports. They have ATVs, sandboarding (like snowboarding on a sand dune), and zorbing (where you get in a giant plastic ball and they roll you down the dune). We signed up to go ATVing for an hour with two other girls. We got helmets and followed our guide to a row of ATVs. After a brief safety lecture, we headed into the dunes. We started by going to the north of Dune 7 and into the dune sea. It was unlike anything I have ever seen before. The dunes looked like waves traveling for miles across the desert. They were huge too, Dune 7 is the tallest at almost 1000 feet, and others are not far behind. It was awesome. We went up and down and all around the dunes, stopping at peaks to take the look at the views. Then we would accelerate and zoom down the dunes. It was an unbelievable hour.
        We came back to the ship for lunch, where I met up with Andrew. We decided to spend our last few hours in Namibia in Swakopmund, as he hadn’t been there yet. We left the ship, and by the ship there are usually a few taxis. In the countries we have been to, we always have to barter for taxis and tend to get ripped off. It’s a practice I really dislike, however I am getting used to it. The fare to Swakopmund is around 25 Namibian Dollars per person (10 N$ = 1 US$). We asked these taxis to take us to Swakop and they wanted 100 ND each, so we walked outside the port gates. The first taxi driver who came up to us immediately agreed to 25 ND to go to Swakopmund, so we jumped in his cab. We started off, and a few minutes into the ride I noticed we were not using the streets I had taken before. I was a little worried, but figured there was traffic (in Namibia? hah) and that we were going a different way. However, he took us into a township. The townships are where all the poor blacks live. It is a pretty destitute place, where people live in little more than shacks. SAS told us not to hang out there, so I got a little worried. Luckily, Andrew is 6’5” and pretty intimidating… so I never got too scared. The driver raised his hand out the window holding two fingers up and yelling in one of the many Namibian dialects. A few scary thoughts ran through my mind, “I’ve got two tourists” was one of them, but it turns out he wanted two more passengers for the drive to Swakopmund. I’m sure we were never in any real danger (don’t worry Mom and aunties) but the change of scenery was enough to make me alert. It was interesting to see the township though; I can’t believe that hundreds of people (and thousands in South Africa) live in such conditions. The people seemed generally happy, most people were outside because the houses are so small. Children were playing and adults were sitting around talking. After about 15 minutes, when we were just about to pay the driver to just get going, two men hopped in our cab. They were very nice, both spoke English, and they were dressed very nicely because they were going to some sort of conference. It turned out to be a memorable experience, although it reminded me that things are very different around the world.
        We safely arrived in Swakopmund, and wandered around the market. People come from all over to sell their wares, as in Morocco. They sell handmade wooden and stone statues, jewelry, paintings, and masks. They loved all the SAS students coming through, we tend to take over any town we go to. We saw a bunch of friends there. After buying some souvenirs, we got some ice cream and went to the top of the tallest tower in Swakopmund. It was probably 6 stories tall, and towered over all the other buildings. It was awesome, because you could look out over the town and see giant dunes behind it. The dunes rolled into the sea to the west. I kept thinking what a unique place Namibia is, with the German architecture, African people, a desert of dunes, and a nutritious ocean all converging in Swakopmund.
        We caught a taxi back, and this time made certain that we would go straight to the port. I made it on to the ship about 10 minutes before our on-ship time… if you are late you get dock time (where you have to stay on the ship) in the next port. I’m glad I took full advantage of the time I had in Namibia, I loved every minute of it. I cant wait to come back! ; )