From the Snow to the Sand

What did you do this Easter? I went sandboarding-- or put another way, I strapped a snowboard on my feet and went down a sand dune. Yup.

We woke up early on Sunday excited for the day's adventure and hopeful that the still dreary weather was not going to put a damper on the activity that I for one was most looking forward to. It was still drizzling outside so I called the lady at Alter-Action, but she told me it was supposed to clear up, and that the damp sand would not interfere with the boarding. Since she's the expert, we decided to trust her and at 9:30 we met her outside our hostel along with two other girls from our hostel that happened to be coming too! We drove out to the dunes and Beth, the guide, explain that while normally when the sand is dry, they use snowboards that they have refinished the bottoms of, when the sand is wet, it turns out that normal snowboards work really well because  you know, snow is wet too. We would just need lots and lots of wax.

The one to the left of the girls is the dune we boarded down.
Or, attempted to board down.

 We pulled up to the dunes and I'm pretty sure we were all speechless. It was absolutely gorgeous out there-- we were back on Mars. After taking copious pictures, we were gathered and fitted for our boots and boards, then we began the long trek up the dune. Lucky for us, the wet sand made for a bit of easier hike up than the dry sand would have. We got to the top and broke into our groups, the lay-down boarders, and those of us crazy enough to try standing up. The lay-down group was given large pieces of plywood that they would be sliding down on their bellies. We would be joining them for a few runs later on, but for now, the stand-up group hiked up one more hill to the top of our dune where we were given a super brief introduction of what we were supposed to do. I made the mistake of mentioning that I had snowboarded before which meant that my and Erika's introduction was even shorter than the rest. I strapped on my board, gathered my courage, stood up, and went.

View from the top.

Needless to say, the trip down was pretty disastrous  but hilarious to watch. I wobbly started going down the hill, bending over and touching the sand every three seconds or so, when I finally thought I had the hang of it, it stood up a little straighter and started up picking up speed. Then more. Then even more. Pretty soon I was going what felt like way to fast down this sand hill and I had no idea how to slow down. I lost my balance and ended up tumbling into the sand. Well that's one way to stop. (Actually that's the only way I managed to stop all day...) By the time I reached the bottom, I had spent most of the trip down the hill rolling in the sand, but it was the coolest thing I had ever done. I unstrapped by feet, picked up my board and began the long hike back up the dune to try it again.

Pro-nasty.

 I wish I could say I became an expert sandboarder by the end of the day, but alas, I improved only marginally. I guess I'm just a girl that likes to have two boards strapped to her feet rather than one. I did get a little more confident though and even tried going off the jump! We took a brief break from stand up boarding to join the other group on the fastest lay-down run, which we got to try twice. It's basically like tobogganing on snow, and I managed to get up to 72km/h on both runs! When we had tried our couple of runs, I strapped my board back on my feet, and prepared for one more run. I went off the jump again and sort of landed on my feet-ish before immediately falling and rolling in the sand. I got back up and finished the run with a decent amount of success. I was able to make it almost to the bottom without falling again! By the time I reached the bottom I was bumped, bruised, exhausted, and COVERED in sand from head to toe but I was beaming from ear to ear. We walked back to the vans where Beth had started setting up the tables for the lunch they provided us. Fixings for sandwiches  soda, and beer. Awesome. We scarfed the food, took a couple more group shots, and then piled back into the vans to head back. Definitely a wicked awesome way to spend Easter.

After a quick pit stop at the grocery store for snacks for the ride home and food for the week back in our villages we went back to the hostel to de-sand ourselves. We took another walk along the beach and then had to go back to the Alter-Action office for a screening of our video. Oh, yeah, the whole thing was filmed/photographed and we each got a free copy of the DVD, and could purchase still shots for N$20 (about USD$2.50) each. We had a great time laughing at each of our wipe outs and picking out shots we wanted to buy, then we walked down the street to the restaurant where we met Ashley and Mailin and their friends for dinner. We enjoyed another fantastic meal at a little German pub and then headed back to the hostel since many of us had Easter Skype dates with our families.


On Monday, we spent the whole day traveling, but as usual in Namibia, even that provides a story. We had gotten the numeber of the combi driver that drove us to Swakop and had called to ask him if he would be going back to Oshakati Monday morning. He was, and we arranged to meet him at the service station at 7:30AM. Elizabeth, the manager of the hostel was gracious enough to offer to drive us there, but we couldn't all fit in her car, so we had to take two trips. I was waiting with the second group when the first came back, got out of the car, and announced that all taxi and combi drivers were going on strike and there would be no rides out of Swakop until the next day. Uh what?! APRIL FOOLS! Good one guys, you really had us for a minute (although I think we were more upset to find out it was a joke and we didn't have a legit reason to stay in Swakop another day.) Nope, the reason they were back is that the driver had called us and said he was running a few minutes late but would pick us up at the hostel. Ok, great. Well an hour later, he still wasn't there-- despite telling us he was pulling in, he actually hadn't left Walvis Bay yet. So we again piled into the car and went to the hike point to find another ride. We got another combi that was supposedly leaving shortly, but of course, it was another hour before we finally left. At 9:30, we pulled out of Swakop and were on the road. It was nice getting to see the scenery on the way back, since it had been dark most of the ride in, we hadn't seen any. A few hours into the ride, we even saw a giraffe on the side of the road!! But  I didn't have my camera out, so no pics, sorry. I'm pretty sure we scared the other riders though when we all shouted and jumped up at once...whoops. The ride back was much more comfortable that the ride there; the seats were a bit wider and the music wasn't up quite as high. We were treated to an African remix of Gangnam Style (even worse than the original) and a remix of N*Sync's "This I Promise You". The seven of us performed a full on sing-along in the combi and at this point everyone else on the ride was convinced we were crazy. Whatevs, they're just jealous. We got back into town around 8:30, and luckily for me, TK had been in town and because he is the best housemate ever, he waited for me to drive me back home since there is no way I would have gotten a hike that late. Note to self: make sure you get back earlier next time.

Well folks, that's all for the Swakop adventures! I'll probably have another post soon about the craziness that is End of Term Exams. Till then,
Jamie

For the full Swakop album, click here.

Swakop-- aka "Is this still Africa?"

Because Namibia is a very religious country, Good Friday and Easter Monday are official holidays, which for us meant no school! We decided this would be a perfect time to visit Swakopmund, a cute little city on the coast. We had heard it can be a bit of a money pit, so by giving ourselves three days there, we would limit the amount of money we could spend. We met up after school on Thursday in Ondangwa and after a bit of confusion, managed to get a combi that would take us all the way to Swakop that night. It was supposed to leave at 3:30, and given an 8 hour drive, we figured we'd be in around midnight. A little late, but at least we would have all of Friday to spend in Swakop and not on the road. Well as with most things here, things did not go exactly as planned. We didn't leave Ondangwa until about 6:30, and with all the pit stops we made along the way, we didn't get in until about four in the morning. Yup. You did that math right, nine and a half hours in a combi. Woof. The seats were about 3/4 as wide as a normal seat should be which made for a very tight squeeze. Add to this the Oshiwambo hip hop that was playing at ear splitting volume the whole ride, and what you have is pretty akin to torture. Oh well- all part of the adventure. We made it to Swakop at 4 AM and someone said, "well at least we made it here!" We shushed her, saying that we weren't done yet, we still had to find two taxis to take us to the hostel, and at 4 in the morning, Swakop wasn't exactly bustling. We managed to find two taxis to take us pretty quickly, but moments after pulling out of the petrol station, our drivers announced that although they had just told us they knew where the hostel was, they in fact didn't. We had an address, but knowing nothing about the city, we were all pretty lost. After an eventful cab ride which almost included a roadside baby delivery, we made it to the Skeleton Coast Backpakers. The woman there was extremely sweet and met us at the door despite the fact that we woke her up in the middle of the night. We were let into our room where we climbed into our beds and snuggled under the down comforters. Yes, in Swakop, it was actually cold enough for a comforter. My New England heart was happy!

Wait, is this Maine?

State house

We awoke the next morning after only 5 hours of sleep excited to explore the new city. After a nice breakfast, we headed out to walk around and enjoy the gorgeous weather. Swakopmund is a small city on the coast where the German influence is still very strong.
The architecture is a fascinating juxtaposition of modern, geometric homes, and old Bavarian style architecture. The coastline is pretty rocky, and very reminiscent of the Maine coastline I am so accustomed to, but then the streets are lined with cement brick pathways and palm trees that looks much more like what I would expect to see in Venice Beach. Our eyes were constantly beholding new sights and I greatly enjoyed all the juxtapositions. We could hardly believe that this surreal little town was located in the same country as our homes in the north. There were some times when I would have to stop and consciously remind myself that I was still in Africa and had not Apparated to a seaside European village.

...no, it's Germany!

Looking down the pier

We walked along the beach to the center of town and enjoyed the smell of the ocean air-- I had forgotten how much I missed that smell. It was amazing to put my feet in the water and know that it was the same body of water that I swim in back home, except this time, instead of knowing that the Spanish shore lay far over the horizon, it was the Brazilian shore that was on the other side.

Market

Could have come from Maine

After getting our beach fix, we made our way to the Swakopmund Museum, which had lots of cool artifacts showcasing the history of the city. Once again, the German influence was extremely evident. Most of the exhibits featured the history of the German colonists, and any mention of the "native peoples" were in separate exhibits. We checked out the gift shop and purchased a few postcards to send back home (I even managed to find one single postcard of Ovamboland-- two palm trees next to an oshana. We got a kick out of this, so I of course bought it.) We left the museum and after a bit more exploring, found a cute little cafe to eat lunch in where I had a Hawaiian Quesadilla. Mmmm, Mexican, how I've missed you. Downtown Swakop was exactly like a little German village complete with shops and cafes (even a Starbucks impostor) but at the end of the street, you could see out to the sand dunes in the desert beyond.

You're not fooling us, fake Starbucks!

We walked to the end of long pier to get a clearer view of the sand dunes and go into full tourist mode and take more pictures. We were stopped by a bunch of random people who wanted to take their picture with us. We almost expect this in Oshakati where we are pretty much the only white people, but it was a surprise to get it here too where not only are there a lot of white Afrikaners, but a lot of tourists too.

Dunes from the pier.

After stopping in a restaurant to make dinner reservations, we headed back to the hostel and grabbed a blanket and some speakers to go lay out on the beach for a while. It was the perfect temperature in the sun and none of us wanted to get up, but we had a reservation to make.

Oh wait, no, it's Venice Beach.

We got a little dressed up and headed to dinner, where I had the largest plate of BBQ ribs I have ever seen (I needed quite a bit of help to finish it!) and then we did a little bar hopping. I think the strangest part of the whole evening was the sheer amount of white people we were surrounded by. We're used to being the only white people around in the north, but here, we were back in the majority again. It was nice going out in the city, and we met up with a few of the other volunteers from the Kunene Region that we hadn't seen since our Epupa trip. We headed back around midnight to once again snuggle in our beds and get a good night's sleep before our early morning harbor cruise the next morning!