Erika and I had had enough of the early waking up, it turned out. So when Brennan and Sarah suggested getting up early the next day to go out to Dune 45, we encouraged them to go without us. We got to sleep in a sweet extra hour! When we woke up, we decided, you know what, we don’t feel like making breakfast this morning, so we went to get breakfast at the cafe at the campsite.

Breakfast was… well it wasn’t great. It was slow, and the coffee was garbage. But we didn’t have to make it so… winning?

They had the TV in the cafe turned on to WWE. What is it with WWE in Namibia?!

Day 7

When they got back to camp, Brennan and Sarah met us at the cafe and got a little breakfast too. Then, they headed over to the gas station to get their flat tire patched, while Erika and I went back to camp to take our tent down and pack up our things.

We met them at the gas station, planning to get our flat tire patched as well. However, apparently there’d been a rash of flat tires, as there were four people waiting in front of us to get tires patched, too. With Brennan’s patched, we decided we were good enough on spares to get us to our next home, so we decided to deal with our tire later.

While we were at the service station, we got briefly onto the WiFi they offered, so we could figure out some details of our drive for the day. That’s what Erika did, anyway. With my time on the internet, I went to see what was happening in the Stanley Cup finals and saw that… the Capitals won the damn thing! How about that? First the Eagles, now the Caps, this traveling the world is great for my sports teams! Maybe the Baltimore Orioles would be next?

Hahahahahahahaha!

Day 7 was largely a driving day, taking us to Swakopmund, where we’d spend the last two nights of the Namibia adventure. Along the way, we planned a break in the “town” of Solitaire, where we’d heard a rumor you can get good apple pie.

Solitaire

Maybe it was the anticipation, instead of being completely surprised by it. Maybe we were just chasing a memory, looking to have that amazing apfel strudel experience from a few days earlier again. Whatever it was, the apple pie was fine. It was fine! It just wasn’t magical, like our strudel on the way to Fish River Canyon.

But it was fine, and the break was good. The roads to Solitaire were okay, not great, so it was nice to get off of them for half an hour. We still had a long ways to go.

Gaub Pass and Kuiseb Pass

Leaving Solitaire, the roads got much better. But, before long, the roads started to twist and turn more, and we had to bring our speeds down. The inclines got steeper, and the declines did too. We were heading into Gaub mountain pass, and the roads were getting challenging.

That was nothing compared with what came just after though, when we approached the Kuiseb pass. This terrain was stunning, ridges and gullies seemingly carved roughly out of the earth, but the road wound dangerously up, down, and through these features. A decent stretch of this was, miraculously, paved, but this was still mentally taxing driving!

The Long Road to Walvis Bay

Once we were through the mountains, the road calmed again and we could once again push our speeds higher. The closer we got to Walvis Bay, the better the road got. None of this stretch was paved, but the road was mostly packed salt, and so it was as good as paved.

This stretch was cripplingly desolate. Large parts of Namibia look like another planet, but this really looked like another planet. It was a colorless moonscape, and… well, it was boring.

It seemed to stretch on forever before we finally started seeing the cranes and towers of the port of Walvis Bay.

To Swakopmund

Walvis Bay brought the return of paved roads. From here, it was maybe 30 more minutes of driving before we got to Swakopmund. That stretch of driving is very cool, with the Atlantic Ocean on your left, and towering sand dunes just off the road on your right.

We got settled into our place in Swakopmund, and set out looking for dinner. We chose a pizza place close to our apartment. The pizza was good, the service… woo, it was a struggle. Food service seems to be a struggle in Namibia, period, so it wasn’t exactly a surprise. But we were there a looong time before we got any pizza. The staff at least was very nice about it, and even gave us a free bottle of wine. Obviously, we didn’t turn that down.

Breaking up the Team

The next morning, we went our separate ways for the day. Brennan and Sarah wanted to try horseback riding, while Erika and I were more interested in trying dune boarding. So they left in the morning for their horseback tour they booked, while we went and got our flat tire patched before our dune boarding appointment.

We went and setup our dune boarding appointment at the adventure sports place. And they were all like “cool, you’re all set up, here’s what you do, some people from another organization–not ours–will meet you in the parking lot of this hotel in town at 2:30 and you’ll go out for your dune boarding with them.”

I’m writing this five months later, and I’m pretty blown away at how casual we were about this. Okay yeah, we’ll go look for these strangers in the parking lot, sounds great!

That’s exactly what we did, and at 2:30 promptly they were there. It was three guys in a sedan, with all the boarding equipment in the trunk. Let’s go dune boarding!

Dune Boarding

Erika is going to take this part, so that we can get her unique perspective on our day of dune boarding. Take it away, Erika!

…We drove out from Swakopmund along the highway that connects it with Walvis Bay. Just outside of Swakopmund, we took a left straight into the sand and towards a dune. There was nothing official about where we were going – just a big dune off the side of the road that we were going to board down!

Having never been snowboarding before, I’ve been eager to try, but never wanted to lose a day of skiing to learn to snowboard. So dune boarding seemed like the way to go! We got out of the car and were given our moon (snowboarding) boots. They felt super weird to me, especially in the 85F heat, but John seemed at ease.

Our instructors said a few months prior there had been a chair lift but it had been blown over in a wind storm. Then they cracked up. Nope, no chair lifts here. The only way up these dunes is to hike up. So up we went in our moon boots.

I was drenched in sweat and exhausted by the time we made it to the top of the first dune. We stopped there, and the views were stunning. Stretching out in front of us as far as the eye could see were dunes on top of undulating dunes. And behind us, the Atlantic Ocean. And over us, the sun beating down threatening to give us a heat stroke.

Our instructors showed us how to wax our boards, explaining that it would need to be done before each run so we’d be able to get enough speed in the slow sand. They explained to me the basics of how to balance on the board. John didn’t need any instruction since he already knew how to snowboard.

After this brief instructional, we were supposedly ready to try our first small dune, one with a fairly gentle slope and went down only about 30 feet. John went first and made it look super easy. I was nervous but super excited. I went down the dune and totally nailed it! I felt like such a champ!

John and I gathered our boards and hiked back up the dune to do it again. Again, two successful runs!

After we hiked back up the dune, our instructors decided I was ready for a lesson in turning, whereas John was ready to graduate to a bigger dune. As he hiked up to a higher dune, I went down my regular dune and tried to apply my turning lesson. Unfortunately, I not only wasn’t able to turn, but trying to do so knocked me off balance and I had my first wipe out.

Our instructors had been telling us how much slower and softer sand is compared to snow. Our instructors had also never seen snow, so I’m not sure how they arrived at this conclusion. Based on my experience, hitting the sand was a lot harder than wiping out on snow, and my butt/hip was going to have the bruise to prove it. I hiked back up the dune contemplating what breaking a hip would mean for our trip. During this time, John went down the dune from his higher starting point, ending where I had splatted.

I decided to sit the next run out as hiking up the dune in the blazing sun was getting exhausting. I also wanted to watch John show off his skills. He was getting ready to start a run from the higher starting point and finish at the very bottom of the dune, not at the plateau we’d been stopping at. John did the run perfectly, and then had one hell of a workout hiking all the way back up to the top. Being the snowboard lover he is, he did this another time. Such a workout!!!

After John made it back to the top again, it was time to head home. John and I were going to both board down the dune to where the car was parked. This was a far bigger slope and longer run than I’d done, but I was feeling competitive and jokingly told John I’d race him to the bottom. John took off, perfectly snaking down the dune to the bottom of the hill.

I, on the other hand, had barely even started down the hill before falling backward and catching myself with my hand. Once again, I’d like to assert my opinion that sand is not softer than snow! My hand and wrist hit hard. But I’m not a quitter. The instructors got me back on my feet, and off I went again. Just to immediately fall, once again catching myself on the same hand and wrist. It hurt quite a bit, and I realized that if I tried and fell again, it would probably be three strikes and out on this wrist. Not wanting to seek medical care for a broken wrist in Namibia, I opted to be a quitter and walk the rest of the way down the dune. (Note – 5 months later and I can still sometimes feel pain in this hand!)

We hopped back in the car hot, exhausted, sweaty, sandy (I brought home ungodly amounts of sand in my underwear!), and happy. Sand boarding was such a cool experience and the views were like no other….

Next Time, on Namibia Travels…

All good things must end, and so too must the Namibia Travels. Next time, we leave Swakopmund to head back to Windhoek, and wrap up this crazy portion of our adventure.