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Namibia Trip - September 2008 September 9 - Quad bikes, a cruise and land yachting Mom and Dad went quad biking again with Mathew. He took them out for a one hour ride but they ended up staying out for 1 1/2 hours. Mathew seemed to enjoy it as much as the folks. Mom rode behind Dad part of the way then on the back of Mathew's bike so that Dad could go play on the dunes by himself. |
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While Mom and Dad were quad biking we went on a seal and dolphin cruise. We were picked up at our camp at 8am and taken to Walvis Bay, about 20 minutes south of Swakopmund. There we boarded a boat with 8 other tourists and a guide and his helper. |
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This wild seal is used to boat-loads of tourists and the fish handouts he gets when the boats head out. Yotty came swimming up to the boat, hopped on and went straight to our guide as he had a bucket of fish. He then fed the seal and encouraged us to stroke Yotty as he was very friendly. Later a much bigger seal called Cassanova jumped up and also wanted his fish. The guide asked someone to sit down so that Cassanova could put his head on his shoulder. Robert volunteered, and sure enough, the great big seal put his head on Robert's shoulder. |
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While on the cruise we also saw Benguela dolphins and bottlenose dolphins. The guide also fed some pink pelicans which came up to the boat. We were then served with sparking wine and a platter of fish and sandwiches for lunch plus as many oysters as we wanted. We were then driven back to our camp and dropped off at 1:30pm. |
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At 2pm our guide, David, met us at our camp and took us just north of Swakopmund for some land yachting. |
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There was a nice stiff breeze blowing so we could really fly along. We did about an hour of going around a circuit before David got us together and we headed inland for a "sail" through the barren wilderness. He said there were snakes and chameleons in the small shrubs growing there but we didn't see any. The next morning Dad discovered that Mom's camera was missing. We suspect that while we were out sailing with David his helper took the camera as it was in David's van. We called David to notify him of the missing camera but we never got it back. |
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September 10 - Skydiving We got up early and packed up. We then headed to the airport where Dad and I signed up for tandem skydiving. We were given jumpsuits and suited up with harnesses when we got to the jump zone. Two other couples jumped before us so we got to see how it was done. Then it was our turn. We went up with a girl and her instructor who where both going to do solo jumps. She was very nervous. Once they jumped at 5,000 ft we continued to 10,000 ft. Dad and his guide got to go first. They vanished out of the door so fast I hardly saw them go. Then I went towards the door on my knees, with Paul strapped to my back. We both put our right feet out on the step then out we went. |
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We
freefell for 36 seconds then the shoot opened. During the freefall I
could paddle the wind with my hands and change direction. It felt amazing. Then the
sudden yank as the shoot opened and the quiet returned. Paul gave me
the control chords so that I could steer. I didn't want to do too
many twirls and swirls so I just looked around at the ocean, the miles of
straight beach and the distant hills. It took 4 minutes of gliding to
get to the ground. It was wonderful and I'd love to do it again. |
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| Windhoek & Halali |
Etosha - Halali |
Etosha - Okaukuejo |
Oujto & Xaragu |
Twyfelfontein & Swakopmund | Swakopmund |
Sossusvlei & Nubib |
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