Swakop Fun

We arrived in Swakopmund in the late afternoon, hungry and tired of driving. Thankfully, Swakop is a very walkable town, and relatively safe compared to Windhoek. In fact, it reminded me a lot of a California coastal town, like Santa Cruz or Half Moon Bay. Including the freezing cold water. No swimming for us in Swakop. We DID however get some amazing activities in while we were in town...

Sandboarding - Just like it sounds, its snowboarding but on sand dunes. I had a Burton snowboard that I waxed up, strapped into and started carving turns down the hill (with a few falls mixed in of course - its not EXACTLY like snowboarding). I even went off the jump a few times, since the sand was MUCH more forgiving than the typical Tahoe snowpack. The big surprise of the day was that while the standing up version that we had come for in the first place was very fun, the lying down version was much more intense. Going down the biggest dune, lying face first on what amounts to a piece of pressed cardboard, I hit 73km/hr. Not so far from the all time record of 82.

Landy ACH-ting (or Land Yachting for those of you that haven't been subjected to Dan's new favorite non-word, said with a thick German accent) - This was my favorite activity by far. I think I'd be disowned from sailing if it weren't. Basically, you have a sail and a three wheeled contraption and you tack and jibe your way over land, up hills, and over the occasional bush. By the end we were racing each other across the desert plain, and managing some sweet 360s (by broaching as much as possible for the sailors out there).

Quad Biking - Evidently, when Brad and Angelina were in Swakop to have their baby (yes, Angelina gave birth to little whats-its-face in Swakopmund, Namibia), they went to the same quad biking place that we went to on our last morning. Anyway, we had a blast with our 90 minutes taking our 4 wheeled motorcycles up, down and around the dunes. Not my favorite activity, with the dust and the noise, but another box I'm very glad I checked =)

Rib-Eating Contest - This was a Dan and Mike only activity - the rest of us were happy to remain just spectators. Our last dinner in Swakop was at Napolitana, on the recommendation of our sandboarding guide, who mentioned that there was a certain plate of ribs that, if finished in one sitting, landed the victorious eater's name on the wall. Dan, never one to back down from a challenge, declared that his name was going up by the end of the night. What he didnt count on was Treskow's stealth eating power. We all watched with awe over dinner as Mike steadily led the rib eating through to completion, even as he kept saying "I have no plans to finish all of this - i could never" Dan's blog describes the inside of defeat quite well I think, if you check it out. strangleagiraffe.blogspot.com