It has been far too long since I last posted, so in this post I will talk about my holidays and next time I will update what has been happening since then.
The majority of our Christmas season was spent in Swakopmund, a town in the West of Namibia, on the Atlantic Coast. It's very popular as a holiday destination amongst people from Namibia and South Africa as well as further afield, especially Germany. In fact the town is still very reminiscent of German influence, being home to a "Brauhaus" pub and plenty of old European-looking buildings.
We had originally intended to stay in Swakop for only a few days and then travel to South Africa to visit Cape town and Port Elizabeth, but unfortunately our work permits from the government STILL haven't been processed, so we were unable to travel outwith Namibia. Considering all the plans we had made for our South Africa trip, it was very frustrating not to be able to go. However, Swakop was a very safe and relaxing place to be - 5 minutes walk from our hostel to the beach and plenty of things to do.
As I have grown up near so many beaches, it was wonderful to be able to swim in the sea again - and the South Atlantic Ocean was about as cold as the bitter North Sea! On two separate occasions I was swimming in the bay of the beach, I found myself in the presence of about half a dozen dolphins, who were all very playful and not at all scared to come within 2 metres of me. You don't get that at Largo beach.
As well as the Atlantic, Swakop backs on to the dramatic Namib desert. One day we went quad-biking through the dunes. I don't have any photos of that day, it's rather hard to hold a camera whilst on a quad! Another day we were introduced to the activity of sand-boarding, which was incredibly fun. The sand-board, in typical Namibian fashion, was nothing fancy, in fact nothing more than a 2'x5' piece of oiled plywood. In the photo below I am doing a tandem run with Katie, another volunteer, but most of the runs were done solo, lying face-down on your board, your face no more than a couple of inches from the sand. I think my fastest run was 74km/h. It could be a bit sore when you hit a bump in the sand but the bruises were soon turned into proud battle-scars.
The dunes themselves were about a 15 minute drive from town so we had to take a mini-bus. Of course, the health and safety regulations are somewhat lacking in this country, so I was obliged to hold the door shut to stop myself falling out.
Another day we went out on a day-cruise from Walvis Bay, a nearby town. We saw a colony of thousands of seals, as well as a few dolphins here and there. A couple of the seals were trained to come aboard - here is me trying to hi-5 one of them. Walvis Bay is also the home of one of the biggest oyster fisheries in the world, so we were allowed some fresh oysters.
