Today we had to leave our bush camp early! On the road by 6am. A dozen of us have booked a dune 4×4 drive and eight of us have a 730am departure. We were all up and ready and helped do dishes and pack up the truck, so we ended up leaving about 15 minutes early.
It wasn’t nearly as cold last night so we were pretty lightly dressed. The guys said that we would have access to our bags when we got to the hotel – but I had my doubts so I grabbed my jacket to take on the bus just in case. We hit the road and after about 30 minutes we hit tarred road again, so I think most, if not all, of us slept. I was in the front of the bus again today and all of a sudden I woke up cold. Margherita and I both asked for the window in the front to be closed, but we realized it wasn’t open – the cold air was coming from a tiny area that connects the drivers cabin to the bus. I was glad I had my jacket for sure. We had to make a stop once because a compartment had opened on the side of the bus, but it was less than five minutes.
We still somehow got to the hotel ten minutes late so the eight of us (the Italians and myself) had to hustle to get into the 4×4 vehicles to head to our activity. In true Laura fashion, I didn’t know what I signed up for. Giacomo had done more research and I decided to follow him. And let me tell you – it was SOOOOO worth it!! Our first stop was the flamingos. Our driver gave us about ten minutes here and he let some air out of his tires while we took pictures. We picked up some food and then headed to the dunes. Namibia exports 80% of it’s raw unpurified salt to Europe for roads in the winter. The other 20% gets purified and becomes table salt – which they keep most of. We passed these huge salt ponds on the way to the national park.
We were at the tail end of high tide and our driver decided he could handle driving along the water front (Atlantic Ocean, also called the skeleton coast) – he had to race waves and it was AWESOME. I thought at that point – this is super cool, if this is it I’m all in. And boy, I had no idea what came next. It was overcast and spitting – but all of a sudden the sun was out and the world opened before us – amazingly beautiful sand dunes (think super light colored beach sand) with the most crystal clear sky – and we were heading right to them! He climbed small dunes and weaved and every view was different.
Suddenly we came up on a large dune with other vehicles on top and I could not believe that we would be making that climb ourselves, but all of a sudden he gunned it and we were on top. And the view was indescribable (see pictures for proof). The other groups left shortly after we got there and I immediately headed up to the top of the tallest dune (it was not an easy walk) to get some selfies and take pictures without anyone else. We stayed for about ten minutes then got back in the car and went straight down the dune (pictures and videos dont do justice) and we were off again weaving, climbing, accelerating. This continued for about another 30 minutes then we stop at the top of another dune and he says we are going to take a break. The other car meets us here and we all get some snacks and drinks provided by the drivers.
Having an opportunity to take in the beauty around us and views. All of a sudden the winds shifted and the clouds came in and the temperature dropped suddenly. We were all very happy to jump back into the vehicles to keep going. It was about two hours of adventuring through the dunes and I loved every darn minute of it. I did not want it to end, and I now very much understand why people like this. Our driver likes to go fast and I very much enjoyed that. He has our Danish group after us as well. He says he does a group once a day and in the high season (now) he does two. We got back to the meeting point and a van came to drop off the Danes and pick us up. The pay machine was not here yet, so we had to make a pit stop so we could pay for our adventure day.
When we were dropped off at the hotel and our rooms were ready for us to go and shower. I got the room right outside of reception – nice quick walk over to my room. I immediately unpacked my dirty clothes and showered. I got into clean clothes and went to reception to get a laundry bag because for $10 you can get a bag of laundry done and I know it would be like 10x that in Cape Town so I had to take advantage. After getting clean I headed to the grocery store and grabbed a yogurt, a sprite and a chocolate bar (apparently I eat more chocolate on holiday than I do in the states, but it’s Cadbury so I must). I spent some time working on my blog (I am very behind, so thank you readers for your patience).
A couple hours later the Italians and I headed down to the water front to check out the views. This is a beautiful area and the water front reminds me a bit of Newport Beach area of California. We walked back to get AC and so they could check in with their neighbors back home. They found out when we got here that their house flooded (again). Thankfully it was only their garage this time, but they still have standing water. Their town was overrun with water again, for the third time in five years! When they were done we all headed to dinner.
We wanted seafood (they are sick of all the heavy meat and I’ll always take fish) so we headed back to the water front. The restaurant we wanted had no openings and so many reservations. Turns out today is a national holiday in Namibia (hero’s day) so everyone is out enjoying the day off AND it’s high tourist season so everything is just busy. We had to settle on a restaurant close by that wasnt very busy – but they did have seafood. We all got something yummy and enjoyed chatting with each other. After dinner we walked back to the hotel (but not without being accosted by the same kid, who had bothered us each time we walked by today, asking for money) and headed to bed. We have a late start, 8am tomorrow and we all want to enjoy the beds tonight.
Normal Travel Girl 
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