Oh my...Your Hair Looks Very Shiny!

Swakopmund is cool, it was a German colony and is still very German. It is very developed with lots of pubs, restaurants and cafes. We all stayed in a hostel and everyone let me and John share a room made for 4 to ourselves so we could have some privacy- where not going to complain! It was cool because upstairs we had Dave, Roy, Carl and Jodie and next door we had Gabby, Jen, Jo, Sam, Dale and Susan so we just nipped in and chatted whenever we were bored. The bar was cool and very close to our room and you got free English Brekkies! That evening we all got dolled up and headed out for an Italian. The Italians was beautiful and we got huge steaks for mega cheap! We had decided to try one of the local conditioners, thinking it may have a long lasting deep conditioning effect- oh how wrong we were. It was like Vaseline and it never dried so when we were in the lovely restaurant that night John and I looked like greasy haired scruffs- it literally didn't dry all night and it felt disgusting- much to the rest of the tables amusement! The next morning we washed it twice and it still never dried. We washed it again and third time lucky it dried and we didn't look like greasy haired scruffs anymore!

John Ruins the Day for everyone!

In the morning we went Sandboarding, it is just like snowboarding but you go down these massive sand dunes. Everyone had a wicked day and some people were really good. You go really fast down the dune and I just kept getting scared and falling over- I was rubbish! John got good at it- he really had the stance down… Whereas I on the other hand just lay down- nevermind! It was a hard day as you had to keep climbing to the top of the dune which takes forever as it is so big. You could go down the dune on a board on your stomach- John did this and came flying off and ruined the track so when Jo went after she came off as well and between the 2 of them nobody else could use that track again! It wasn't that bad a day for me as we got some lush sandwiches and drinks afterwards- but I definitely wont be racing to go sandboarding again! Stupid John being good at it- Im not jealous at all! We watched the dvd of the sandboarding that night in a bar in town and went for some food. We had the worst service ever (worse than Fiumes) but it was hilarious you didn't know what was going to happen next. It was lots of fun and our poor waiter was run ragged so we left him a good tip! The food was awesome too, we have both been eating a lot of fish- were becoming quite cultured trying new stuff- I'm sure it wont last long and to be fair we have chocolate spread sandwiches for brekky most days!

Schumacher you Better Watch your Back!

The next day we went quad biking in the dunes- after somewhat of a slow shakey start we both got good! John got good a lot quicker than me! It took a while for me to let go off the brake… but once I did I stopped wobbling all over! It was wicked you just go bombing up and down the dunes. Some of them are really steep so its canny scary going down- lots of fun and eventually I went quick up and down them! John went on a more powerful bike and he went in the fast lads group- I stayed in a slower group but I wasn't in the slowest group (woo hoo!).

It was funny if the person in front went too slow you really struggled to get up the dune and eventually there would be a backlog of people and someone would get stuck in the sand. This didn't happen to Johns group because they were quick but there was one point in my group that people kept getting stuck for about ten minutes, the poor guide had to keep digging someone out and then somebody else would get stuck, then another- he must have been knackered running up and down digging. We all kept trying to apologise when we got stuck but it was too funny! There wasn't a lot you could do to help- I found out the wrong way that revving wasn't the thing to do as loads of sand got flung up behind the bike and into his face, I was facing the wrong way so I didn't see and Jo and Sam had to shout to tell me to stop- but they were laughing too much to understand- I felt horrible and at the end he was really nice about it bless him! Sometimes people would get stuck and you would have enough time to see it happening and burn around them, which made you feel quite guilty leaving them behind but if somebody got stuck eventually the guide would realise someone was missing and the whole group would stop while he went to rescue them. By the end of the quadding my group didn't get stuck much… I think we became champion quadders! We had a wicked time and were quite tempted to do it again. Oh yes and existing customers (they had a wall of fame) include The Jolie-Pitt family and Wesley Snipes- wow! (Sabrina I think you're the only one that will appreciate that one!).

John's day continued to get better (mine not so much… I know what your thinking but we didn't go sandboarding again) we went to a bar to watch Man U v Arsenal and then we went for a meal at the Italians (there were lots of restaurants to choose from but we were pretty partial to this one) and John and Carl got the biggest meal of ribs and chicken I have ever seen it was great!' We had a good drink and a good feed then headed back home… obviously stopping to climb a huge statue of an elephant first...to a bed!

Kayaking is one Glamorous Scene

The next day I got up bright and early to go sea kayaking with the seals, while John slept the hangover off- lucky thing! Sam, Roy and I were really rough but by the time we got to the beach we were picking up. We had to wear the most ridiculous waterproof outfits including a yellow fisherman's hat and we jumped in our kayaks and off we went. It was great (quite hard work on the arms though) we saw lots of seals and they were really playful and splashed around the kayak and we saw a dolphin fin- it didn't jump up though. The kayaking itself was good fun and at some points you went through choppy water and you got thrown about. We also saw lots of flamingoes-bizarre!T hen we were given sandwiches and coffee and we drove back to the hostel. John had gone for a walk around town by himself and then we both went for a wander down the coast and went to a beautiful converted boat restaurant and both ate delicious fish dishes. We just spent the rest of the day wandering around town and John's favourite part (or maybes not) was the jewellery shopping at the craft markets. The town is so nice! That night we walked into town ordered a pizza and took it back and ate in the bar and just had a quiet one. This was our last day in Swakopmund we left the following morning to head for Soussveli.