A small change of plan this morning saw us drive straight to Swakopmund so that Zac could see a doctor. We were meant to be doing a bush camp at Skitskoppe however as his chest is still in pain and has been for 6 days it was decided that better safe than sorry and get him to a doctor.

Ruth came into her own today when I offered to go to the doctor with Zac and she said 'well I am certainly not going, I can't stomach another hospital'. My thought, wow, you are really excelling at your tour leader role at present. She then further damaged her reputation and likability in the group when she decided to have the truck drive straight to the adventure activity office and subject us all to a 45 minute presentation and book activities before casually mentioning to Zac and I that she is not sure where the doctors/hospital is and that well the truck needed to get to the hostel so it is up to us what we wanted to do. As we walked out of the office door to find a taxi or walk to a hospital we were too stunned to talk. Sorry Ruth, when you got sick we had to park the truck outside a doctors office and sit for 6.5 hours until you were ready to rejoin the truck - when a paying customer gets sick you simply let us walk to the doctor which you refuse to assist with any information on, even though you are supposedly the person we should turn to in a crisis. Her tip has now reached negative figures and by the end of the tour I think I will need to invoice her for my tip to compensate for the inconvenience and additional stress she has caused me on this tour.

We were all rather excited about Swakopmund as we are in a hostel and therefore have a bed for 4 nights! However after waking in a hot sweat on the first two nights of our stay due to no fans or air con, the attraction was waning. A few swift words with reception and we had 2 fans in our dorm room. The third night was thankfully much more comfortable.

On my first day in Swakopmund I decided that I would participate in my first ever tandem sky dive from 10,000 feet. Slight disappointment when the jumpsuits only came in pink in extra small, however after finding an ok blue suit I was ready to go up. We hopped into the smallest plan in the world and our instructors snuggled us all the way up to the drop zone. My instructor was very impressed with how calm I was, however I figured best be calm and he jumps on average 3 times per day and is still walking, talking and smiling, so there must be something good about this sport. I was first to jump out of our plane followed by 2 individual jumpers and then Claire doing her tandem jump. As they say - you can't explain a sky dive to someone who has not done one, but I can say that it was amazing. A completely different feeling to the bungee or gorge swing, or anything I have ever done. 30 second free fall, 5 minute parachute glide and we were down. Loved when Derick stalled our parachute in the air; you felt completely weightless but not in a bad aeroplane turbulence way, but a floating bird type way.

The afternoon was spent wandering why Oasis were hell-bent on leaving us all with a really bad feeling about them so near the end of our trip. Zac had a call from the owner of Oasis today to say that if he touched a sandboard that he would be kicked off the truck as he was on prescription medication and they did not want to take that risk. This was despite the fact that the doctor has confirmed that Zac is ok to sandboard and continue with the trip and that he is on a prescription of antacid tablets! We can only presume that Ruth has spun an amazing story about Zac's chest pain and once again completely failed in the realm of communication. The fact that she is employed by Oasis is to my mind an embarrassment to the company.

Swakopmund is a very German town and the most western we have come across to date. It is a little strange however when you walk around and you are basically the only ones on the street. But I am enjoying being able to go to coffee shops and eat fresh and quite normal food for not too much money. It is however a little more expensive than the rest of Africa has been to date.

I also did a township tour whilst here. The township is a hangover from the days of Apartheid which also affected Namibia as it was ruled by South Africa during that time. A local lad who has grown up in the township took me on a 4 tour. He still lives in the township and doesn't want to leave as it has a real sense of community and he can't imagine living anywhere else. Having been to townships in Capetown and Johannesburg the township here was just like a normal town and didn't have anywhere near the poverty I have seen elsewhere in the past. Nowdays anyone can live in the township however it is still relatively black, but it is determined by how much money you have as to where you live and not what colour your skin or which tribe you belong.

The residents had access to water and electricity in their houses. The apartheid houses were 2 bedroom, kitchen and dining room. The residents then allowed others to build makeshift houses in their backyards and pay them rent. Toilets used to be outside, but most houses now have them inside. Electricity is expensive as it is from South Africa, it can be pre-paid or on account. Water is sold through a card system and costs 25c for 20 litres. Michael told me that an average household needs 40 litres per day, so water is considered cheap. 95% of the residents take bucket showers with a bucket balanced on the lid of their toilet and they use the toilet shack as their shower. This made me feel like we are rather precious and spoilt with our tiled bathrooms, baths and showers!

I also got to go to Michaels house to see inside a typical house and his backyard where he has 11 additional people living. He explained how he inherited his house from his grandmother and that some of the residents in the backyard had been there since he was a boy. He charges each shack 250 Namibian dollars per month whereby he spends 100 on water, 100 on electricity and just gets 50 profit from each of the 5 households in his garden.

We also went to a school and I had a chance to take photos, hand out sweets and talk to children. It was strange just being able to walk into classes, interrupt classes all just because I was a white tourist.

We finished our tour with lunch where Michael fed me some local cuisine. We had maize porridge that was like a soft cake that you had with your other dishes. We also had spinach (which crunched a little with dirt), beef (delicious) and lung (not so delicious). I tried a drink made from maize that was like a local softdrink but I can honestly say that it was not to my liking, especially on my first sip when I was expecting cold and it was room temperature. I also learnt that the locals make beer from sorghum so think that when I get home we can get a few batches brewing as it only requires sorghum, water and sugar with 3 days of brewing.

Overall Swakopmund has been a blast and I will be sad to go. Some great restaurants, enormous German size portions and a bed!!