So we left the seals and had lunch at the salt plain, no i didnt put it on my tomato and headed for swakopmund. Everyone was looking forward to this stop as we would be in a hostel for three nights, yes that is three nights. Three nights of not having to put up and take down a tent, what bliss.

The next three days were to be full of action, that is sandboarding, quad biking and skydiving. I momnetarily thought well should i be spending this money but hey when in Africa you have to do these things it is so cheap. So we had an introductory video to the different things we could do but I did not need much convincing and i was not long before we had coerced the entire group into doing the sky dive... brilliant.

That all booked we headed out for dinner. our tour guide had already got onto the wine and everyone had dressed up for the occasion as there was only a small amoutn of sand to be found around about the place rather than lying on it as we generally did when camping. we headed to an Italian restraunt where im afraid to say we ruined the ambience for a couple sitting having a romantic meal for two. did we feel bad? well i did a little but that was an error on the managers part as he sat us there he should have put us in the corner. Martina our tour guide was a little tipsy by this point as was our driver billy (its ok he wasnt driving for another 3 days). It was not long into the meal when they both had to go, that was after martina had thrown half of her springbok steak at me across the table. I tried a bit though it was very nice.

The rest of us stayed up and had desert and a few more drinks but then as it had been a long days drive we went to bed, the next day was to incorporate sandboarding and skydiving, brilliant.

So they picked us up to go sandboarding, now it was sandy and windy...... is it any wonder my camera broke at this point hmmmmm what a div i am. Oh well i did not let it spoil my fun, i carried on trying to sand board.... note the word try. i felt like i was going at like 50 miles an hour but on the dvd it is quite embarassing it is more like 0.50 mph, when anyone watches the dvdback at home i think i might just die of embarrasment, there is no way i can defend the turtle speed that i was going at... there is just no way at all. We tried out flatboarding too where basically you just lay on a flat bit of wood and hurtle yourself down the hill, there is no control involved in this activity and you put your life into the hands of a bit of ply wood, stupid eh but fun all the same. I have to say that I preferred the sandboarding but you probably would have guessed that anyway.

Going down the hills was a blast, it was the trek back up that took it out of you one step forward, two steps back, I didnt half work up a sweat. So after such hard work we boarded our way to the foot of the dune where a sandwhich and cold beer awaited us..... magic. As if that was not enough action for the day we were shuttled back to the hostel where we had a short time before we were picked up for sky diving. Tension was beginning to escalate amongst some of the group members especiallt\y those who had not done it before. The brilliant thing was that the entire group was doing it so it would be an adrenaline packed afternoon for everyone.

So we headed to the sky diving centre where we were assigned tandem masters and again signed our lives away!! This was becoming a regular occurence, someone up there does love me... well I have stayed safe so far...... touch wood. Then it was just a matter of waiting, funny I did not really feel nervous at all, probably becuase I knew what to expect. It was a really good afternoon, everybody made it down safely and there was even a marriage proposal... no not for me but an Australian couple Kathryn and Shane, it was all very well organised the guys made sure Shane went out first and after Katheryn had landed he did the chivalrous thing and got down on one knee. Who said romance was dead!!!.  Lucy she said yes because apparently he has joked around quite a lot before, but all went to plan. They are planning to get married on the greek islands, we asked if they would min\d if we crashed the wedding!.

The skydive was cool it was a little different to before with the scenery being the magnificent dunes but also it was cloudy and it was a really wierd sensation falling through the clouds, my face got a little damp. Thenlanding was uneventful but as my tandem master was about half a foot shorter than me it was a bit of a struggle to get up off the floor, I gave the others a laugh anyway.

You would think that after such an action packed day that would be it but no we had to go and relive the events of sandboarding in a busy pub here they [layed the dvd for all to see, you can imagine that I was embarassed as remember how i mentioned how slowly i went. It looked even worse on dvd!. At that point I wish I were infact a turtle as i could have hisdden my head in my shell, instead i had to make do with my jumper. Anyway with that torture over we headed back to the hostel and went out for dinner folowed by a few drinks with the locals, some very interesting characters, funnily enough everyone seems to know Birmingham? why I do not know. Anyhow at about 2am we went to bed to get some rest for the following days activities.

Quad bikin was on the menu for the third day in this action packed town. I ended up in the slow group, why I ask myself, I did get a little inpatient at times and found myself cursing the silver haired lady infront for nearly making me stop on a hill, oh well at least there were no injuries and I had sped my way to the fron by the end of the tour!! That was fun however my friend fell off and hurt her elbow, i tell you these backpacker types are keeping my skills up for hen I get back to work!

After a few adrenaline filled days we were about ready to continue on our merry way, we only had a fw quiet bevrages that evening as the next day was to be a riduiculously early start!