Swakopmund - Day Two

The past 24 hours here in Swakopmund have been unbelievable. We hit the sand dunes yesterday for quad biking and then this morning seven of us headed out for, drumroll please....SKYDIVING!

It was the first time for all of us and when we saw it was an activity, we just had to do it. We were all a little nervous, particularly last night and this morning before they picked us up, but once we got there and met the people we were jumping with, it was smooth sailing. Well that and we all had a beer before we jumped. (That's me with Jared from Wilmington, NC at the skydive center. We're drinking beer under a sign that says, "No drinking and skydiving.")

As for the jump, they flew us up to 10,000 feet and we did a freefall for 30 seconds until we hit 5,000 feet. They told us at the point where they pulled the parachute, we were doing roughly 125 mph. The view was incredible as we could see the ocean and the Namib Desert we quad biked on yesterday. I even got to steer us around a little bit in a few circles. I was the first one of our group to go, with Jared, one of the guys on my trip being the second. The others went in planes after us, so we just hung out and had a few beers until everyone was done. We all got videos of our dives, so tonight the entire group wants to watch them with us before we go to dinner.

We all just grabbed lunch and I think the beer and the adrenaline are starting to wear off a little, we're pretty tired.

As for yesterday, quad biking was awesome. I grew up with one, so that was nothing new, but to drive around for two hours on the sand dunes was incredible. We did about 30 miles through the dunes and climbed up and over them, drove up and on the sides of some steep angled ones and just flew through the desert for the rest of the time. It was a lot of fun, but really couldn't compare to the excitement of skydiving today.

Tonight we all head to dinner as a group and then leave tomorrow for a few more days of camping. Included in that will be two days of doing game drives in Etosha National Park in northern Namibia. So far we've seen a good amount of animals, but we should really get to see a lot more once we get to the park. The animals we've seen so far include: Baboons, Zebra, Camels, Springbok, Kudu, Eland and Oryx. The last four are all types of antelope.

Well, that's about all for now. Below are a few pictures from the trip. I only have my small camera with me right now, so you'll have to wait for more of the scenic photos when I got back. Hope you enjoy. Talk to you all in a few days when we get back to Namibia's capital city, Windhoek.

Apparently Howard Kalin has fans in Paris too. His t-shirt is the biggest thing to hit there since the German Army!

At a lunch stop in the middle of the Namib Desert yesterday. This is the van we've been driving around in since we left Cape Town.

On our way too Swakopmund we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn and stopped for some photos.

The view from the plane, looking out over the coast, the sand dunes and the town of Swakopmund.