Sossusvlei and Sandboarding

Hi everyone,

Last weekend I went on a trip to Sossusvlei and then to the coast town Swakopmund. Namibia is a small country in terms of population (around 2 million people) but extremely large in area. We spent about 17 hours of the weekend en route to our destinations. Sossusvlei is renown for its sand dunes. We woke up at 4:30 in the morning to climb the dune in time for sunrise, and the views were breathtaking. The hike wasn't far, but each step in sand feels like two steps, and going uphill meant that our feet would slide down half a step for each full step we took. The morning sunlight gave a rust color to the sand, and contrasted with black shadows on the opposite sides of dunes.

After a quick breakfast, we stopped by a random canyon where we hiked through crevices until we hit water.

We then made our trek over to Swakopmund. We drove for hours without seeing any semblance of civilization, just brush and clay. We camped out for the night and got a full nights sleep. Sunday morning we woke up and immediately went to the dunes by the ocean for sandboarding. A tour company provided boards and instructors. The boards were basically snowboards, the trick was to wax them after every run. The sand slows you more than snow, so its more like boarding in deep powder. To keep good momentum you really just have to go barrel straight down. After a few runs I mustered up the courage to take on a jump, something I wouldn't normally do snowboarding...but how often are you sandboarding in Namibia? There is a great video of this I'm trying to get my hands on and I'll post it as soon as I do.

After sandboarding we got an extra run on pieces of cardboard. It really reminded me of being a kid with my bros at Tutor Court. We would kneel on pieces of cardboard and head down the hill next to our house. The idea was similar, but the sand dune we went down was really large and steep, and you lay down on the board and bend the front up slightly. The result is a smooth glide over the sand with your face just inches from ground. Again, I will post a video of this soon. The only real problem with sandboarding was the lack of chairlifts. After each run you walk back up the dune, which was a pretty good workout.

Anyway, I had an amazing weekend and am looking forward to more fun travel after my program ends.