The whole day is free to relax, explore or partake in one of the many activities available here. Most popular activities are quad biking in the dunes or tandem skydiving. On a clear day’s skydiving you can see all the way to the next day’s destination! Taking a walk around Swakopmund’s shops and having a leisurely lunch is also a great way to spend your day.
Optional Activities: Quad biking, sand boarding, sky diving, dinner out etc.
Meals: Breakfast
31st of December 2013
It was nice to wake up in a room with ensuite, a treat after a few days in a tent. First business of the day was to get into the post office at 8am and finally get rid of our package of souvenirs we had carried from Cape Town. Hopefully our box of treasure will get home a few weeks after we do! Once that was taken care of we walked back to the Amanpuri Lodge for breakfast.
We were collected at 10am by the guys from desert adventures, and headed off for our quad biking trip. The crew that was going quad biking was Waneta & Craig, (the South African couple) Isabella and Beatrix (the young Swedish girls) Needy, (the Kenyan living in Australia) Annabell and Joram, Lisa & me. We had booked a one hour tour because we wanted time to veg out in the afternoon. We were asked how many of the group had previously ridden a quad bike, the answer Joram once, Lisa a few times and I had ridden several times before. The others were all quad bike virgins. It was not looking good for a real adrenaline rush, the next question was who wanted a manual quad and who wanted the auto. Everyone but me wanted an auto, I knew then that it was confirmed that it was not going to be huge adrenaline rush.
It was good fun riding through the dunes and was obviously very popular as we saw several other groups of quad bikes around. We were instructed to always stay in the leaders wheel tracks and follow his instructions or run the high risk of a hospital visit, our guide was really big on the whole safety thing and not killing a tourist. But this did not stop me from cutting loose as much as possible, doing fishtails etc to make things more exciting. I also got to slide the quad a few times and get it airbourne once or twice. Some of the gang thought the tour guide went abit too slow, but everyone had fun, and it was worth the grit between the teeth. Unfortunately the tour guide would only go as fast as our slowest team member this turned out to be several of the team, which included Lisa and the new Captain Slow, Craig!!! (at least Craig had a reason, he'd never ridden a quad before) The dunes in this area are very stable because they are subject to opposing winds which balance out the sand movement, and make it to safe to ride on them.
After quad biking it was time to wander into town again and find some lunch. We found a cute cafe were they had post it notes all over the walls with New Years resolutions written on them, some of which were pretty funny. I had the Banana and honey pancakes which was divine.
We tried to find a place to cut my hair, but being New Years Eve lots of businesses were closing at midday, so no luck there. The rest of the afternoon was just hanging out and using the Wi-fi to catch up with things.
We had a group dinner in town to celebrate New Years Eve, the service was better than the night before and I think everyone enjoyed their meals. Lisa's oryx meatballs and spaghetti was very nice and my smoked salmon pasta was good also. After dinner and a few drinks most of the group moved into the attached bar/dance floor and danced and had a few more drinks and eventually saw in the New Year. I used it as an opportunity to get in a cardio workout, and bounced around like the Energizer Bunny for most of the night, leaving myself dripping with sweat.
The guide from the accommodated Nomad tour was there, and Anja ended up pinching his multicoloured flashing light stick and using it to order people around, and conduct some limbo contests. We had a good time, but as soon as the New Year was rung in most of us headed quickly back to the lodge and to bed. We were delayed briefly by being unable to get the street door unlocked, but I climbed the fence and Joram and I were able to get the rest of them off the street.
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