Sandboarding & Skydiving @Swakopmund

April 18^th & 19^th mornings

2 nights in the same town, pampering myself with an upgrade to a private room, wow, feels good :-). The city here became the Namibian capital of adreline sports, and the group has booked few things to do.

On Thursday morning, I go sandboarding with Kara & Lybie, to see what it is to board on the sand vs. snow.1^st thing noticed… well going back to the desert and the dunes is really cool. Here, close to the coast, dunes are more yellow, and from the top we can see the ocean, some other breathtaking views, which will be great surroundings to sandboard!

 The dunes to sandboard just 5mn away from town, yellow this time!

Great view at the top, can see the Atlantic ocean after the 2km of dunes landscape 

 Tough to hike up this 80m high dune, but you get used to it quickly

Laid-down ride on a basic wood board... wow, you can go down as fast as 70-80 km/h like this! 
 Trying few jumps to get some excitement

The only change vs. snowboard, except that I am not wearing as much layers of clothes... is the board which has been waxed with a kind of plastic layer at the bottom to glide better and faster on the sand. Quite easy otherwise when you snowboard to go down the slope, just a bit harder to turn and to take speed. Quickly try to jump, not too tough either, actually feeling safer on the sand than snow.

The big limiting factor… well, after every run you have to hike up the 90m dune again… so when you have done it 7-8 times, a stop is easy to do! Good experience, happy to have try it.

End afternoon, it is too windy to skydive so we end up walking around the city… quite more developed than what you would expect in the middle of Nambia. The coast line is pretty with nice houses, and there are lucky kitesurfers enjoying the strong wind and big waves.

On Friday morning, the all team has signed up for a skydive jump, really cool to be all together doing it, it adds to the fun. I had already discovered this crazy but great sport thanks to my brother in 2011, and very happy to try again above the Namib dunes. While the jump itself is shorter than my 1^st, “only” from 3 Km vs. 4,  the views from the plane and free-falling are amazing. Of course, quite some good feelings too!!! :-)

Briefing in the middle of the desert 

 Jumping with Duncan, our tour leader. Not even afraid! ;)

 

Got some more pics from the planes... will upload later