Fun Day at the Coast; Fri. 11/6/10

Baboons near the road.

“How many are your works, Lord!  In wisdom You made them all.”  Psalm 100:3

We were up and on the road at 6 a.m.  We were headed to Swakopmund to the dunes and beach.  It is a 4 hour drive.  We really enjoyed the scenery.  We saw tall termaite hills, baboons, a meerkat, kudu, warthogs, cows and even giraffes.  The road to the coast is almost completely straight and well-maintained.  We passed various construction crews for large areas that are being resurfaced.

Arriving at Dune 7

We went through Swakopmund (it’s a coastal city that looks similar to many other beach towns—lots of condos by the shore, etc.)  and continued on to Walvis Bay so we could climb Dune 7. 

That's Lisa & Nicole in foreground, toiling up the dune.

It took some doing to climb up because it was very steep and the sand was quite hot—especially for those who were climbing in flip flops rather than sneakers. 

View from the top

After making it to the top (many on all-fours), there was a cool, refreshing breeze and a gorgeous view with huge dunes in every direction.  The blend of sand, ocean and sky was magnificent.  God’s creation is so varied and beautiful and this is part of it most of us never thought we would experience. 

On top of the world: Calvin, Myron, Chad, Bob E.

After relishing our dune-top experience, we were able to giant-step our way back down.  It was so much fun to come down slide-leaping/running the whole way.  It was definitely worth the climb up and the fact that we had sand everywhere on us by the time we were done.

Another amazing dune

As we drove back toward Swakopmund, some fog rolled in and the air turned quite cool.  I was glad for the fleece jacket I had with me.  Some of our group went 4-wheeling on the dunes, while the rest of us went to see the beach.  Those who 4-wheeled said it was fantastic.  Some of us dipped our toes into a very cold Atlantic Ocean.  A couple of people even got to see a seal close up.

Most of the guys then visited a Go Cart track.  They had a great time with that, although they were rather disappointed that the computer wasn’t working to assess their time  so they could determine their standings.  Even so, I heard lots of reports of who lapped who! 

By this time, it was mid-afternoon and time to begin the 4-hour drive back to Windhoek.  We were using two minivans for this excursion, with Brian behind the wheel of the second one.  He didn’t seem to have any trouble remembering to drive on the left!  It seemed a long way “home” but the scenery was absolutely breath-taking as the sun was sinking behind the mountains as we neared Windhoek.  The light on the hills was amazing. 

Sunset on the way back

We made it back in time for our 8:00 reservations at Joe's Beer House in Windhoek.  The place was packed!  We enjoyed how this restaurant was decorated.  It was a lot of fun.  They had lots of game meat to choose from and we all shared around bites of this and that so people could taste everything.  Among us we had zebra, kudu, ostrich, gembok, crocodile, oryx... Most people liked ostrich best, with zebra as a close second.  It sure was a great "Fun Day"!