Driving on Sand

Swakopmund, Namibia

Hi, it's Dex.  In the morning, after a great night sleep in the rooftop tent, we decided to look for something fun to do.  Yesterday, Mom and Dad had heard that there were some really fun tourist activities here in town, like camel riding, sand boarding and ATV rentals.  So early this morning, Kylie and Dad walked to Desert Explorers and arranged a combo tour of ATV and sand boarding at 10 a.m.  Mom and I met them there.  Kylie showed me two parrots whose feathers were yellow on one side and blue on the other.  One of them was really funny and had a sort of dance move.  He bobbed his head up and down and stuck his tongue out of his mouth and wiggled it around. 

When we met our instructor, B1 (no, literally, that was how he showed to say his name), he gave us a hair net and we joked about how silly we looked.  We each got helmets and then he showed us to our ATV’s.  Like the tandems, I got on with Mom, but we weren’t quite sure what to do.  B1 came back on his own ATV and showed us the basics.  At first, I wasn’t so excited because we were on a paved road and I didn’t see any trails leading off into the dunes.  After a couple of minutes we turned off into the sand dunes.  I was so excited!  It was really fun being on the dunes themselves.  B1 started us out a little easy, but seeing that Mom and Dad were really good drivers, he started taking us out on more steep dunes.  I’m glad we were following him, because the few trails there were made no sense to me, and I would have gotten hopelessly lost somewhere out there.  My favorite part was when we rode straight up on the sand dunes and then turned sharply and sped back down.  We did that for about an hour until B1 stopped at one particular dune.  

It didn’t seem that impressive.  I asked where we were going to slide, and he told me to look over the little ridge where I saw a huge bowl that looked about 80 feet deep.  B1 had been carrying our thin rectangular pieces of fiber board as we rode, and he took them off his bike and began waxing them.  When he was done, we walked over to the rim and he showed us how to properly bend up the front edge of the board so that it would slide.  He told Dad to go first so that he could video tape the rest of us coming down.  I was stunned at how fast Dad went and I couldn’t wait to go.  I was able to go next.  B1 made sure I could pull up on the board properly before pushing me.  It was AWESOME, absolutely awesome!  I flew down the hill screaming most of the way and felt like I was going 100 miles an hour.  It was amazing how light the board felt, and once you were moving, you didn’t even think about putting the front edge down.  I didn’t get as far as Dad, but still, I went pretty dang far for being on a board.  Kylie went next and then Mom.  It was super fun and we were all eager to go again.  After a couple more runs, B1 asked if we’d like to go on a higher slope, and naturally we said, "Of course!" 

Dad went first again on the big hill.  I thought the first hill was fun, but the second hill was so awesome because the extra 20 feet helped me go a lot farther.  On the way back to the office, Kylie and I were able to drive most of way.  Even thought we weren’t on a hilly road, it was still super fun, and I was amazed at how easy it was to drive.  I never had to put my hand on the brake, just adjust the speed.  I probably should have tested the brake once, because when we were done, I didn’t know how to stop the bike, so Mom reached over my shoulder to stop us.

After having lunch back at our campsite, Mom and Dad decided to get groceries and let Kylie and I play a game with our marbles in a sandy area outside the campground.  Kylie and I had a lot of fun  making marble ramps.  When Mom and Dad came back, they asked if we’d rather have apple pie or see the Pfyffers.  We said "Pfyffers."  Then Dad said, "How about both?"  They had unexpectedly run into them at the grocery store.  Kylie and I jumped up from our marble game and ran to the car to go meet them at a bakery.

As soon as we parked our car near the bakery, a man approached us and asked Kylie and me what our names were.  He then proceeded to bring out two small “rocks” and chipped our names into them (we think they were really nuts).  After a little bit of bargaining (Mom’s note:  not enough bargaining), we got our very own inscribed nuts, mine with an elephant and a giraffe carved into it, Kylie's with an elephant and a rhino.  They were really cool and we like them a lot.

While the parents talked, we played out in a bird sanctuary where there were a bunch of bird cages, and we were able to pet some of the parrots.  One blue macaw was really funny and liked to hang by one of his claws on the top of the cage.  We all had a laughing fit when he did that.  We also played tag right outside the store on the long, thin strip of grass that was available.  I was so glad to be back with Louis, Arno and Mathilde. 

Afterwards the whole crew went clothes shopping, nearly everyone got an item they needed.  I finally got a pair of pants!  We walked a couple more blocks together and then said our final goodbyes and hugged everyone.  I am so glad that we’ve gotten to meet them.  If we're lucky, we may get to see them again in Asia.  At least I hope so.