fresh out of the best weekend of my life, literally. i cannot recount on here how many times i simply threw my head back and laughed in overwhelming joy at how wonderful life can be.
after the long haul out there through nothing but desert, seeing the ocean was a fantastic of scenery. it is SO BIG and i could totally see brazil far on the other end. we ate dinner at a fancy pub on the ocean called "the lighthouse" and the food was amazing, capped off with a too chocolatey slice of delicious cake. i couldn't wait to get into that ocean water... so...
yup. we went skinny dipping. at 10 pm at night. hello atlantic, now that we're personal, lets be friends?
i can't believe i actually did that.
thursday was filled with even more adventures. the man in charge of the program here, urbanus dax, a pleasantly plump man who would make a great grandpa, actually has an elementary school named after him on the coast. we visited the school and heard about his work there in the 1990s. urb sure gets around. then we ventured to the world's largest uranium mine! to me, it looked just about the same as the rock quarry on i94, but i guess this was cooler. nuclear war is cool. or something.
we had a tour of swakop, through the black townships and to the ocean :) looks a little different during the day! we saw the hospital where angelina jolie adopted her namibia children. i did some shopping in the cute downtown shops and then we had a picnic on the beach, complete with cheese, crackers, salmon, and cheap wine. the sunset was absolutely phenomenal. we ended the night with a bonfire on the beach.
friday we traveled to walvis bay, the main port of namibia's coast, about 30 km south of swakopmund. we visited the municipality and heard some speakers talk about infrastructure, city planning, and environmental concerns. i really liked the building we were in because everything is themed around the ocean! lots of anchors and the like. we actually got to go to the harbor where all of the international ships come in. it was SO cool! i've never seen such big sea vessels. i felt like i was playing battleship when i looked out in the horizon. b12?
then we tackled dune 7, a popular attraction for silly tourists like myself. it was basically a giant sand dune, part of God's infinite sandbox. it made the dunes of lake michigan look like sand castles. after struggling to get to the top, i could hardly believe my eyes! there was sand everywhere! i really felt like i was starring in a real life version of aladdin, i thought for sure the cave of wonders was going to pop up in any second! we climbed all over the dunes, but my favorite part was the run down. you go so fast and can't help it! then you trip and fall and roll around and think its hilarious.
saturday will live in infamy. we woke up early to be picked up by leon, a native afrikaner namibian who was taken me and 7 of my friends to kayak in the ocean at a seal colony! we drove all the way out to "pelican point," which basically consisted of nothing but sand with water on both sides, it was so deserted. then we saw them - the SEALS. in the hundreds! so many seals! it is actually a safe haven for them because the water is too murky for sharks to see them - they have no natural enemies except death itself. we put on our water clothes and water shoes and pushed off shore. the uss happy feet, with captain megan lee and first mate rachel dahlgren was in action. the seals were everywhere, and so friendly and playful. they would come right up to us and bite on our paddles, look at us in the face and then splash water at us. they would jump and dive over the bow of our kayak and underneath it.
and it only got better!
we kayaked out into the deep waters (when was this a good idea? surrounded by nothing but the ocean in an 8 foot boat.. awesome) and then...... DOLPHINS JUMPED OUT OF THE WATER!!! ahh! dolphins!! freakin dolphins. i cannot explain my excitement at this. they were so beautiful. if we paddled fast enough, the dolphins would come up and swim in our wake, and RACE US! and win, because well, rach and i suck, but still! they were so cute! they would zigzag beneath our boat and then leap out of the water. i could not believe our amazing luck at seeing such graceful and beautiful creatures!
we also saw jellyfish as round as santa's belly. i called them my squishy. they were... awesome. and we saw pelicans! and jackals. i didn't like the jackals much though. they are lonely scavengers.
as if the day couldn't already be so freakin fabulous, i came back to the house and instantly left to ride a camel! it was hilarious. before we hopped on, the lady in charge wrapped our heads with traditional "egyptian" headgear. i looked pretty sweet. the camels were so amusing, very big and smelly. we strolled out into the desert and i felt like a real live vagabond, save for the man walking alongside us holding a leadrope.
that night i ate fish and chips in honor of my newfound love for the coast.
i am so thankful and blessed to have had such a glorious experience.
photographs:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001146&l=40ca3&id=1166100002
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