Swakopmund, Namibia

We arrive in Swakopmund and are like wide eyed bushmen setting their sights on a big city for the first time. After almost two weeks camping in the middle of nowhere, this is the largest and most civilised town we've seen since leaving Australia!

Swakopmund was founded by the Germans in 1892 and their influence is still prevalent today. The town has no shortage of pubs, coffee shops, restaurants and arts and crafts shops. It really does have quite the European vibe to it. On one side of the town is one very chilly Atlantic Ocean, the remainder of the town is surrounded by sand dunes.

On our way to the hostel (first time of the trip we don't have to pitch tents, as the accommodation doesn't have a camping ground), we stop in at the adventure/activities booking place to peruse the menu of activities on offer. We've really only got a day to fit in activities and want to experience as much of this location as possible, so we choose the living desert tour, quad biking and sand boarding.

After checking in at the hostel, we head out into town for some supplies and afternoon tea. We try our luck at a Cafe and are rewarded with good coffee and an even better German apple crumble. We wander around town for a little while then head back to get ready for dinner, our first dining out experience since leaving Vic Falls.

We meet the group at reception and almost don't recognise each other, having been able to properly wash off all the dirt and smell you just can't shake whilst camping.

A short walk and we've arrived at Napolitana, an Italian restaurant, of all places. Swakopmund is an interesting place, to say the least. Neapolitana offers your standard Italian fair, but with game meat options. Jeff settles on an Oryx pizza. The game is good. Bellies now full and happy, we head next door to the club, Naps.

It's still relatively early and we're debating whether to stay or not, as the music being cranked by the DJ is that of a wedding, as opposed to a nightclub. That, combined with a guy shadow boxing at a table and a woman practically making love to a speaker and we're convinced our overlanding crew are a bunch of Weirdos. After about an hour, the place is rammed and the music's drastically improved. We have a few more drinks and a dance, it's fun watching our crew let their hair down. We call it quits around 1am.

Day 2

Cursing ourselves for not going home earlier (as usual), we drag ourselves out of bed early for our living desert tour (or dying desert tour, in Courts' state). We head to the dunes only a short drive from the hostel and firstly stop off at an old horse graveyard. In WW1, a heap of horses contracted some sort of disease. The disease was spreading too rapidly and they couldn't wait any longer for the vet to arrive from South Africa and so all the horses were shot and buried in the dunes. There are still remnants of the bones and skulls of the horses.

The tour continues and we see a baby Chameleon, sand diving lizard (amongst others), side winding mum and baby snake (these snakes are unique as they slither sideways), a couple of ugly beetles and two wild birds which actually eat food out of your hand. The guides bring meal worms to entice the Chameleon into moving, but sometimes they don't eat the worms and the birds will swoop in for an easy feed. The birds are smart enough to realise where the worms come from, so they practically fly into the 4X4, knowing the guide will be packing them.

We don't get to see any scorpions, as the weather is not hot enough. In fact, Swakopmund is freezing in comparison to everywhere else we've been up until this point. Jeff is under prepared, as usual, and has to borrow a nice purple jacket from a lady German tourist. It suits him.

We find an iconic !Nara plant, native to the Namib desert. A thorny, green bush with a melon fruit that is just as thorny.

We head back for a quick lunch, then it's off to quads and sand boarding. We get our helmets fitted, a quick 'how to' on quad bike riding and we're off. We hit the sand dunes pretty much straight away. Jeff's going gang busters, fishtailing, going up as high as the previous tracks in the sand allow, while Courts is much more reserved, only going as fast as is needed to keep up, and cutting the corners where possible.

We ride for an hour, then it's time to sand board. The dune of choice is what can only be described as a vertical drop. 'Not possible', Courts thinks. Jeff is the first to go down. The dune is huge. But it's only a matter of seconds of sand boarding before you're at the bottom. Courts has completely talked herself out of it, until she's the only one in the group not to have done it. FOMO gets the better of her and down she goes. Once is enough, she says. The others have a few go's, including a middle aged woman who takes a tremendous stack on her second shot, which has us all in stitches. She takes it well.

Jeff has a pretty good stack as well. Face and eyes full of sand. He didn't listen to the "stick feet in sand if going sideways" tip.

After an hour of boarding we get back on the bikes for another hour long ride back. The sunset is beautiful, as we've come to expect.

After a full on day of activities, it's time for some grub. We wander around town until we settle on a German saloon style restaurant. Jeff continues on his own personal game drive and orders a mixed platter of springbok, oryx and zebra. Courts settles for a regular beef steak. The meats are delicious, as are the huge steins of beer. We love Germany.

After dinner, in true Jeff and Courts travelling style, we head to the casino. We're pleasantly surprised to find the casino is more than just a heap of pokies, there is even a Poker tournament in progress. We're even more surprised at the lax rules at the table - mobile phones out and clumsy dealers struggling with the reshuffle (forgot a few cards? Ah well) . All part of the experience. We don't complain when Jeff comes out on top at Black Jack, with a couple new chips for the collection. We head back to the hostel to sleep off our successfully hectic day.