WEATHER: Foggy, damp and cooler
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Skydiving over the Namibian Desert
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Not getting a flying suit to fit
BUYS OF THE DAY: The DVD and photos of the skydive
WORD OF THE DAY: TIA Mother Fu*Ker
CAMP SITE RANKING: We are in A-frame houses for the next 3 nights 5 out of 5 stars
Beep beep beep – my alarm went off at 6am and it was still dark. I guess we miscalculated sunrise. Manu was still sleeping soundly next to me, so I let her sleep till 6.30am when the sky started to lighten and the sun finally began to rise. We weren’t too sure if we would be able to see it from where we were, so in the meantime we packed up our gear from our overnight sleep out, changed and headed back to the rocks to finally see the sun rise. It wasn’t as specky as I thought it would be, but another day begins and this is pretty cool in itself to see another day emerge.
I slept on and off during the night under the stars, I thought at one stage in the wee hours that I may have heard some wildlife close by, but it didn’t get too cold and I have to say Manu and I had a wad of fun, like girls on a school camp! The rock pioneers also survived their night higher up, and made it back to land with all their gear non problems. Lisa is lucky enough to say she slept with Sean, Dave and David for the night! Lucky lady.
So with breakfast at 7.30am, we departed the wonderful and mysterious Spitzkopp for the city of Swakopmund at 8am. It is amazing how quickly the landscape changes from a hot and searing day in the sun, to only travelling not even an hour to hit a thick white fog that was rolling in from the Atlantic ocean. We still had to be over 100km away from the ocean, but that is how far it blows in. Amazing. So with a fog comes cooler weather, so the windows stayed closed and out came blankets, hoodies and longer pants. We were told it would be cooler but for it to drop nearly 20C was an impressive drop and made us feel like we weren’t even in Africa anymore.
After a few more hours and a few glimpses of the ocean as we drove we made a pit stop at Cape Cross which is one of the homes to the largest seal colony in Africa. The weather has really turned here and people were pulling out their windbreakers, scarfs and hoodies. It was overcast grey, windy and a bit rainy and really hard to imagine this was still Africa. After checking in at the center, we drove around 5 minutes to the edge of the ocean and where approximately 15,000 seals were all basking in the no sunlight that was around. It was hard to know exactly how many there were, as there were hundreds in the ocean and then bazillions more scattered along the coast. The first thing that hit us as we exited the truck was the smell. It was retchable, it was the worst smell I have encounted in a long time, the seals smelt to high heaven. Disgusting, terrible and whatever other name you would like to call it. GG said that this was nothing compared to what it is like in summer! Ugh, imagine, he had a group come through in December and they stayed approx. 8 minutes, the smell was that bad, that they just wanted to get out of there. So with breathing through my scarf and through the mouth breathing we managed to stay around 25 minutes, before it got too much. I did a dry retch half way around, but was able to compose myself and carry on the rest of the walk. There was a purpose built boardwalk that took you around the biggest section of the seal colony, and even though they were on the nose, it was a pretty amazing sight to see so many seals. They were a noisy bunch and they sounded like a flock of sheep baaa’ing. There were old ones, baby ones, sleeping ones, fighting ones and big fat ones. Some of them were only a meter from the boardwalk, so we were able to get a great look at them, which they didn’t seem to care, and got some great photos in the process. There was also a cross that was erected in 1697 which was where the Portuguese explorer Diego Gao first landed in Africa. So it was a smelly experience, but I am glad we stopped. It was pretty spectacular to see so many seals in their natural environment.
So after 40 minutes we carried down the coast with a brief stop along what they used to call the Skeleton Coast. It was so named after all the ship wrecks that have happened over the last century, but the government decided to clean up the coast and there is now only one ship wreck left, which got stranded about 10 years ago. We got a brief stop here to stretch our legs and get a photo. It wasn’t the greatest shot, as the ship just looked like it was beached, but it was great to get and stretch the legs. I went all the way done to the water and Dave came charging along with the fake intention of pushing me in the water, but he knew better, as he would of come in with me, and so he just did a chase down the beach for a few meters. We dipped out feet into the water though, and it was cold, but not freezing as you would expect, so we had now swum in the Indian Ocean on one side of Africa and we had now dipped our feet in the Atlantic Ocean on the other side of the continent. Pretty cool.
We arrived into Swakopmund around 1pm. Our next 3 nights are going to be spent in A-frame homes, so no tents, which is a pretty exciting aspect and we are all looking forward to being in one place for 3 whole nights. I think you need these extended stops every week or 10 days just to recharge and relax a little bit. We got split into 3 groups, so the gals got an A-frame, 4 of us upstairs and Pam downstairs and the boys just got a boring ol’ unit near the truck. We got a sitting room, a small kitchen with a fridge and our own toilet and shower!!! Heaven! So after we had checked in, unloaded all our crap, we got taken the 5 minute drive back to town to have lunch and to meet back up at the activity center in 45 minutes. Well I hate to say, but I am not embarrassed we had Kentucky Fried Chicken for lunch and it was AMAZING. I would have KFC over Macca’s any day, but it was just what the tummy ordered and I have to say I really enjoyed it.
Manu and I have had BIG plans for the activities that were on offer here in Swakopmund and we were pretty excited about our next few days. So as a group we met at Far Out watched a video on all the activities and then you sign your life away on the ones you want to do. So on our list was skydiving, an acrobatic flight, a village walk and lastly a quad bike ride in the Namibian sand dunes. So after we had let them know what we wanted to do, the weather outside was clearing up, and she suggested that we do the skydiving this afternoon, as the weather can be quite temperamental in Swakopmund. So we said sure, she said the skydiving company will be here in 15 minutes! What!!! Wait I’m not ready, 15 minutes? I don’t have the right shoes, I would probably change my pants and then to syke myself up for the dive, this was all happening too fast!!!!! But we had to seize the moment and 2pm came and we were bundled into the van to take us to the office to make payment, sign some waivers and then packed back into the van for the 20 minute drive to the back of the airport and the skydiving headquarters. There were 5 of us doing the jump. Sean, Manu, Meyouki, David and myself. After getting the briefing and our pecking order, Sean and I were going to be the last to go up. As Manu, Meyouki and I were also getting a video and photos, they had to break us up into 3 flights. They tried to separate Sean and I, but we asked to be swapped around, so it was Dave that went up on his own, sorry buddy. Our main concern when we said we would jump today was if the weather turned ugly, we wouldn’t see any of the scenery as we were jumping. When we got to the strip, the weather was still looking okay, Manu and Meyouki went up first, then Dave and 2 randoms – the weather was starting to close and the drop zone moved further out and by the time Sean and I went to jump, we had waited 2.5 hours and the weather had really turned to the crap. After making a bit of a song and dance that we only wanted good weather, our care factor was out the window and we just wanted to get on with it and get us up. The drop zone moved further out again for us as there was just a big fat cloud cover over the whole airport.
My main concern with any activity requiring some form of additional clothing is if they will have something that would fit me. I voiced this to Manu earlier in the day, and she was 100% that this wouldn’t be a problem. Well it came my turn to suit up and guess what? They didn’t have a flying suit that would fit. There was a gentleman that was up in the plane and that was the ‘large’ suit, so I could just wait for that to come back. Well they landed the suit was handed over and I started to put it on. It was tight, but it fit and I got the front zip done up till my chest and then it popped undone. So the zip was half way and it was unzipped in both directions. Great, now if that isn’t embarrassing! The guys were so good, they said don’t worry you can just go in your normal clothes. No big deal. So at this point Sean and I only had only brought thongs, so we were jumping bare foot and now I was jumping in my own clothes. I felt like I had just stepped out of the movie Point Break. I was wearing ¾ leggings with a skirt over the top and a ¾ sleeve fitted top. So you could imagine I am standing there in my leggings and the top, the skirt discarded, I felt like I was practically nude. I know what my body shape is and knowing that I shouldn’t be wearing that combination without the skirt, was not a great look for me. But it was to get worse, when they saddled me up in the harness which was also a tight fit, it in turn made certain parts of my body protrude in un-naturally and very unflattering way. I can’t believe I have paid for a video to see all this again sometime.
So with Sean and I all kitted up, it was out turn to fly and headed for the plane. My tandem guy Monty was awesome, and made me feel at ease the whole time. I joked when we got to 6,000ft that I had changed my mind, to which his reply was tough, there is only one way down and it is at 10,000ft out that door! Lucky I was only joking. So it took us around 20 minutes to get to the right altitude and to get above the grey clouds. This was good for us, and being 6pm, the sun was starting to set over the clouds and it was a pretty surreal experience to be flying above the white fluffy clouds looking down at the Namibian desert. It was just magic, and I nearly forgot that I was going to be jumping out of a perfectly good plane in 5 minutes time! So with T time approaching I had to sit on Monty to be able to shuffle to the door for us to jump. I was going first followed by Sean and we had both agreed to shout TIA Mother Fucker as we jumped, to which we both did, mine caught on video for prosperity and half way down before the cord was pulled Monty and I did a TIA in hand motions for the video as we free falled.
It is hard to explain the feeling of jumping out of a perfectly good plane. When it was our time to jump, the camera man had to get out first so he could get footage of me (great) and then I am hanging out of the plane at 10,000ft. With my feet curled beneath the aero plane, I got the 3-2-1 countdown and then before you have time to think you are free falling in the sky. We did a full forward roll straight after we fell out and then I got the double tap on the shoulder and we settled into the starfish for approximately 15 seconds, then without warning the shoot is pulled and like hitting a wall you are pulled up quite hard and then are floating. I do have to mention that my harness around my legs was pretty tight, and I was in a bit of pain for most of the floating stage, but I sucked it up, if it was going to save my life, then it was small price to pay. Once our shoot was open the camera man zoomed straight past us, and that gave me a pretty good idea on how fast we were actually travelling. I then got given the reigns of the parachute, so I pulled a little to the left, and then Monty said that was pathetic and pulled harder to which we descended and looped to the left and then I did the right to the same reply. We then had to fall through the cloud cover we were trying to escape all day and this was amazing. As we passed through Monty asked where we were going to land and I said I hoped he knew and he said I can’t see shit through this white stuff. It was sort of good to fall through the clouds as you had no perception of ground, speed, light or anything, and the temperature dropped around 10C. Once we popped out the bottom of the clouds mother earth wasn’t far and we could see our pick-up vehicle careening down the dirt road to collect us.
The landing was pretty uneventful. You have to lift your legs up so that your instructor’s legs hit first. I was a little paranoid as I didn’t have my shoes on, and my left foot clipped the ground as landed, but the pain was minimized by the fact that I had jumped out of the plane and survived!! I SURVIVED!!! It was AMAZING. Even though my legs were killing me from the harness, it was amazing. After the landing, I was still on my arse with Monty still attached and the camera man right in front of me getting the last of the video footage, I rekon I look a mess, so it will be funny to watch the video when I get a chance. Sean wasn’t too far coming down after me, and our immediate reaction once he was disconnected from his jumper was a run and a hug. OMG we did it!!! It was cool to share that together.
So after loading all the shoots and us into the combie van for the return back to base, we were surprised by a beer each for the ride. Thanks a lot. Even Sean drank one – I know right! Once we got back to headquarters, and catching my ¾ leggings on the seat on my out and ripping a hole in them, my skydiving experience just got better as the day rolled on. As we were the last jumpers of the day, they plied us with 2 more beers and opened a bottle of champagne, so we were half cut by the time we were driven back into town. What a day! We were now running late for our group dinner at an Italian restaurant, but we made it only being 20 minutes late.
After dinner, we went up the road to a pool / bar and had a few drinks and the guys played pool and we were home by 1am. It was a pretty good night, even though it was a little quite, we made our own fun. I think I like Swakopmund and we have another adrenalin day tomorrow with a ride in an ex Chinese Military fighter to do aerial acrobatics. Does that sound crazy or what?
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