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Michelle nearing the top of Dune 7
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Where to start for our independent travels of Namibia? It was tricky. We hopped in our small Kia Picante and we headed back to Swakopmund to check out Dune 7 - the highest dune at the coast which we didn't do when we were there before. We camped at the super-cheap (and very basic) youth hostel for $N20 each ($3 US) (most other places have been 4-6 times that much!). It was great because we shared a braii (BBQ) with the young kids there from Windhoek on a 4H programme retreat (Head, Heart, Hands and Health).
We walked around to explore town this time (we didn't the first time as Martin and I were the support party for the skydivers of the tour group). We ended up at the very posh Sushi restaurant at the end of the pier that stretched in to the sea. The Sushi looked great, but unfortunately out of our league, but our budget did stretch to a beer to enjoy a perch hovering over the Atlantic Ocean.
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One of the world's oldest welwitschia plants - 1500 yrs
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We did a mini pub crawl around town as we searched for the South Africa vs World Cup Rugby replay. The following morning England was playing Scotland and we were able to watch it at the Quad Bike centre at Dune 7. A contentious game of course, and you could feel the centuries of tension between them. A good game of rugby with England winning, thankfully. Dune 7 was a little disappointing (sorry Teryk) as it was not as big as we had thought and we climbed up and down it pretty quickly. To make up for it, we took a scenic drive further inland around Moonlands which were stunning. Very eerie, but cool landscape. The rarest plant in the world survives near here - the Welwitschia is thought to be the evolutionary link between flowering and no-flowering plants. At this point the scenic drive was more unusual rather than scenic, but we found the oldest, rarest (and probably the most ugliest!) Welwitschia plant in the world - estimated to be about 1500 years old!
We caught up with Jay, the guide that Martin sand-boarded with on the dunes last week, and he had some good tips and recommendations for our travels through Namibia. After picking his brains we retreated to our camp for an early start north. *Mush
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