"El cielo."

30/01/2010
Location: still in Swakopmund

Straight ahead... The road again: THE TRANS-KALAHARI HIGHWAY! On the right side the Atlantic Ocean on the left the dunes of the Kalahari Desert.

Leaving Swakop Logde and all the cool stuff that I have been doing there.

Experience number one: Skydiving! The only thing that i was scared of was not to like it too much, and start spending money by doing it again. And that's what happened. I fell in love with the most amazing 30 seconds of free fall, out of a small comfortable airplane.the guys were amazing and we had so much fun. We went up at 10000 feet, took us about 25 min to get there. On the way up, i didn't feel even 1 single butterfly in my belly. I was just happy to have the opportunity to do skydiving and i was enjoying the view over the desert. My tandem guy was scared that i was not nervous.:) he attached me to his harness told me to take my feet out of the plane and bend them under, then just lean out of the plane, face forward, head in hyperextension. And there I was: free falling at 220 kmh! I didn't feel any fear, just the freedom. ... Like eddie Vedder is singing: " sometimes it's seen a strange spot in the sky/ a human being given to fly". It was the
absolute freedom, open sky as far as i could see up, down there the right hand of the desert and the left hand of the ocean were spread out waiting to hug me with all their warmth when i touch the ground.crashing waves were playing around and curling their rips to make the scenery vibrate.
3,2,1... Canope pumps up! We are being dragged back up in the sky so that we can start to have a controlled smooth flight. He gives me the handle, tells me to pull the right one and we start spinning down, like a twister! Wooooohooooooo!
Mias, the skydiver told me he was proud of me. :)

"la tierra"

The next day i promise to keep my feet on the ground... Well almost! I went sandboarding and did some jumps, so i still caught some air under my heels.:)
I really miss snowboarding, so sandboarding came along right on time, cause it feels like boarding in fresh powder! Cataaaaaa! You'll love it! This is the perfect combination for our holiday: boarding, next to the ocean :), and not freezing!this is our world, baby!

After a one hour power nap, i jumped in my trainers and off we go for quadbiking on the dunes, deep in the namibian desert. It was a pretty big playground, the dunes were like a rollercoaster: push the pedal to go as high as possible, twist the bar, spray sand around and down the hill, switching to the 5th gear for full speed! It was good fun!

We crowned the day with some spiced rum and coke and hopped around on the terrible african nightclub music: lady gaga and beyonce kind of noise! But, always remember... TIA! :)

We stopped for an apfelstrudel, like the one my grandma makes, really tasty and just out of the oven. A nice treat at Solitaire :) !
We are now in the Agame c-site in the middle of the Kalahari desert! I can't believe i am watching the sunset in the mighty Kalahari, i place i have read about just in the geography textbook in school.

"La luna"

Full moon rising up in the Agame campsite. After a really good dinner - risotto with parmesan and greek salad-we got to bed/ tent :)
We set the alarm for 4:45 am, the full moon had an eye on us all night and was still up to brighten our way in putting down the tents at that time of the morning, when the stars were still in the sky. It is a bit of a weird feeling to wake up in the same conditions as you went to bed: darkness! But what was that for? We had to get to Dune 45 for sunrise, to get the best light for taking pictures. We got there after the sun was up, but i have got some really good stills.
This is Namibia of the picture books and movies! The Namib- Naukluft Park, part of the desert that streches for 2000 km along the coast, also known as the Sossuvlei area is a huge ephemeral pan set amid infamous towering red dunes, that leave you speechless at the first glance. The kandscaie here is constantly changing, colours shift with the light and wind forever alters the dunes' shape.

" las estrellas"- the highlights :)

Heading south to Bethanie, the arid desert landscape makes me realise that Namibia is one of that dreamlike places that make me question whether something so visually orgasmic could actually exist. Time and space are less defined here. Landscapes collide. Experiences pile up. I watched a lion feeding a prey, with its 2 cubs jumping around on the oracs dead body, on the never ending plain in Etosha National Park. I flew down a giant dune on a sandboard in Swakopmund. I felt the gravity pulling me down to earth whilst free falling out of a plane. I was watching the stars from the beach while the truck was speeding up on the dusty desert roads to get us to the dunes for sunrise. I spent nights in the desert under a sky so thick with stars i can't differentiate between constellations.

But being a part of this natural beauty i miss MY people and wish all these experiences would have been done with the ones i love, so all the feelings i develop here would have been on the highest range.

1/02/2010
Soundtrack: luna amara

8 am. On the road again. Can't believe it: 1st of Feb! Time actually flies here, even though most of it i spend with my iPod or Ewan McGregor's book. Driving now further south towards the Diamond Coast ( which is a restricted area) and the Fish River Canyon, this so called Grand Canyon of Africa, being a place which is not to be found anywhere on this continent. It measures 160 km in length and up to 27 km in width and the dramatic inner canyon reaches a depth of 550 m.