Swakopmund, a beach resort town located on the Atlantic Coast of central Namibia whose claim to fame is the massive sand dunes and adrenaline activities like sand boarding the dunes, riding quadbikes up and down the dunes, skydiving over the dunes, and paragliding from the dunes. We chose the sandboarding and quadbiking in the interest of sticking to our budget.

Riding four wheel motor bikes up the face of dunes and over the top at 35-40 mph was quite a thrill. The dunes were beautiful and within 20 minutes of laying down tracks the breeze had shifted the sand to erase any mark of our presence. It was like driving around inside a giant Etch-a-Sketch. The only real danger was having the bike roll on top of you in a rollover or getting separated as you had no way of finding your way back because your tracks in the sand would be erased by the wind. Some much needed fun seemed to help all the tour members suspend their undeclared wars and lighten the mood.

The sand boarding was a real thrill. We hiked up a set of massive sand dunes, wiped commercial floor wax over the bottom of a snow board that had seen better days, strapped in and set off down the dune. Let me tell you: snow tastes alot better than sand when you go down. By our 3rd run we had mastered the subtleties of turning in sand and were carving lines in the freshies. Knowing that winter had descended on Tahoe the sand boarding gave us our fix and it was very fun. Hiking back up the dunes after a speedy and quick descent was a lot of work and after a morning of sand boarding six or seven runs we opted for the less demanding but more high speed lay-down-on-your-stomach-on-the-polished-sheet-of-formica and ride down the dune option. The explosions of red sand were spectacular as people whiped out and many layers of skin were sanded off arms and legs and left as an offering to the sand dunes gods. It was great fun and really helped dissolve some of the tension that had been built up amongst touring "packs".