After my tremendous time spent in Swakop, I had to get back on the road and head southeast, my goal being the Sossusvlei area, famous for its harsh environment, red dunes, white pans and barren geography.

I traveled down the coastline toward Walvis Bay, and the massive sand dunes to my left were beautiful. Millions of tonnes of reddish, yellow sand piled high for many kilometers.

On my way to Sossusvlei, I passed Dune 7, not realizing that it’s the highest sand dune in the world (@ 383 m, 1,256 ft.). I mistakenly thought Big Daddy in Sossusvlei held that title. I guess I’ll need to come back to Namibia to knock that achievement off the list.

Along the way, I crossed the Tropic of Capricorn.

After spending hours driving on Namibia’s famous dirt roads, I came across a very small outpost called Solitaire that basically consisted of a gas station, a scantily stocked convenience store and a restaurant. It also featured some interesting auto displays.

And my favorite sign:

I went into the convenience store to buy a beer as the temperature was hovering around 100* and a nice, cold beer sounded wonderful. I bought the beer and asked the cashier if she had a bottle opener, as the bottle was not the twist-off kind. She said no, but a local gentleman standing at the counter said, “I’ll take care of that” and proceeded to grab the bottle and pop the lid off with his teeth. Africans are famous for creating clever ways to solve any problem that presents itself. This guy was yet another example. I thanked him profusely and enjoyed my beer.

On my way out of the convenience store, I encountered another local guy who had the most unique hat on. He kindly have me permission to photograph him.

Another hour, and I found myself in Sesriem, the gateway town to the Sossusvlei national park. Accommodations at the park entrance are scant, so I had to pay a premium for my lodging, but it was well worth it.

Swakopmund is famous for its variety of outdoor activities, ranging from the benign to the extreme. Starting off fairly tame, I decided to ride a camel.

Camels have a well-deserved reputation for being somewhat cantankerous. My camel, Timba, did not fail to disappoint, as it was clear from the get-go that he was not happy to be carting around a camera-toting tourist. As I climbed aboard, he let loose a long, loud, gutteral grawwwwwooowww of disapproval. And he continued to bark his discontentment throughout the 30-minute journey. My guide, Morgan, was very helpful in keeping Timba in check.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from a camel ride, though compared to a horse, one is placed higher and sways a bit more, the height of the saddle perched atop his single hump adding  to the vertigo.

We followed a well-trodden path 15 minutes away from his “stable”, which was a converted shipping container, took some pictures and headed back.

In the end, I’m glad I did it, even though it was pretty kitschy.

Later in the day, I went sandboarding. Basically snowboarding on sand.

The boards look exactly like snowboards, but according to our guide, the bottom is coated with a type of linoleum. In order to create the right amount of slide, we had to take a couple fingerfuls of floor wax and smear the bottom of the boards to create a slick enough surface to slide on the sand.

After waxing, we strapped the boards on and headed downhill. The dunes we surfed were just south of Swakopmund and were about 300 feet high. Beautiful dunes of the type I would experience later in the week in Sossusvlai, just smaller.

Sandboarding is cool and uniquely noteable, though it turned out we would have to rewax after every run as well as hike the long slog back up the dune after each run (obviously, we didn’t have the benefit of ski lifts). I ended the day covered in sand and thoroughly sore.

Swakopmund is also famous for its proximity to a beautiful ocean and beach, so what better way to view the natural beauty than from 10,000 feet?

The next day, I strapped on a harness, climbed into a plane, flew to the appointed altitude and then rolled out of it (the plane, not the harness). I’ve skydived before, so I didn’t have to deal with the attendant nerves of a first jump, but it was still a lot of fun.

The woman I rode up with was jumping for the first time, and afterwards, she mentioned how odd it was that my jump instructor (to whom I was harnessed) and I scooted over the the door and were very quickly gone. No hesitation.

The jump was, as always, phenomenal. The view of Swakomund was incredible and after 35 seconds, we deployed the chute. Another seven minutes and we were then on the ground again.

Watch the full video here: