Skydiving In Swakopmund
“Today we continue west and make our way to the coastal town of Swakopmund, where adventure and a dose of civilisation await. Reluctantly we leave the Namib behind and after a stop to mark our crossing of the Tropic of Capricorn, we continue to the Atlantic coastline. We make a brief stop at the Walvis Bay lagoon, where we hope to catch a glimpse of the Flamingo’s that feed in the shallows. Arriving in Swakopmund we will have the opportunity to book some of the many adventures on offer. We enjoy a dinner out at a local restaurant tonight.”
What would an overland trip be without flat tyres and car problems? We spend nearly 8 hours on a 70km journey as Jimi our truck had had enough of us and just could not carry on. We’d drive a few kilometres, the engine would splutter and die. Sometimes we’d come out and play football by the road, other times we’d play card games while begging Jimi to cooperate. Eventually the tour company sent mini buses to take us to Swakopmund with a quick stop in Walvis Bay while Jimi was towed to the workshop.
Swakopmund is a small town (with heavy German influences) with lively oceanfront, restaurants and a good party. It is also one of the top adventure spots in Southern Africa and the end of the first segment (day 9) of the trip as Jamie and Nicole (Kidman.. inside joke) left us and we were joined by Maurice. On our last night with the girls we went to an Italian restaurant where we had game dinner and filed into the bar next door to knock back shots and party.
We had 2 nights to spend here and one full day dedicated to adrenaline fuelled activities like desert quad biking, sandboarding, dolphin cruise, fishing, karting, kayaking, paragliding, camel riding, ballooning, skydiving and many more.
I don’t have a bucket list mostly because I tend to go with the flow and quick frankly it’d be a thousand pages long but I’ve always wanted to skydive and my first jump was going to be either Interlaken during winter or Swakopmund. The former was a more realistic target to be combined with a ski trip but then when I decided I wanted to travel Southern Africa, a route with Swakop was a no-brainer.
No one in my crew wanted to jump so I was the only one picked up from the hotel by the jump shop. They had a bar right by the reception so I settled in and knocked back 5, 6 or 7 shots of Springbok while waiting for my turn. There was a dad who brought his children aged under 10 to jump and it was the coolest thing ever!
Show time and I got on the plane strapped to Dice, my photographer and two instructors jumping for fun. We sang, clapped and boom, out the plane at 12000ft.
35 seconds free fall and 7 minutes of gliding, rollercoaster turning and talking about Dice’s fear of height. 3000 jumps in 11 years and he is scared of even standing on the balcony of a 4 storey building. Astonishing!
Do you love heights or are you scared of it?
