Elsja Down Under

Africa Week- Sand Dunes, Part 1 April 13, 2010

Did I mention that I hate hills? Oh yes, I did in THESE POSTS last week. Well, as if I hadn’t had enough climbing for one trip, Namibia brought us a whole new level of hills…

Sand dunes.

Let me point out that sand dunes are NOT easy to walk up. For every step you take, you slide back half of a step in the loose sand. Some of these can be REALLY steep as well.  Our first experience with dunes was in Sossusvlei- home of the highest sand dunes in the world. These were amazing. We got up before sunrise (I’d like to point out that we did this 5 out of 7 days in our last week in Africa) and drove to the national park  in Sossusvlei. We had to get there at sunrise in order to experience the amazing shadows and colors that occur in the early morning hours. I’d definitely say this part of the trip (specifically this day) allows me to cross off number 42 on my 101 list… Watch the sunrise.

We headed directly to Dune 45 which is one of the easiest dunes to access from the road. There were tons of people there trying to get a glimpse of this amazing wonder. We all decided to walk up the dune. More hills… I wasn’t thrilled; HOWEVER, this wasn’t a mountain- it was a sand dune. It would be totally different and really amazing at the top. I just knew it. Well, I got about halfway up and thought I was going to die. I’m not afraid of heights by any means but I think the combination of my heart pounding, my breath racing and the 45 degree angle drop to my left sent me into a panic. I pretty much freaked out and couldn’t look anywhere but straight down at my feet. I had to walk back down. I sucked. I did have the chance to get pretty high up, but I didn’t really take the time to enjoy it because I was too busy having a mild panic attack. The rest of the group kept climbing to the very top and once they were up there, they were all brave enough to run down the side of the dune. In my anxious state, I was unable to even contemplate joining them on this adventure but now I am sad I didn’t. I was able to calm down on all other dunes and those were quite fun to run and sandboard down (which I’ll post about later).

Here are some amazing photos of our first day at the Sossusvlei dunes.

What we were about to climb:

See the little tiny person at the tippy top in the photo below? I made it to about there before I freaked out and had to walk down. You can’t really tell, but in the back it curves and gets even higher. That’s where the rest of the group made it to. If you look closely at the top left of the dune, you can see some people running down the side.

These photos give you some perspective of how high up we were (and the slope of the dune):

Here are a few of Andrew running down from the very top of Dune 45. It’s pretty much impossible to fall down the dune. You just sink into the sand so it’s completely safe to run down. I was still too wussy to do it on this big one though.

Up next… sandboarding (down MORE dunes)!

Tsunami?? July 15, 2009

From the Bureau of Meteorology:

TSUNAMI WARNING NUMBER 3 FOR PARTS OF NEW SOUTH WALES
Issued by the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre [JATWC] at
09:25 PM EST on Wednesday 15 July 2009

For latest and further information call 1300 TSUNAMI [1300 878 6264] or visit
www.bom.gov.au

**********************************

In the words of Michael Doig…

Something New to Fear May 20, 2009

I’ve never feared rain… well, other than the times when I just straighten my hair and I don’t want it to turn into a giant fro ball! No, the rain has never REALLY bothered me. Thunder storms were pretty cool too.

Not anymore.

I was working in my bedroom this evening with the curtains open. It started raining around 3:45pm as Andrew was getting ready for work. I heard thunder twice… it was clearly very far away. I’m pretty sure I saw a flash of lightning as well, but it was no biggy. Nothing out of the ordinary. At about 4:00pm Andrew walked out the door with the rain still pouring down. He said “I’ll be home in a few hours, as long as I don’t crash.” Clearly I got annoyed… not a funny joke! And as he left I kind of had that moment of worry, like “what if something does happen to him and this is the last time I see him.”  I don’t think like that too often, but his comment just brought out the thought and so of course I was immediatly a bit sensitive when he left.

About 20 seconds later out of the corner of my eye I saw a REALLY bright flash.  Normal lightning  just lights up the sky with an overall glow, like a strobe light, and if you’re lucky you might even see a bolt off in the distance.  This was different, MUCH different. This looked more like a yellow and gold glowing fireball.  Before I could even turn my head completely to look out the window, the thunder struck. When I say “the thunder” I mean THE THUNDER! I can’t even explain the sound. It was the loudest thunder I’ve ever heard in my life. It crashed with a loud sharp (and long) clap and bang and then vibrated for a few seconds afterwards. The apartment shook and immediately car alarms all down my street started blaring.

Since this entire event took all of 5 seconds from start to finish it didn’t give me much time to think about what had just happened. But without even thinking, I immediately KNEW that  the lightning had just struck something on my street…

…and Andrew had just walked out the door.

I panicked. I started shaking and ran to try to find my phone. I found it in my purse and called him.

No answer.

I’ve been scared before- startled, shocked. I’ve had my blood pump, my heart race, my hands shake along with all those other fight or flight emotions that kick in when something makes you jump out of your skin. But never has something scared me so strongly so quickly that it made me feel like I was going to throw up. Today, it did. 

I sat there staring out the window, trying to determine if I could see anything. I wanted to run out the door to see if Andrew was out there, but considering the lightning had stuck less than a minute before, I didn’t think that was a wise idea. Luckily the phone rang about 10 seconds later and it was Andrew.  He actually witnessed the bolt hit a house across the street. Luckily his car was on the opposite side of the road, but he was still within a few hundred feet of the strike. He hadn’t answered my call because he was trying to get into his car quickly right after it happened. His ears were ringing and within 5 minutes he had a gained a nice little headache.

There was no more thunder or lightning after that.

It took me awhile to calm down. I don’t usually get shaken up like that, but even an hour later, I still felt a bit shaky. I finally felt like I was over it, but then I had to go get dinner. I ordered a pizza from the shop downstairs which meant I had to go outside to get it. It was still pouring and it didn’t help that my entire apartment building was pitch black . I assume the lightning killed the power or something. I managed to make my way downstairs,  nearly missing the last step since I couldn’t see. As soon as I opened the door I freaked. I did NOT want to go out into the rain. When the big lightning struck earlier, there was no warning. It’s not like I could hear it getting closer and closer over time. It just came out of nowhere. So how could I ever know it wouldn’t happen again?

Yes, I think I am now traumatized. I ran all the way to and from the pizza shop. When I got back, the shaky, dizzy feelings had returned. I seriously hope this will be short-lived. When I was young, if we had an earthquake I’d end up sleeping in my parents’ bedroom for MONTHS. I really don’t want to be stuck in the house forever for fear of going out in the rain. But I guess at least my hair won’t turn into a frizzy fluffball!