Go Quadbiking

While visiting Swakopmund in Africa I was given the opportunity to go quadbiking through sand dunes.  Let me preface, I have never had a good experience with sand dunes.  In Chile I had gone caving surrounded by sand dunes and almost had a heart attack when we had to climb a rock wall to get out of the cave.  Then after being physically exhausted by that we had to climb a sand dune completely dehydrated.  Nice.  A few days before quadbiking we had climbed a sand dune, and went hiking in one of the driest places on Earth.  This time I brought water, but couldn't even drink it because it was boiling hot!   I thought, "Well this time I don't have to climb anything, so this should be easy!"  Wrong!

 At the beginning of our journey when I was still optimistic

When we arrived at the quadbiking place we were given helmets and immediately went to our quadbikes.  We were asked to choose between manual or automatic quadbikes and I quickly chose the automatic.  We were then given brief (very brief) safety instructions.  We were taught hand signals (slow down, speed up, stop, and sharp turn ahead).  We were led by an instructor, and we were to line up behind him one behind the other.  So if the guide hand signaled to slow down, then the person behind him would have to do the same and so on and so forth.  We were allowed to only follow his tracks, and instructed if someone were to fall behind or stall to not stop and just keep going. 

We started off slow, and I quickly found out that I had little control driving in sand.  I also quickly learned that the lady in front of me was not following the guides commands.  When we were asked to speed up, she would only speed up a little bit...that makes a huge difference when you are trying to go up a sand dune in a quadbike!    As we were going up a dune, our guide asked us to speed up, I sped up, but the lady in front of me did not.  I knew if I didn't slow down or turn I would hit her quadbike, so I tried to slow down and turn.  Bad Move!  I lost immediate control, and next thing I know I am rolling down the top of a dune in my quad bike!  My life flashed before my eyes!  After a few rolls, I finally landed at the bottom with my bike flipped upside down.  The girl behind me followed the rules and just kept going, and she was convinced that I had died or severely injured myself.  She tried to get the attention of our guide but he just kept going.  He finally turned around to find me not there!

 Taking a break on top of one of the dunes

I stood up, and was so glad nothing was broken!  My helmet was all over the place, and that helmet saved my life.  My mouth was filled with sand, and days later I was still finding sand.  I couldn't believe how much sand came out of my eyebrows!  I noticed that my shoe was missing, and found it at the top of the dune!  Two people came to rescue me, and my friend Chris also came over to see if I was okay.  I was totally shaken up.  When one of the guys came over to me he asked, "Are you okay?"  "Yes I think so...but my shoe is at the top of the dune!"  "Yeah but are you okay!?!?!"  "YES!  But my SHOE!!  It's all the way up there!  I need my shoe!"  Funny what you focus on when you are in a near death experience!

 Taking our last break with a view of the ocean

Unfortunately we were not done with our quadbiking experience!  My guide told us that we weren't even halfway done!  Wahhh!  I'm scared!  I was so hesitant the remainder of my quadbiking experience, and stalled while going up another dune because I was so terribly scared I would fall again!  A few minutes later another woman fell, and she hit her head real hard and couldn't go on.  That's how dangerous the sport can be. When we were done, they made me sign some papers of what happened, and the next day a basketball-size bruise formed on my thigh.  What a great souvenir from Africa...and I am officially retiring from quadbiking through sand dunes!

During one of our stops at the top of one of the dunes

Date Accomplished: September 15th, 2010