scuba!

thursday night the 9th may, we had our theory lesson / session at the scuba shop. by then we were suppose to have read (studied) the scuba manual. being away in namibia, i hadnt had the time to finish. at the end of the lesson, the instructor says we will all be doing a questionnaire, just to see what we know and what we need help on.

so questionnaire done, marked and i did quite well. so relieved!

the instructor then says "since we all did so well with the questionnaire we might as well do our scuba exam now as well". i was so shocked! there is just no ways i could pass the exam now.

at the end of the exam, he took in all the papers and started marking straight away. i PASSED, yay! and i did quite well. so with that out of the way, the next step was the pool session.

pool session was booked for the 19th may at the tygervalley scuba branch. they have a pool outside where they do the lessons. i wasnt really worried about the pool session as i had done the dsd last year in a pool as well and it went well.

WELL, the pool water was f***** freezing. the wetsuit was too big, so the water ran in down my back. the pool was cramped and i could not get my balance right. i just couldnt get down on my knees at the bottom of the pool.

so i then moved to the other side of the pool, took a couple breaths, calmed down and then tried on that side with the other instructor. i managed to get down and he went through a couple of the skills with me. i was fine then. i then joined the group, but by then they were a couple of skills ahead of me, so joining them was kinda pointless.

one of the other ladies was battling as well, so the 2 of us went to the other side of the pool with the other instructor. she was battling a lot more than me and hadnt done all the skills i had done. she then surfaced and told the instructor that she wanted to get out, she didnt want to carry on. so now what? i couldnt join the group again as they were ahead with the skills, so i decided to call it quits as well.

so cross with myself!

i am now waiting to hear when my next pool session will be. hopefully this time it will be in strand and at the heated indoor pool. will be soooo much better i hope.

i just need to calm down, relax, not be fearful and enjoy it!

namibia....day 3 continued....to the last day!

the last 2 nights we camped in spitzkoppe. no electricity, no flushable toilets, no ablution blocks close by and oh so perfect. to shower you need to drive back to the main gate which is a distance away. in the mornings we took the drive back to the main gate to shower - open air showers, no doors, cold wind, 

luckily warm water.

both nights we took a walk up the rocks to watch the sunset. later at night while the fire was going we pulled the mattress out and lay and watched the stars. the night sky was clear. i also learnt something new, i never knew that you could actually see the satellites move at night. spotted a few both nights!

otto put some muesli in his hand the saturday, the squirrels were close by and being inquisitive. one came and ate out of his hand. the squirrel then went to the water bottle which was closed, how clever, otto then opened up the tap and the squirrel had some water.

saturday afternoon we did some climbing, did 2 routes. did a 16 and a 18. wish i could have climbed more, but my damn calf muscles were burning like hell. i really enjoyed the climbing, otto makes it look so easy!

i really really really enjoyed the time in spitzkoppe, really beautiful place. being in the middle of no where, not many people around and the scenery is just WOW!

the last day!

waking up sunday morning it hit me, the last couple of hours of my holiday. sunday was a sad day, couldnt believe that the time went so quickly. wish i could have stayed a few more days.

below is the "independence museum" and "catholic cathedral" in windhoek.

a very BIG thank you to otto for spoiling me and letting me have such an awesome holiday!

namibia....day 3!

started off with sight seeing and walking around in swakopmund. we walked through a market, where the salesman were very annoying, but luckily otto found a little wire gecko to add to my collection. bought something small for the kids and found a "specsavers" (for the ironman entry discount for otto, which is now apparently not applicable anymore).

then a walk along the jetty

it was then time to head out towards spitzkoppe, our destination for the last 2 evenings!

namibia....day 2!

we had planned to get up early, at about 5:00am to go walk up the dune and watch the sunrise. WELL, that didnt happen, instead it was being lazy and staying in bed with a bit of a hangover, hehe!

once up, we took a drive out to sossusvlei dunes.

the walk up was tiring, i was out of breath after the first 10 steps, so unfit. but otto forcing me up and telling me to keep going, was soooooo worth it. such an amazing view! 

we soaked up the view on top and then we headed back down for breakfast. we took out the little gas bottle and pan and otto made us a bacon and scramble egg breaky bun, oh so yum!

after breakfast we took a drive to dooie vlei. definately a must see! wish i was more fit and had more energy to have been able to walk up one of those dunes, they are massive.

then it was back to the camp to pack up. before leaving the camp we first went for a swim to cool down, the pool water was kinda cold but once in it was ok. it was then time for the next stretch of the road trip.

the next destination was swakopmund. 

we camped for 1 evening in swakop at tiger reef camp site. after settling in, we headed out for supper, pizza!

namibia....the 1st night and day 1 of the road trip!

so on the 30th april 2013 i flew to namibia to visit otto. i was soooooooooooo excited and extremely nervous at the same time. i wasnt looking forward to the flight AT ALL. all the panic and nervousness for nothing, flight went fine, no turbulence and the plane wasnt full. i had all 3 seats to myself.

the butterflies started going crazy as we came into land!

the first night we checked in at arebbusch in windhoek. after setting up the tent we walked to the restaurant for a burger and drinks. it was a perfect evening, good company and good food.

the next morning we packed up and went and did the grocery shopping for the few days. after the shopping we walked through one of the malls and had breaky at wimpy. we then started our road trip .....

our first destination was sesriem, where we spent 1 evening. it was a beautiful scenic drive. 

on our way we stopped in solitaire, a very very small town (if you can even call it that).

on arriving at sesriem, we were told the main camp was fully booked. they had a overflow camp which was a little distance from everything, in the middle of no where kinda, so we decided to camp there. we were the only people camping in that area. once set up, we took a drive to the canyon. we took a walk around and then had a drink while watching the sunset.

we then headed back to the camp, where we found that we werent the only people camping in the middle of no where anymore. after the braai, lying on the mattress outside, looking at the stars, we were asked to join the other people for a drink. foreigners, hilarious, is all i can say. was a lekker evening!

AND this is what otto did for me. he took a pic while spelling out my nickname. made my heart smile!

a sneak peak!

i cant wait to blog about my trip to namibia!

hopefully i get a chance tonight to download the 100's of pics. i also then need to get the pics from otto sometime, so a overload of pics will be coming soon hopefully.

here is a sneak peak of spitzkoppe

how i wish i could of woken up there again this morning!