Sand. Everywhere.

It was another race, this time against the setting sun. We climbed Elim Dune steadily, slowly, though our hearts beat fast with the effort. "You realise we're doing exactly what Gabriel told us not to do?" puffed Rob when we stopped for a breath. Our guide, waiting at the foot of dune, warned us that we had started too late to reach the summit for sunset, and that to pursue the top would result in disappointment after disappointment. It was practically a dare, and we set out in earnest. Gabriel was right, though, because each time we reached the "summit", we discovered a point still higher. "There!" I could see a handful of people in the distance, sitting and taking selfies. Surely that was the summit! We made a quick assessment of the sun's position and ventured on, finally reaching the summit just before the sun disappeared. We watched it with a sense of accomplishment, and then turned around. We had come a long way. It was now a race against the impending darkness.

Beating the darkness on the way back down Elim Dune.

We were to become accustomed to sand in our socks, pockets and hair. The coastal town of Swakopmund provided a respite from sleeping in tents, and we had the opportunity to explore the nearby dunes another way: on quad bikes. Our guide gave us a quick briefing and suddenly, we were off. He "rollercoastered" the dunes, gunning up, sweeping to one side in a beautiful arc and descending. We followed close behind, taking a breath and going hard on the throttle, trying to follow his tracks without overshooting the top and rolling off. Each dune seemed to be bigger than the last, and I found myself gasping more than one "Oh my god..!" as I tried to control my speed at each arc. We ascended a particularly tall and steep dune, pausing at the top for a photos. There was sand as far as we could see. Descending that dune was another OMG moment, but we were now more confident on our machines and continued to push beyond comfort zones as we rollercoastered over more slopes. At the end of the day, we were still finding it hard to remove the sand from our clothes and the grins from our faces.

The view from the top: sand, and grins. Everywhere.