The girls look for 'real Africa'

Catching a local bus is certainly an experience in Namibia. Not because there's anything wrong with them as such - they are actually quite clean and comfortable, but there's just a little bit too much waiting involved. There's no timetable to start with, so you just have to go and wait by the 'bus station' (there isn't an official one of course, so finding the right spot in the first place involves a lot of asking around). Once the bus gets there (and of course there are no signs to indicate where the buses are heading to), the price is fully negotiable and there's an added bonus that the bus doesn't leave until it's full. The driver also functions as a wannabe DJ (they certainly seem to be able to afford very powerful speakers), and the ticket inspector made sure we got into the mood by offering us a drink from his beer. If any passengers wanted to stop at a post office for example on the way, it was no problem, because we were not in a hurry.

We got to Walvis Bay (a quiet and relatively non-touristy town on the coast) at eight at night, after the bus driver had dropped us to our B&B (well almost, they couldn't quite find it, but it was close). We were greeted by a very friendly lady who we christened Helga. It was hard to guess her age, but it was probably something between 50 and 80 (could be something to do with the fact that she smoked like a chimney). She instatly took us under her wing, and from then on we didn't only have a nice private room to stay in, but also a personal organiser, driver, and a cook. We'd only need to mention something we're planning to do, and off she went to organise it for us. Before we had time to unpack, she'd already booked us for a sandboarding trip for the following morning.

And sandboarding we went. Sandboarding is exactly what it says on the package: like snowboarding but instead of a ski slope you come down a dune, using a snowboard. It was only the three of us and our instructor/ski lift Wayne, who taught us the basics and then drove us up the dunes with his quadbike. I've got some interesting previous experiences of snowboarding when I could't move for several days afterwards, so I was a little bit nervous. However, I can wholeheartedly recommend sandboarding as it's not only much easier than snowboarding but it also hurts much less to fall. I think we all got the bug now, and from now on will spend all our holidays in places like Sahara.

In the evening we went to a fantastic seafood restaurant called The Raft. I'd been fantasising about seafood and fish for a long time (I haven't been by the sea since... beginning of March maybe?) and it was worth the wait. I had mussels in a creamy cheese and leek sauce for a starter, and a fish called king clip for my main. Yummy!

The next morning we woke up for the devastating news about the departure of Michael Jackson, and shed a few tears until it was time to leave for our boat cruise. The idea was to go to see some whales and dolphins, but the package included food and drink (which we kept moaning about - we were obviously funding the Germans on the same boat who didn't hesitate to make most of the all inclusive beer until the captain came round with some coffee liquer. After some seal-hugging (a seal hopped onboard and I'm not making this up but we all got to have a go at hugging it - it was really cute!) and dolphin spotting (no whales around that days apart from the white-skinned German type) it was time for a picnic. I'm now an oyster-convert, they were delicious, especially when flushed down with a glass, two, or three of sparkling wine.

Back onshore, Helga met us with our bags and the transport service she'd organised for us to take us our next destination: Swakopmund, another sea-side resort just half an hour away up the road. We were slightly tipsy by then, and very grateful for our personal organiser so we didn't have to do much thinking by ourselves.

"More German than Germany" - that's how LP describes Swakopmund. Our authentic African holiday was feeling less and less authentic by the minute, so we made a pledge to get to know some locals and discover the real Swakopmund beyond the German Disneyland. After the booze cruise in the morning and another bottle of bubbly enjoyed on the beach, it was surprisingly easy. We certainly got to see the other side of Swakop (including a night club which had probably never been visited by white people before) and made some friends for life.

The following day we mainly rested.