Day 7, Sandboarding and Tobogganing

Monday December 20th. Today Richard, John, Leland and myself and the three guides Retif, Verron and GP went for breakfast at a restaurant in town. Then we headed back to the A frames to be picked up for our next adventure. We were loaded into a mini-van (John got the door closed on his fingers!) and we were driven out to the dunes to go sandboarding.

After some basic instruction we climbed the 90 metre dune, wearing ski boots, a helmet and carrying our sandboard (which is the same as a snowboard). Very tiring climbing in sand! The first time down the hill was challenging. You had to stand on the board horizontally across the dune, facing uphill. Then using pressure from your toes (to slow down) or your heels (to get going down) you tried to keep balanced and head down. The first run was fairly successful. Then back up, rewax the board and try again. This time much better. The third run was a mess, because there was a girl in front of me who was having some trouble and I was afraid of hitting her. The fourth time, the instructor met us at the top and let us try the other option (which some people were doing the whole time because they were afraid of standing). They gave you a rectangular piece of panelling and you laid on it, with your feet hanging of the end and hold up the front edge so it wouldn't plow into the sand. Then away you went, down a very steep 90 metre dune, at speeds up to 70 kms! I completed two runs of that at 64 and 66 kms and then climbed up yet again for the last run down on the sandboard. That was the best and I was able to basically get to the bottom successfully. However, I didn't manage to learn to do a turn.

As you can imagine we all had sand everywhere, eyes, nose, mouth, ears and all over the rest of us. They feed us a sandwich lunch with a drink and then they drove us back to the A frames for a much needed shower!

Richard made reservations for us at the Tugboat Seafood Restaurant down on the beach. Richard, John, Leland and myself had a great seafood dinner and a great time talking and chatting. I had a fish fillet that came with a large prawn, calamari, potatoes and veggies. For dessert I had fresh fruit with a bit of ice cream.

The rest of the group had a birthday party for Vernon, and somehow forgot to tell us until we already had a reservation. He will be 21 on the 29^th, but someone cocked it up and threw the party for him on the 21^th.

This afternoon, I wandered around town buying some fruit, new sunglasses (as the big silver ones broke in half) and now I am updating in the offices of the company where we booked our tours. They have wi-fi for clients. Tonight the five of us are planning on going out for a seafood dinner.