Days 7: partying in the desert
On the evening of the 31st, we all went and had amazing showers at the yacht club – and got into our fancy clothes in light of the new year approaching. (For some reason we were uninvited to the yacht club New Year’s party – it’s as if they thought we were too young to drink or irresponsible or something, I mean really! But we didn’t mind, we had plans of our own).
We had a hearty supper of vegetarian macaroni and cheese, followed by the extremely special and unforseen dessert of peaches and Ultramel. We then stayed up in the bow listening to music and chatting, breaking out lots of tuck we had brought until midnight, when we went on deck to watch the flares and stars, and sing Auld Liang Syn.
After sleeping in a little and having French toast and scrambled eggs for breakfast we took a walking tour of Lüderitz. We walked to the main attractions (which were all closed due to the public holiday) and from the top of a hill we could see the whole town, as well as the desert dunes surrounding it, and the inlet. We learnt that the town’s main attraction is its diamonds – the beach had tiny raw diamonds as a part of the sand, but they were too small to be of value.
The roads were all wide enough for 4 cars to drive abreast, even though there was a lack of traffic – to the extent that there were no traffic lights, and we even lay in the road taking pictures of ourselves without having to yield for traffic! We were surrounded by many familiar sights, such as a PEP store, Spar and OK minimart. (The service thus far has been really good – the immigration office at home affairs was closed for the holidays, but they called someone from their home to come and help us!) We then travelled back across the town to a lovely garden café, and those who had brought their phones along connected to the Wifi to relieve their poor teenage thumbs from the technology withdrawal symptoms. The food was amazing and freshly made, and we were very grateful to Rory for the awesome lunch.
We returned to the boat briefly to see to repairs and all that jazz (which are all getting sorted out nicely – the autohelm parts have been repaired and the genoa is being sewn up). During the cleaning however, one of Tyla’s t-shirts blew into the sea and sunk into the sea, never to be seen again. The little rubber duck we had been lent also felt like going walkies; it’s line snapped where it had been tied on to Rotary Scout, and while we were all trying to decide who would jump in after it as it was speedily blowing away, one of the locals rowed to it and brought it back – much to our relief and gratitude, and we made him a nice cup of coffee to say thanks.
The rest of the afternoon was spent chilling on the boat, or using Wifi and showering. One of the security guards on the road thought we were a bunch of juvenile delinquents, and was watching us very suspiciously, much to our own amusement. We went back up our hill to watch the sunset and take photos, making it back before dark – we didn’t fancy being eaten by the lions.
For supper we took advantage of our stationary state and made deep-fried potato wedges and mince. During the process we were all doing pull-ups from the hatch trying to show off our skills, when Kyle landed on the Sta-soft – coating the floor and making the boat smell fresh and clean (We thriftily used it to our advantage by washing it into the bilges).
All in all it was a fabulous day.
