On the top of our list of things to do in Namibia was to join a tour that went had the beach on one side and the dunes on the other. We were really looking forward to it but when we looked at the bank balance, we had to be realistic.

It either was, do the tour, or eat for the next month or more.

We decided that food, fuel and housing was more important that the tour.

Yes, we were disappointed but just had to move on.

Some New Zealanders we had met a few weeks back told us about sandboarding with Alter Action. They mentioned how it was a good price ($25) and the business were really responsive. And they were.

As we were staying locally, we met Alter Action in downtown Swakopmund, which was only 5 minutes away. We went to a German bakery that sold gluten free bread as lunch was going to be provided by Alter Action.

There were two more couples to pick up and then we were on our way out to the desert. Beth, the owner, had come out from the US more than 20 years ago. She was a wealth of knowledge about the history of the place.

When we arrived at the dunes, which were only 15 minutes away, the rest of Beth’s team met us. It was simply a matter of signing a waiver and gearing up. Some of the younger people decided to go stand-up boarding but we opted for laying down on boards. Our gear was a helmet and elbow pads. Since the staff went in bare feet, Liz and Pete left their shoes behind, while Sharon kept her sneakers on.

First thing was to walk up these giant sand dunes. Liz really struggled as the sand was super soft. It was easy coming down, but then, you had to go all the way up again. Rinse and repeat.

The key to a good boarding experience is holding up the board (harder than you think) and keeping your feet up (but not too high), unless you want to slow down, then the feet come down. If you don’t hold the board up, you’ll end up eating sand – which Sharon did on the first slide.

After 5 slides down (which meant 5 walks up) it was time to join the others down at the starting point for lunch. Drinks and buns with salad was on the menu – and everyone was ravenous.

Check out the video below that Alter Action put together for us (included in our booking).