Namibian Adrenalin
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STICK THE DICK, STICK THE DICK. This was all that was going trough my mind as I jumped. There I was at 5000 ft picking up speed to terminal velocity. The plane by now was tiny, My arch (body positioning to keep you stable in the air, hence the stick the dick as this forces you to put your pelvis forward and thus arch.) was stable and everything went silent and calm about me.
Now
traveling at 130mph I was face down to the ground. 6 thousand, 7 thousand,
I was counting to 10 and on ten I was to pull the chute. Suddenly I was speeding
up again, from the video my arms had come slightly back and I was now starting
to track through the sky at alarming 
speed
(190mph). Not really liking this new pace of falling I forced my arms back
in front of me again. 8 thousand, grab thousand, pull thousand. three seconds
later I was under the orange canopy circling down to the airport another 3000
ft below me. The enormous deep red sun was just finishing its plunge into
the Atlantic ocean and everything below me had turned a deep purple. 12 jumps
under my belt it should only be another 10 until I have done loops, 360s and
will have my licence.
Before Skydiving at Swakopmund we also took a day of climbing to get some big white water action at Victoria falls. The company we used were in two minds as the water level was still too high and the top section of the river was BIG. But they gave us the same treatment so many other people do that Hot Rock meet along the way; "WE think you lot are crazy enough to do it, you will be the first this year." So that was that, 14 Hot Rockers had an amazing day being thrown around the Zambezi on its 24 named rapids. They then saw it a good idea to throw us out of the raft onto boards and send us down the remaining rapids powered by the kick of our legs.
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Traveling into Namibia we drove south to the great big lump of granite known as Spitzkoppe. The summit is at 1700m with a 500m face dropping down to the desert floor. The climbing it on bolts and trad, with some fantastic routes. The area is a paradise for slab climbers, but often you find yourself on your tip toes padding up on friction well above the desert floor!! The area is also welcoming for the avid chimney and off-width climber. The scabs on my knees and elbows are just starting to drop off from a battle I had with a crack that swallowed me up six pitches up the main wall.
Cuts
were tended to while sitting on top of one of the many boulders around the
camp, sipping on a glass of SA red while the rock around me turned from yellow
to orange to red and finally finished of the display on a bright pink before
falling under the shadow of night. Swakopmund had been great to us. Quad biking,
sand boarding (going at 80kmph 4mm from the ground)and sky diving. We had
been there for four days in total but now we are on the out skirts of Windhoek
climbing at a 60m sandstone crag.
Story by Dave
