Cape Town Part 3. Sand Boarding & Quad Biking.

So, day 3 and the cloud I ordered a couple of days ago seems to be drifting in and hopefully by Thursday or Friday we shall see Table Mountain with it's tablecloth. At the moment my legs are in agony with every muscle aching. I think in the past 2 days we used muscles we didn't even know we had. I reckon I have even developed a few extra ones just for the sheer hell of it and they are throbbing too. Whoever said that it would be a good idea to walk up and down sand dunes all morning the day after climbing a ruddy great hill needs their head tested.

So sand boarding was a lot of fun. About 16 of us crammed into a 12 seater minibus for an hours ride north of Cape Town to the Dunes at Atlantis. After a brief explanation of how to sand board, and discovering that everyone else were highly seasoned snow boarders, we set of for kamakazi adventures down the dunes. Kieran set off first and, whilst cautious, made it all the way down without falling over once, Dan follwed, a true natural like the bugger is at everything, then I went down. I would like to say in the same style as my 2 charges, but I somehow got the feeling that my sand boarding was more that of something that could have resembled a hippo on roller blades. However I did manage to stay on my feet. For the first run. Taking a huge tumble and eating a ton of sand on the second, and then flying spectacularly through the air, (I think the correct terminology is arse over tit), on the third, I decided to call it a day there and stick to taking photographs. Much safer and I seriously worried that if I break a leg or arm, who's going to drive for the next 5 weeks.

The boys carried on regardless and Dan tackled some pretty steep slopes and really looked the part. Kieran did good too, though did take a few tumbles. On one occasion the whole group watched as he somersaulted down one dune and we waited with baited breath to assess the damage. There was no answer when I called out "are you OK son". Silence! I asked again, and by the time I had said Kieran, just say Yes or no" and there was still nothing we started to get a little worried. I was just about to launch myself down the dune to his rescue and called out "Kieran, just say something, anything" when a little voice shrieked back, " I've got sand up my arse!" Phew, he's OK we all sighed, and carried on.

I did give it another go before the session had ended, and I am pleased to report that I did manage a few runs upright from start to finish, but I sensed that I was still looking awkward, later confirmed in the pictures Dan took of me doing it.

Quad Biking was, on the other hand a completely different bag, and God did we have fun racing all over the Dunes. Russ, the guy that I had booked alot of the adventure activities through from Jersey met us here and came Quad Biking with us. He's from Birmingham originally but came over to SA some years ago and set up an adventure activity business as well as a diving videographer business in which he was one of the first to take people out to the great whites and film them.

We biked over the same dunes as we sand boarded and this was so much fun. I'm not sure how fast we were going but it felt like we going pretty quick and the dunes we going up and down were pretty steep at some parts. There were times when I did think, isn't this how Ozzy Osbourne nearly kill himself?

The boys really enjoyed this, you could feel their grins breaking out from behing their helmets and occasionally i would hear Kieran giggle as he went over a particularly scary bump or hill. He asked me to follow him on his 'route' that he created and we set off down what I thought must have been the steepest slope in the whole of Africa, only to be confronted by an equally steeper one when we got to the bottom of it. So much fun. Of course there was one enormous crater that only a mad man would attempt. A very deep hol with almost verticle walls leading down to it. Guess who ends up stuck at the bottom? Kieran. Guess who has to go and pull his quad bike out of it? Me!

We did get our first injury of the trip today, a minor skatebording accident along the beach front. Only a graze and trickle of blood though and nothing worth worring about. I told Kieran, we are on a udget, Band aids are for when it's gushing only.

A great day and the perfect finish. We watched the sun go down witht he waves crashing over the rocks on the beach in front of the hotel then found a great little resteraunt right next to where we are staing where we feasted on Kudo Potjie and Ostrich meat balls.

Today, we are going Jet Boating, then will go visit Robben Island. I'll tell you about that tomorrow.