Bikes rides are fun!

Hey dudes and dudettes! It is so good to hear from everyone how the concert went! I really wish I could have been there!
In other news, the break is over in Swakop so everyone is officially back to school today. Last week the government announced that they were going to give everyone an extra week of vacation. They were actually supposed to go back last Monday. Could you imagine if they did that at home?? That would be insane!
It’s funny though, Lex saw a bunch of her students over break and asked them how it was going...most of them said they were bored. I bet the government thinks they are doing the kids a favour by giving them an extra week of holiday but Lex and I were talking and we think that’s when most of the problems happen.

Anyhoo...since they are all off at school today I decided that this morning I was going to explore a little bit. Lex let me borrow her bike so I figured I would go down to the dunes again and ride around the dried riverbed (which I think I talked briefly about in another post)
The dunes are only a few blocks from Mrs.Venter’s house so my trip was going pretty fast. But my bike ride quickly turned into a walk as soon as I hit the soft sand of the riverbed. It is just impossible to ride in sand! So I decided I would just walk and push the bike...and ride whenever I could.
It was pretty neat...I wanted to try to walk to the ocean (the river used to meet up with the ocean) On my walk I saw many interesting (read: disgusting) bugs. There were a whole bunch of little hoof tracks which I’m assuming are sprinkbok tracks. (Mrs.Venter told me she sees them all the time when she goes golfing) I followed some tracks in hopes of spotting a few springbox but instead I would only stumble across little piles of springbok poo. Oh well...
As I got closer to the ocean the sand was slowly turning into grasses and the bushes were getting thicker. I was thinking my path might run out soon but all those 4x4 trails seem to get used pretty often.
Out of nowhere I suddenly saw a man walking towards me with a couple of horses. He came over and we had a nice little chat as I gave them both a little pat (the horses...not the man) I couldn’t really understand him because he had such a thick accent but I think he wanted to buy my bike. I said it was my friends and then went on my way.
I was getting excited because I could finally see the ocean in the distance after pushing my bike for about an hour.
The sand was starting to get pretty wet so I had to climb up the slope on the side of the riverbank. I could see a bunch of flamingos wading in the water (I think it was kind of an inlet or something.) Behind them was the ocean... I had made it!

Now, there was no way I was going to drag my bike back for another hour through all that sand and heat so I decided I would try to find a new way out.
I found a place to rent 4x4’s to explore the desert. That looks pretty excited! I’ll have to try that sometime! Then I went by a farm which I think those two horses may have come from. I also found the SPCA.
...and then I found my way home! YAY! (I'll put up some pictures later...the internet cafe is really slow right now and won't let me add any on here or on facebook!! lame)

oh...one more thing I learned today. If you’re gonna go walking through a bunch of sand...don’t put lotion on your legs in the morning.

This afternoon Linus came to get me from Mrs.Venter’s house. He’s conducting the Swakopmund Secondary High School choir (which I believe Engelhardt used to conduct). They are going to be at the expo in Windhoek at the same time Mascato is. He has me accompanying one of their songs, so I went today to play and also do some warm-ups with them. He’s done a really good job with them!!
Now I’m just chilling in the internet café. I think I might do some shopping after... Mr.Price has been calling my name!!