I have been lucky enough to grow up in two beautiful parts of England and to live in two beautiful cities, to ski in places with stunning scenery and hike through some incredible countryside. But I was still surprised by the breathtaking views in the Namib desert.

A few miles from Swakopmund, all signs of civilisation disappear, and you are surrounded in every direction by bright red sand dunes and bright blue sky. It looks even better than in the photographs. There is a surprising amount of wildlife too – the 160 days of mist experienced every year in Swakopmund gives much needed hydration to the desert.

We took a quad biking tour around a section of the dunes. It is very disorientating, and I had no idea where we were most of the time. Columbus McCulloch reckons he can navigate by the position of the sun though. Our guide was brilliant, and when we asked him how he knew his way around, he smiled and said ‘Well, this is my office’. What a great place to work!

A sneak peak of the sandboarding to come

The quad biking place also had a parrot

The next day we went sand boarding. We decided to do the stand-up version, which came naturally to Graham as a snow boarder. It did not come naturally to me. I spent most of the time going downhill on my face, and then having to hike all the way back up the dune! It was a pretty intense introduction for a novice, as the slope was very steep. I don’t think any beginner boarder would start on an equivalent mountain. Luckily, falling over is painless (although I think I will be sneezing sand for a week). Apparently sandboarding hasn’t really taken off as a sport because there are no lifts to take people back to the top. This is partially because it would be tricky to construct, but mainly because sandboarding has minimal impact on the dunes, and part of the appeal is the beautiful surroundings which would be ruined by machinery. Everyone should give it a go though. I laughed for 3 solid hours (apparently you Graham could hear me from the bottom) and it is a great work-out too. I’m not sure I can calculate how many ice-creams it was equivalent to!

The first dune climb

We also had a go at the lying down version. For this you just lie on a wooden board, point it down the hill and go. The particular run we tried, Dizzie, had a huge bump in the middles, sending you hurtling in the air. They had a speed gun, and I clocked 77 kph. Graham beat us all though, at an impressive 79 kph. Hitting these speeds while your face is inches from the sand is amazing fun! And as our Russian boarding mate said, ‘It would be too sad to live without fun’.

After climbing huge dunes for several hours, the whole group stopped for a delicious lunch and some Namibian beer, before heading back to Swakop.

We spent the rest of our time in Swakopmund strolling along the beach and pottering around the craft stalls. I spotted some art that I liked, and got down to the tricky art of bartering. Luckily, Graham is much better at it than I am and we got to a price that suited both us and the artist. After making our purchases we had a chat with him. He was born in South Sudan, and has been a refugee for his whole life. He has lived in many Afican countries, selling his paintings as he goes. He was very well educated, but enjoys his slow pace of life and being able to indulge his itchy feet.

In the evening we went for a ‘sundowner’ before packing up and getting ready to head back to Windhoek.

Namibia gets a double thumbs up!

• Swakopmund