Day 253 – 15th June 2010 (Springbok, SA – Ai-Ais, Namibia)
And so, after almost 2 months in South Africa, we crossed the border to Namibia. It seems so long since our last proper border crossing but luckily it was all pretty easy. Unfortunately, our cunning plan to get out of SA and into Namibia to avoid the World Cup is not so cunning after all … it seems every Afrikaner in SA with a 4x4 has had the same idea, the place is packed full of Saffers – most of them watching the football!
Miles travelled: 159 miles (total 24,921 miles)
Highlight of the day: Waking up to a beautiful, non-rainy day!
Comment of the day: Ness “how
much is camping?”; Campsite Lady “75
Rand per person and 75 Rand for the pitch”, Ness “Cool”; Campsite Lady as Ness was filling the registration “oh, are you Bristish – then it is the
international rate of 100 dollars per person and 100 dollars for the pitch”; Ness
was speechless thinking she meant US dollars which would have been over 10x the
normal rate! Luckily, she meant Namibian Dollars but Oli still rebounded with “that’s racist!”
Days 254 & 255 – 16th & 17th June 2010 (Ai-Ais – Aus – Luderitz)
Namibia is a beautiful but desolate and quickly changing landscape. We went from the mountains and canyons of the Fish River, through scrub and bush, to desert sands with dunes shifting across the road and stunning ferrel horses, to what looked like the surface of the moon and ended up in mini Germany, all in a couple of days. But after the ease of SA, we weren’t quite prepared for the desolation – it wasn’t until the third day that we found a cash machine! Luckily, the campsite in Aus accepted Visa and had a very nice bar with a big fire and yummy food … unluckily, it had some very grump Saffers (see below).
Miles travelled: 318 miles (total 25,239 miles)
Highlight of the days: Watching the beautiful Ferrell Horses – unfortunately it was so windy that you couldn’t get a good photo!
Comment of the days: Oli to Saffer in nearby campsite “Good morning, do you mind if I use your
tap?”; Grumpy Old Saffer “yes, I do
mind [then opened up a tirade on poor Oli] you are ruining my family
holiday. You were supposed to camp way over there – I saw you pissing in the
open. I booked this campsite over a year ago!”; Oli, rather taken aback at
the tirade first thing in the morning particular as we camped nowhere near him “that’s pathetic”; Grumpy Old Saffer
squaring up to Oli “Get off my property!”
Sightings of the Day: lots of Ostriches
Day 256 – 18th June 2010 (Luderitz–Helmeringhausen)
After a leisurely breakfast at the harbour in Luderitz and a trip to the tailors for some much needed trouser repairs (am somewhat surprised to find a tailor in Luderitz but there you go), we headed to Helmeringhausen – not a million miles away but there was a surprisingly nice hotel there that was sure to have a TV to show the England football game for Oli and the England rugby game for us. The gravel road was awful and William has started to make some pretty bad noises. After that drive, although there was camping at the hotel, the boys decided to go for the rooms – we had the honeymoon suite --- softness levels rising!
Miles travelled: 153 miles (total 25,392 miles)
Highlight of the day: 5 Bet Eared Foxes by the side of the road and a scrumptious bed!
Comment of the day: Going for a pre-dinner drink at 6:15pm for
dinner at 6:30pm, very hungry but entering a very empty restaurant “er, what time is it?” “it’s 5:30pm, we’re
an hour behind South Africa” “doh, we’ve only been here 4 days!”
Day 257– 19th June 2010 (Helmeringhausen–Sesriem)
To celebrate Oli’s birthday the assembled breakfast staff and guests sang Happy Birthday and we gave him a lovely traditional African top to wear all day. The Lucky Birthday Boy. Happily, the England rugby team beat Australia so the day started well (certainly better than the England football teams performance the night before). Unfortunately it didn’t last … all those people who said the gravel roads in Namibia were great were blatantly lying – some of the worst corrugations so far, you could fit Jonny Wilkinson’s thighs in them … almost. William’s rear brakes are now pretty much non-existent and he is making a rather worrying and almost permanent scraping noise – not good! It was a bad drive but we did arrive at one of the nicest campsites so far – our own little patch in the desert with a private shower and toilet. We ended the day with a big braai consisting solely of meat and birthday beers!
Miles travelled: 159 miles (total 25,551 miles)
Highlight of the day: England beating Australia!
Comment of the day: Oli on receiving his birthday gift “wow Guys, that is really special!”
Sighting of the day: Jackals, coming very close to our campsite
probably trying to gatecrash our meat feast!
Day 258 – 20th June 2010 (Sesriem – Solitaire)
Our plans have been thwarted once again by the amazing number of Saffers that seem to be on holiday in Namibia right now. We had been recommended a campsite in Solitaire with tame meerkats and a tame Springbok – unfortunately it was chocka block with Saffer adventure trailers and caravans. We did meet a meerkat and the women hating springbok over lunch though! To make matters worse, as we headed towards Windhoek we realised there was a number of mountain passes ahead of us – considering the noise that William is making, we’re pretty sure our rear brakes are merely dust at this point so attempting mountain passes would basically be suicide. And so we have to backtrack a bit and detour 80 miles out of our way to go through a relatively flat bit … no one was in the mood to face this today, it will be better tomorrow!
Miles travelled: 146 miles (total 25,697 miles)
Highlight of the day: tame meerkats!
Tune of the day: Climb every mountain by Whitney Houston … not
for us today
Days 259-261 – 21st–23rd June 2010 (Solitaire – Windhoek)
The detour turned out not to be that bad really although trying to stop for a police roadblock at the bottom of a hill with no brakes proved interesting. After a bit of a trip around the houses, we found the Land Rover garage in Windhoek and William screeched in. Our suspicions were confirmed the next day when the mechanic (a chap called John from ‘uddersfield) called to say our rear left brake pad was nowhere to be seen* and the right was hanging on by a thread of metal. It was an expensive garage visit for William … we had to book out of the honeymoon suite at the backpackers to ease the pain**.
Miles travelled: 225 miles (total 25,697 miles)
Comments of the day: James to a research student studying the local San tribes “are they idiots like the rest of the continent?” – the research ladies face dropped and said it all!
Sign of the day: “Come experience
Windhoek’s fastest growing tourist attraction – take a bag into town and get
mugged at knifepoint” …. nice
* we suspect it is somewhere on the corrugated road between Helmringhausem and Sesriem
** plus a few beers at Joes Beer House
Days 262 & 263 – 24th & 25th June 2010 (Windhoek-Swakopmund)
Swakopmund – another mini Germany in Namibia, although this was really only evident in Peter’s Antique Shop … someone might want to whisper to Peter that it’s not really considered politically correct to sell flags with Iron Crosses on them anymore, even under the guise of “Antiques”. And so what did we do in mini Germany … go for a Chinese and a few beers at the beach bar.
Miles travelled: 252 miles (total 25,949 miles)
Highlight of the days: purchasing a British Territories plaque for our downstairs loo
Comment of the days: opening comment from a German overlander travelling in a Land Rover “I sink ze vest coast is harder, ya?” … we stopped talking to him after that
Random fact of the day: It is apparently illegal to sell cold beer in
Namibia … we need more legislators like that in the UK
Day 264 –26th June 2010 (Swakopmund-Henties Bay)
Heading up to the Skeleton Coast today, a renowned graveyard for unwary ships and their crews … we didn’t get too far … and we weren’t even in a ship!
Miles travelled: 49 miles (total 25,998 miles)
Highlight of the day: finding another campsite with our own private shower and toilet
Comment of the day: James
“look over there, it’s a shipwreck”; Ness “No, that’s just a ship isn’t it?”; James “what parked almost upside down on the beach??”
Day 265 – 27th June 2010 (Henties Bay – Cape Cross)
Ness’ main object today was to see the 100,000 strong seal colony at Cape Cross. Oli’s main object was to see England play Germany in the Football World Cup. Success on both fronts as we found a lovely little lodge right next to the seal colony showing the football … unfortunately, the same success was not with the England football team!
Miles travelled: 43 miles (total 26,041 miles)
Highlight of the day: 100,000 very smelly seals!
Comment of the day: Lodge waiter to us while we were having a pre-dinner drink waiting for Oli “is your friend joining you, the kitchen closes at 9pm”; Ness “oh, yes, sorry, he should be here soon – what time is it?”; James “it’s 7:15pm” … African time keeping
Day 266 – 28th June 2010 (Cape Cross to Palmwag)
Today, in the shadow of a random helicopter parked in the desert by the side of the road, we said an emotional final farewell to Oli (who travels back to the UK next week) and the Surf (fate still unknown). As Oil and the Surf sailed south into the sun, we headed north … into a wall of fog. As we passed through the skull and crossbones gates of the Skeleton Coast National Park, it was easy to see how this part of the world got its rather inhospitable name. Happily though, as we reached the other side of the NP, the sun was once again shining and it was about 35° again!
Miles travelled: 209 miles (total 26,250 miles)
Highlight of the day: beating the Saffer caravans to the last camping spot in Palmwag (where there is only one place to stay) … is it wrong to feel so happy about that????
Comment of the day: Oli, on deciding to say goodbye and head back south “I bet the big dunes [that everyone raves about on the Skeleton Coast] are just around the corner” …. sorry mate, they literally were!
Days 267 & 268 – 29th & 30th June 2010 (Palmwag-Etosha NP)
Etosha, our only National Park in Namibia, was a stunner. Within an hour of entering the park, we were sitting next to a waterhole watching a pride of about 14 lions plus 3 baby lions frolic around. At the waterhole in the campsite, we sat and watched elephants and jackal drink as the sun went down. Ness, being a bit of a safari-nazi when it comes to it, was up the next day at the waterhole at 5am – although, she suspects her more typical safari luck resumed as everyone else seemed to be leaving when she arrived!?! But another pride of 12 lions, a zillion elephant plus some cheeky banded mongooses later, we left Etosha happy safari campers.
Miles travelled: 355 miles (total 26,605 miles)
Highlight of the day: 5am, everyone else so intently watching the jackals drink at the camp waterhole that they did not notice the jackal come up beside Ness, place its front paws up on the wall to look out on the waterhole as if to say “hey, what are you all looking at?”
Comment of the day: Random Brit Landie owner “hey, did you hear? Mafikeng has been relieved whilst you’ve been away”
… on seeing our bewildered faces
(safari is tiring business not to mention 10 months on the road kinda slows the
brain!) “oh, never mind!”
Days 269 & 270 –1st & 2nd July 2010 (Etosha N.P – Grootfontein – Divundu via the Caprivi Strip)
Up until about 2002, with the Angolan Civil War, the Caprivi Strip was a no-go area. However, even without the Civil War, I can see why not many people get to this part of the world – there really is not much here! Still, you can’t say you’ve done Africa these days without doing to the Caprivi Strip, can you?????!!
Miles travelled: 557 miles (total 26,605 miles)
Highlight of the days: poop-a-falls (see pics)