Gael warning in the Congo

[Drumacoon Lad.]

Then these wonderful creatures appeared. Comments were made that my little 125 might not outrun these. Let me tell you, there was no might in it and the bike stayed safely back at the hotel. They are beautiful though.

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[Drumacoon Lad.]

Today we left the game lodge and rode 410km down to Omaruru and plan to visit the mountains tomorrow, partly on a non tarmac road. The photos below show you what Namibian roads are like, excellent! They are not as interesting as Angola though, and I am missing the variety of life to be observed on the side of the roads in Angola.
There are a few interesting signs though, "watch out for" antelope and warthogs. I love the picnic stops under the trees. Very few cattle or sheep being driven by the road and we only saw a handful of herds on the ride today. Weaver birds had adorned the trees with their nests.

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[Ash]

Stunning pictures...

Especially the Cheetahs

 

[Drumacoon Lad.]

Just one photo this time, and quite significant as it shows Simon, riding his faithful BMW R1150GS, on the left side of the road, 16 months since he did that last, back in the UK. Since then he's travelled all down the West coast of Africa, through multiple borders. If he chose, he could ride to the tip of South Africa in a couple of days. Overall a great achievement. Of course he will continue to explore a bit more before the ride is finished but getting to Namibia is a great achievement.

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[tjmouse]

Just one photo this time, and quite significant as it shows Simon, riding his faithful BMW R1150GS, on the left side of the road, 16 months since he did that last, back in the UK. Since then he's travelled all down the West coast of Africa, through multiple borders. If he chose, he could ride to the tip of South Africa in a couple of days. Overall a great achievement. Of course he will continue to explore a bit more before the ride is finished but getting to Namibia is a great achievement.

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Awesome achievement. Really enjoying following your story and the beautiful pictures

 

[simondippenhall]

Thanks Jim and TJmouse for your kind words. It all happened by accident!

So I am as surprised as yez all to be finding myself just a short ride from South Africa, when all I was expecting do was ride to The Gambia and back


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[patzx12]

Great stuff.

 

[7800]

Loved your report since I first started reading it. Nearly there guys good luck for the final section

 

[simondippenhall]

Thanks all. Celebrated sunset at the beach in Swakopmund after a fab ride from Omaroru and out to the desert by Walvis Bay


Tomorrow to Windhoek to watch Ireland beat England at Lansdowne Road


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[Drumacoon Lad.]

Just a few more pictures of our ride today from Omaruru to Swakopmund and Walvis bay. The day started with reasonable greenery and ended up in full desert. We had initially planned a ride on a dirt road to some mountains but the 4 ins(10cm) layer of gravel proved too much for me and the little Suzuki. We reverted to tarmac and that worked much better. The scenery on route was amazing and we were surprised this area was not called desert, but it seems rainfall is too high, but it does still have a lot of sand.

This was the state of the track to the mountains where we turned around. Simon could handle it on the GS but too much gravel for me. Then we joined this wonderful road with a great name

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[Drumacoon Lad.]

These mountains were off to our left for the last part of the ride and looked gorgeous. As we got down to the coast we had proper sand dunes. At Walvis bay the flamingos were feeding on the edge on the beach.

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[Drumacoon Lad.]

In the morning we planned to ride from Swakopmund to Windhoek. To our surprise we awoke to rain and chilly temperatures. I rode with a waterproof jacket and sitting on a sodden sheepskin seat. This was not the weather we expected in Namibia. It did not last long however and as we climbed back up from the coast, through the desert again, the cloud lifted. The first 150km was a retracing of our steps on the Trans Kalahari Highway and we stayed on this road through to Windhoek. As mentioned before there is less activity on the side of the road than in Angola but these are great roads for covering distances. Even the detours to bypass roadworks are tarmac, a positive contrast to the rock strewn "deviations" in Angola. It would of course be good to have a faster bike with these roads, but we manage.

Below we have the road through the desert then one of the many termite mounds in the colourof the local soil. There were few local villages near the road and this one is almost hidden, with huts made of corrogated iron, not as attractive as those in Angola which were thatched. Lastly, these picnic stops were plentiful, often under a tree for shade.

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[Drumacoon Lad.]

Further up the road we had eagles overhead and I snapped this one with my headcam. The markings are clear and I expect a reader to identify it for me. Then we saw this packed workers transport van. A photo stop to confirm we were on the famous Highway and lastly these monkeys, about 40 of them, wanted to cross the road.

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[Drumacoon Lad.]

We were aiming for Urban Camp, a campsite with tents to rent and as it's location was in the GPS we navigated straight to it. We rented a tent for 2 and headed off to the local pub hoping to see the Ireland v England game. We walked to the pub in daylight but were advised to take a taxi back as thefe had been some local muggings. Well we got to see the game, had a good meal but sadly it wasn't the result we two Irishmen wanted. We were joined by Maxi, here from Munich in a Landy, who we'd met in Congo and Angola and he also seemed disappointed with the result.

Here we have the bikes parked up at Urban Camp, our picture before the start of the game and the scene in the pub with all the rugby supporters!

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[Johan]

The eagle looks like a Lappetfaced Vulture, and the monkeys look like Baboons.��

 

[Drumacoon Lad.]

Thanks Johan for the classification. Good to have a backup team for us field workers. Have already had comments about the amount of photos of birds, but birds are part if the life of the places we visit, and often very beautiful.

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[Oldrat]

The pics are great, don’t change anything guys. I really enjoy reading about your travels, keep up the good work.

 

[simondippenhall]

This came up yesterday. Slightly misleading as the bike did 12,500 kms on its old clock...so the total is more like 138,000 kms.

All the 666s came up crossing the Sahara so I guess I must have done about 12,000 miles on this Africa trip.

And tomorrow morning the bike goes to BMW motored here in Windhoek for fitting of Hall sensor, new old TPS, and to see if the ‘empty tank’ syndrome at 10 litres can be resolved.

It will get a diagnostic and a few service items done too....interesting to see how that goes.

Previous services in Bamako, Mali and Yaounde, Cameroon involved police workshops and I suspect parts in some measure

Meanwhile Jim has intrigued me by telling me this road goes all the way to Mozambique




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[Deleted account 210609001]

Still enjoying this report - fantastic mix of wildlife, scenery, people and bikes.

Also pleasing to see that the England victory could be shared so far away! (Don't worry, my money is still on Ireland for the RWC...)

 

[simondippenhall]

Thanks Quinten and hope you are on the mend!

The work is underway as I write

Old shaft oil still looking good and viscous




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