IDMVFISS

[(RIP) maverick]

Day 6

Written by Maverick

Day 6


Another day another dollar or is that another fantastic ride! We got up way to early for most of us youngsters liking, it was like still ......dark. We faced a fairly long road heading back to Opuwo and judging on the trip on our way to Epupa we could only hope that the little kid who lost his marbles went back to collect them. Myself feeling a bit sick this morning with a turning stomach but looking forward to the day. We set off and for a change the cool breeze of the early morning is refreshing and suddenly the road feels so much different compared to the other day. I have set myself a few markers on our way here to take pictures off.

First one was the rock telling you how far it is to Epupa, it was round here I lost the sole of my one boot and hence the reason I walk with a slight John Wayne impression with my bike boots

Some rock formations in the same area

Next stop was one of the big old Kremetart Tree, had to get my bike next to it to show the size.

Not long or Oom Andries stops next to the road looking a bit worried about me standing next to the road and no bike. He did not see the bike parked by the tree and thought I had another wandering excursion into the veld. I make him head of papparazi and get my picture taken

At this point most of the crew was ahead of me as I was certainly soaking in the surroundings and the cool morning breeze. Not long or I managed to catch up with Lootch waiting next to the road. One thing about the trip was the sense of mutual responsibility and care all the guys showed towards each other. You could be cruising along a few km's from each other and then just get the feeling to stop and wait for the rider behind you. Our whole trip I can't recall once where I waited more than 10 minutes for somebody else and the one suggestion I would make is carrying small radio's to keep contact with each other by some means.

My main reason for stopping here was to take a picture of the goats in the background. You will find animals all over Africa and best practise is to slow down to nearly a standstill as 95% of the time they will run across the road when you next to them.

Lootch ripping the nobblies of his KLR

Nambabwe took this picture of the little kids next to the road. All our encounters with kids and locals was friendly and always smiling. It is hard to walk away from their sometimes demanding gesture of "give me $5" although having said that not all of them begged and mostly asked for basic things like food. You can however immediately see where tourists have had an impact of giving everything and anything to the locals and this now has become a general custom that if you foreign and have something you will give it away.

Goatie risking it's life stepping out in front of the big red whale

Size does matter and think even the whale will get a beating if you run into one of these animals coming around a corner at speed

Nambabwe aproaching a goat crossing

We stop next to these graves we saw from the side of the road. Oom Andries explains it is tribal chiefs that is buried here and the ranking or importance of the chief is judged by the amount of horns on his grave.

Nambabwe sorting some snaps on his camera

The landscape changes again from mountains to open flats, I had to turn around after seeying this termite hill. Most of these are normally 1 to 2 meters high but can go up to 8 meters high!

Lootch aproaching the road of marbles

wooooossssssshhhhhhhhh and off he goes again, I think we were all in the flow today as the stretch of road did not seem to affect anybody except for being a great piece of gravel to do before 10 in the morning!

I reach Opuwo oblivious that a few miles back Nambabwe has run out of fuel. My 43lt tank is still far off emtpy and could of more than likely refueled him and still reach Opuwo. Luckilly the landcruiser carried some spare fuel and filled him up. We stop at the local spar again and replenish our stock for the next couple of days riding

As the mid morning sun heats up the Namibian surroundings rapidly to a mid 30's temperature we set off on our way to see whether we can find the so called "new route" around the infamous Van Zyl's Pass. I think silently there was a few of us that thought if could be done but looking at the back vechiles and trailer it was best decided to not trash the bakkies down the pass. There was also a fairly big element of trashing ourselves down the pass as well. I made an effort to stop every 30-40 minutes to take few pics or hydrate in the heat. Even though you just riding along trying to stay on the road you do find the bike has a mind of it's own wandering into the bushes next to the road when you least expect it.

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The vast open spaces that haunts me where I am now sitting typing in the middle of London looking back at the pics

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I had a polarizer on my lens hence the black shades in the corners of this pic, they call it vignetting in the world of photography

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Some nice hills ahead which means Marienfluss is on the other side of that

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At some point I pass the guys who stopped for a quick water break and ride out ahead to stop for some more shots

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DoubleOSeven on his way

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What a poser standing on his pegs the moment he saw the camera

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Followed closely by Lootch


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and Nambabwe, at this point I think Brakenjan was full speed ahead of us trying to stop the KTM. He really struggled to learn the concept of turning the throttle the other way once he took off

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And then from going in a straight line the earth turned into the most wonderfull twisties and turns through the hills

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I hit this river bed a bit faster than I should and nearly went into a few trees on the side, luckilly recoverd the big red whale just in time to make the little sandy uphill. Thought I would stop and wanr those behind me with my camera armed and ready

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Nambabwe also aproaching the river cautiosly

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Do I actually spot him getting slightly out of his seat?

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Lootch somehow did not seem bothered at all and hit the riverbed the same speed as coming down the hill

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Ohh well another time another place then, incidently my camera packed up right after this last shot and Canon send me a nice letter explaining it is not viable to repair the DSLR at £386 if you can buy something similar age on ebay for around £100. The mirror, shutter and circuit board decided Namibia is to tough for them and was FUBAR. So from here on I was fortunenate to make use of Lootch's camera and this taught me another lesson about a big trip. Don't leave home without a spare camera even if it is a cheap old one lying around gathering dust. You will want to take pics even more when you can't!!




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We stopped to await the arrival of the bakkies and time for me to get out of the now sizzling boots. It felt like my feet was on fire. I worked out only afterwords it was the cylinders of the BMW that blew all the hot air directly on my boots as the same thing did not happen when riding the KLR. Not sure if you can do anything about it but you certainly won't complain about cold feet doing a trip like this.


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Found some shade under a tree and discussed the morning ride and general agreement that we are all having a good days riding today


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So the moment boots are off nature reminds you not to step on it, this little fella will certainly make a grown man cry and I opted for a safer distance and now really looked where I was walking with my bare feet

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We stopped next to a riverbed for some lunch under nice cool shade recommended by Oom Hendrik. We certainly made some good progress today and seems we can still cover a fair distance this afternoon towards Van Zyl's pass.

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As things go of course the easy going route turns into a variety of riverbed crossings, sand, rock and generally anything you can by now expect from Namibia venturing truly offroad. If you wonder who's tracks run across the middle into the veld.....it wasn't me

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From red sand to white stone, if you don't find your favourite offroad terrain in Namibia I am afraid you won't find it anywhere else in the world!

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Some artistic photies think from Nambabwe

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We found an awesome spot next to a river bed with lots of dry wood to make a lekker fire, which of course we did. Another beautifull day and relaxed camping for the night with the usual banter and laughter. We were tested to see if our boyscout classes paid off trying to break a few dead branches of a dried out tree. Well first of all it was hard enough just throwing a sling over it and once we got it hooked realised the branch was slightly stronger than we hoped for. We had to call in the heavy weights to get the branch off and the sling lose again....thanks to those heavy weights, you know who you are.


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I decided to park the GS next to the Katie for the night so they can watch each other. Luckilly the GS did not accidently throw itself onto the katie.

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This is Maverick and Namibia claimed my SLR today, having said that 680 photo's in 6 days was not bad going and I wanted a new one anyway.

 

[(RIP) maverick]

Written by Maverick

After another fine nights sleep under the trees next a riverbed we managed to get out of bed at a reasonable time all refreshed. Brakenjan and DoubleOSeven seems in good spirit and ready for another great day in Namibia

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We have quick breakfeast of our usual coffee, rusks and some cereal before packing everything into the bakkies.

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We were nearly finished when a group of Himba's aproached us and quietly went down and sat by what was left of the smouldering fire

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They looked on at all the strange activity of our group probably thinking why bother packing all that stuff up and down every day to get somewhere a bit further

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At least our morning did not have to start riding down this soft riverbed as we were not far from the start of Van Zyl's Pass and the allegedly Golf pass around the mountain instead of over.

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Even the birds are closely keeping an eye on these strangers

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We head out following the tracks and seems to be pretty good and actually getting excited about the prospect of sleeping in the Marienfluss tonight, some Himba huts enroute to the "new" road

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The ridge in the far side is where Van Zyl's pass starts and runs over, looking very carefully you can just see a line running across where the road is suppose to be. Luckilly we are heading the other way and although the tracks seems a bit rocky looks better than the alternative

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This is the "new" road we assume and myself and Brakenjan don't hesitate to ride down to the bottom

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The rocks were pretty interesting with the slope and you had to be carefull not ending up riding into a tree. Incidently we stop at the first tree that is right in the middle of the road, no way any vechicle is going to get past this and we have just started what we thought is the new road.

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Lootch in the background of Nambabwe's mirror aproaching the downhill

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Further down and ahead things don't look to promising either for the vechicles and after a quick wander about we realise this is no road just cattle tracks fo the local tribes


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We manage to shout at the guys at the top to stop, we have to turn back and see if we did not miss the turnoff somewhere close

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That is where we came from, that is where we have to get up to again......nice

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We turn the bikes around and head up back onto the hill, the rocky section give us a good am pump this early in the morning and we all manage to make it up in one go safely. As we get to the start of Van Zyl's Oom Andries suffers a tyre puncture and we stop to change to the spare wheel. A rock has gone right through the sidewall. It is already as hot as hell and a quick gulp of water and coke does not seem to make much of a difference.

Realising that we have maybe gone to far we start back tracking even past our camp of the previous evening in search of the other road. At one point we reach a crossing which seems like the correct road and stop under the trees to get out of the blazing sun. DoubleOSeven picking a nice soft spot in the shade, we could not get him to do his fairy impression in the sand unfortenately sorry.

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Brakenjan and Nambabwe finds the old water trench and have a quick rest in the shade. Now it must seem odd that we have only been on the go for about two hours but already we look like we have not rested in the last week. The heat is certainly something to get used to and even if you like lots of it, eventually it tires you down.

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Myself looking worse for wear and as normal first thing off is the boiling hot boots

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We picked the really nice shade for the bikes, strange that isn't it

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DoubleOSeven checking how long we have been waiting, in reality it could not of been more than 10 minutes

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When the bakkies arrive one of the Oom's talked to a local and he reckoned there was another road where we were waiting. Woohooooooooooo off we go again in this amazing little valley of twists and turns, rocks and sand and the occasional tree jumping out of nowhere. After a good ride all the bikes stop to await the bakkies and now thirsty and longing for those ice cold drinks in the fridge. No surpise here but again we found the little bit of shade we could and took our positions, DoubleOSeven picking the shade of his KLR

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Me lounging in the comfort of the red whale's mighty shade

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It does not seem like much but trust me those black boots and kit feels like a swedish sauna within 5 minutes on a hot day in hell

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Nambabwe being born in Namibia together with Lootch seemed to handle the heat better than us South-African born natives

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I did not want to say anything but think Brakenjan was secretly crying here wishing for a niec cold sprite zero........

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Managed to muster the courage to ask Lootch for his camera and attempted an arty shot from down below.....as you can see it did not work out to good and maybe a change in career doing art work is not for me

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The view from atop the 6'7" giant, I am not really that small Lootch is just very tall

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Lootch trying to get some response out of Brakenjan.....no luck

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Then Nambabwe......no luck

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At least he kept wandering around taking photo's and keeping an watchfull eye out for the arrival of our precious cold cargo

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There is loads of trees around, the only thing they miss is those little green things usually found on them providing the vital shade

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Tough day in Africa, nearly missed the cold comfort of our office in London....NOT!

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Looking around at the mountain range surrounding us still wondered how people settle down here with absolutely nothing in sight.

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The bakkies arrive and we gulp down a cold one before setting out again, all of the sudden the nice twisty solid road turns into a variaty of river bed and warm soft sand. I manage to dump the GS three times in a space of two minutes leaving me pretty tired. Lootch comes to the rescue again and off he goes!! I get on the KLR pull off and hit the soft sand again face first within 5 meters. Realising that the lads is not going to stop unless they need to manage to get the bike up and running agian. Not far from here we hit big rocks and what seems to be the end of the road

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Surrounded by rocky outcrops and several drops we realise there might be another problem getting the bakkies and trailer over this stuff.

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We park the bikes under the nearest green tree again and wait for the rest of the crew. The gully on the right looks like a possible way but once Oom Hendrik arrives he and Lootch took a long drive down it and realised it closes further down into the moutain with no exit point through the valley big enough for the bakkies to go through. Lootch also realised the way they had to ride the 4x4 in low getting through the sand it will be tough going on the bikes today.

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Nambabwe and his dad walked down the right into the valleu but also came back with no access further on.

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Looking back it seems we will need to evaluate our options where to from here. As it is mid day and the heat at it's highest we opt to break for lunch and dicuss our route

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Myself and DoubleOSeven create our own shade with a tarpaulin across Nambabwe's KLR and one of the bakkies. As we lie there discuss the way how things change on every days trip. When you think you ahead you are actually well behind and visa versa

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Brakenjan at this point could not care less if there was shade or not as long as he was lying down

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The true Namibians as you can see could not care less about the heat. Oom Hendrik commented about how lucky we are that this is the coldest spring to date he has expierenced.....to be honest he was still wearing a jumper a few days ago when we thought it was hot as hell

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Another proper el fresco lunch in the desert, it does not really get better than this

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Can't go that way as it is the dead end

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Going back that way and we return to our starting point this morning

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The GS awaiting it's next command, don't think it could care less which way we went as long as it was forward

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The IDMFVISS papparazi strikes again and catches the diners of guard. After some ideas and general we don't really care where we go from here it is decided to head back and go via a different route Oom Hendrik has used before. We start the bikes up and our journey back where we came from seems to go much quicker than this morning. Myself and Lootch stop for a water break down the road watching with great anticipation the dark clouds gathering, this would be awesome being caught in a down pour hopefully clearing a bit of the heat

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The skies are turning that nice dark blue just before heavy rains and the smell of fresh water hangs in the air

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At least we are on compact ground again and it is great fun twisting and turning through the trees following the track


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I decide to do my cartman impression of "screw you guys I am going home" walk

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Of course walking is not one of my favourite pass times so did not take long to turn back

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How can one possibly not enjoy this adventure and variety of things we expierencing

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Lootch is also getting excited about the prospect of some rain

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These two bikes have been swapped more times in a week than most swingers do in a lifetime

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As we get to the cross road of the morning we realise we are exactly -1 kilometer from where we started and it is now nearing 15:00. We crack open the throttles and cover a remarkable distance up to the junction Oom Hendrik suggested we ride to. As we pass the Himba kraal where I nearly took out part of the village yesterday trying to stay on board the GS the same dog chases me down again. This time I am to fast for him and he gave up.

Nambabwe is less fortunate and somehow ends up riding straight into the kraal coming off at about 50mph, luckilly just a few scrape marks on his arms and knees and otherwise fine. The 08'KLR unfortenately looks a bit worse off and I of course had to comment "that marks is not going to polish out" which left us all in a fit of laughter

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As the bakkies arrive we stand around and decide how far to go down the alternative route, of course another group photo oppertunity

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the second time round with smiles

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As for those dark skies we had a few cooling drops but hardly got wet, it was still intoxicating smelling that fresh water and feeling it against our burnt dusty unwashed skins

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This is what a kraal looks like and as you can imagine pretty nasty to drive through

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We ride for another hour or two untill we find yet another river bed with enough trees to stop for the night, I am somehow not convinced to go down where Nambabwe is taking the photo from and besides I just managed to stop in front of that tree barely hitting the riverbed to fast from the track

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As I am sitting there judging my close call with said tree rememebered that Lootch is still behind me and might be worth while letting him know about the sharp turn into the riverbed and then the tree

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Fortenately he manages to miss me and stop a few meters ahead

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As the sun goes down and we make fire for tonights meal there is a nice feeling of acomplishment even though we hardly did any postive distance today, we have certainly see places some people will never see or expierence in their life

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Cold beers and some whisky to relax under the star lit sky

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As I position myself comfortably on my Ortlieb against the rockbed Oom Hendrik reminds us about the problem sleeping against or under rocks. The first thign a snake/scorpion etc will fall on when coming over the edge is who ever is sleeping there. Now not that I am afraid of snakes or scorpions decided to move my bed to the middle of the river not to obstruct the poor little creatures path should they wander over the edge of the rocks.

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The day certainly got most out of us and DoubleOSeven mananging to sleep on his chair while we chat away

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After dinner we had to put some more wood onto the fire to appreciate the great outdoors

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Now again the elders manage to stay up later than the youngsters and even though they seem to be tired chatted away into the night

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I think even Oom Hendrik had a tough day in the heat today but it could also just be the effect of the big glass firewater he had after dinner

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Lootch spotted this little bugger and good thing as it would keep us awake all night or so we thought

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Instead it was the mighty roar of the Namibian Lion that woke us up during the night............holy crap this lad can snore and make the record books for maximum sound performance!!

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This is Maverick and today I experienced the alternative route past Van Zyl's pass that does not exist, combined with a true Namibian rain threat it certainly was another fine day in the saddle!

 

[(RIP) maverick]

Written by Nambabwe

Day 7: The search for Golf Pass

Planned route: Top of Van Zyl's Pass thru Golf Pass to the Marienfluss
Route: Top of Van Zyl's - Tree Road - Top of Van Zyl's - Otjitanda - Blue Rocks in River - Otjitanda - before Otjihaa Pass
Distance: 65km total, and as the crow flies, only 20km!!!

We woke up in the riverbed, still stuffed from the previous night's
feast with a few of the local people watching every move we make,
somewhat scary. At first it was only what seems to be the kraal chief
or maybe grandfather, but soon a little crowd of women and babies
joined, of course with not much clothing on. There was no point in
trying a conversation, because our Ovahimba is just as plentiful as
their Afrikaans or English. So they just watched and we drank coffee,
ate cereal, tie shoelaces, folded sleeping bags and tents, washed
dishes, brushed teeth, and they just watched...I later wondered if we
would be that peaceful when meeting Martians and want to watch and
learn from their day to day habits? I think we left them a bag of fresh
oranges to say thank you for using a few of the trees for firewood.

Once again, when hanging out in the wild, you can't help but noticing the beautiful birds hanging out with you:

We loaded everything, oiled the chains,
set the chokes and started the bikes. It was only half a mile to Van
Zyl's Pass and we planned to find this brand new little road that even
a VW Golf could use (from here branded "Golf Pass") to travel between
the Marienfluss and the upper moutains. The person who told us this, a
tour operator for 10 years in the area now, also said there was a
little sign on the ground that showed the turn-off. But here we are,
clearly at the top of Van Zyl's and no trace of a sign or turn-off. So
Uncle H and me (Nambabwe) went down the first 2.5 miles of Van Zyl's
pass on the Toyota D-4D, but soon realized that this is not going to be
fun with the trailer, and neither on 2 wheels, so due to the lack of
room to turn around, we drove 2 miles in reverse back up the pass.

Maybe the road that pass by these huts
will take us there, it looks like it almost has been cleared by a
bulldozer or grader...well at least all the big rocks are removed from
the roadway:

So we took this road which was almost
regarded as a nice one and it took us straight into a huge cattle drive
by two locals coming head on...so all you can do is smile and slow
down, these cows have most likely never seen a motorcycle, so getting
excited is not going to help.

So as the road continued, you could
clearly see that it is getting smaller and less traveled, but still
looking new enough that you can believe the Golf Pass legend. Then
suddenly the road went down a nice "double black diamond" hill and
shortly after it dead ends with a tree right in the middle of the road
and then no more sign of road. Huh?

Has any one seen that Golf go through here?

Picture back to the hill taken through that blocking tree:

So we just waited long enough for the 4x4s to show up and then rode back through the same big cattle drive again!

We rode back to the junction at Otjitanda
and for some strange reason, everyone felt the urge to take a small
mid-morning nap, when Uncle H decided to drive a little up the road
coming from the north to look for that small sign:

So word came that the road we are
looking for should be in a North West direction following the
river...and suddenly the hopes went up to one, skip half the sandy road
in the Marienfluss, and two, see the Kunene river again. So we gladly
hopped on the bikes and most likely experienced the worst off-road
track any of us has seen, or will for the foreseeable future. It was
just horrible, think sand in the river beds (without actually knowing
where the tracks are, or when they leave the riverbed, once outside the
riverbed, either more sand or so much rocks and gravel that you want to
put your feet on the tank to avoid any contact with mother
earth...apart from the terrain being unfriendly, the sun was starting
to heat things up, and whenever we stopped, we flocked like flies to
any little shade available.

The 4x4s had an even tougher time
with finding the road, since they sit higher and can often see more
than one way to go. They also need to figure out which way did the most
of us go, because I certainly did not follow anybody when my KLR hit
the thick sand and started jumping underneath me. I would just take a
guess at which way the GPS is heading and aim for that...with some
surprises to what you can make a KLR really do in terms of getting in
and out of riverbeds, going through dense bushes, yes, the types with
thorns on and going over big rocks and fallen trees. And then there is
also the few times when the KLR decides not to follow you that closely
and you put him down for a bit, but only a short bit, since the
adrenaline is running so high at that point that you quickly pick him
up and only then take a breath.

So eventually, which felt like an eternity, we dead ended on some blue rocks in a river bend, no more road, no more tracks, and no sign of people for a loooong while. Just like that, riding like madmen, and then this...one big fat nothing! Not
even a Golf wreck!

The bikes were parked almost
everywhere, out of frustration for the little mess we ended up in. The
4x4's showed up after having some fun burning down the riverbed instead
of caring for the road any more. Lunch was eminent, but we thought we
should do a bit of scouting first to see if we could find some traces
of tracks going anywhere. Lootch and Uncle H went west and me and Uncle
G (well, Dad for that matter), backed up a little to see if we can find
any early turn-offs, but all we found was empty kraal and more empty
kraal, so the road must have been serving these kraals and that is
that. We even scouted the riverbed by foot after the blue rocks with no
luck*.

Empty kraals everywhere:

We settled down for lunch, right there at
the dead-end, can't even remember what we ate, probably involved guard
cheese, but it could not get our spirits back up for the moment,
because we all knew what crappy road we had to ride back again!

Some took another nap underneath a tarp,
since the sun was working us good by now and there was little or no
wind. 007 even had a little stomach bug or the like, if I remember
correctly. Original plan: lets rest for an hour and then work our way
back slowly.

Anyone knows a typical Namibian rancher?
Well here is the short story, they all have one gene twisted the wrong
way, and that wrongly twisted gene gives them the inability to sit
still, yes sitting around, doing nothing, chilling out, having the
moment, no, they can't, absolutely not! I always believed that is why
television has commercials; so that they can get up and go do something
quickly. Result? Not even 15 minute rest, Uncle H already scouting back
to where he saw another vehicle at the previous kraal delivering some
proviand, and Uncle G, well, halfway there, because we need a radio
bridge. A radio bridge, what in the world is that (and I am an
electronic engineer)? Anyway here we go, the salesman at the vehicle
says Golf Pass is this way and the Radio Bridge says we need to hurry
up! And that is exactly what we did!!!

Hmmm...who thought of riding in a few raindrops, the smell was so refreshing!

We rode the same road we did with great
pains earlier today, and now it was just "Flow"-ing, or was it Flying?
We did so much "Flow"-ing, that we probably returned all the way to
Otjitanda in less than an hour. Even the rough sandy patches which
caused plenty of falls were now turning into small race courses. Some
extra raindrops were just more encouragement. So we came to this kraal
again where the dogs are highly annoying, me on the heels of 007 and
then Brakkenjan suddenly passing me, not that there is a real race
going, nor a specific order to keep, but we are in a hurry and with the
dogs already in sight, no one is going to slow down at all.

Right after the kraal is a huge bush and
the road abruptly goes around it...well, not me, not this time...as I
banked to follow the road, the front wheel hit a nice big rock in the
center of the road (by these kraals there are no real signs of the
"two" track roads, they are all pretty much smoothed out). Not much to
say more, except for the shock that only hit me as I was walking back
to the bike. Since the bike came down quite quickly, the plastic on the
right side did not like the impact too much and had to give in a bit.
The handlebars also needed a small adjustment if I remember correctly.
I believe this was the only fall that caused any kind of a bruise on
anyone, right by my elbow the FieldSheer jacket's protection was
chafing me as I was gliding to a stop.

Group photo at the D3703 junction:

We took D3703, or the Otjihaa Pass road
towards Orupembe and started looking for a camping spot without a local
kraal, but at this point I realized that that luxury does not exist
anymore. The road was just as any other we did earlier the morning and
did not really deserve to have a number. You would ride on your bike
and think: "Waaau this country is so desolate, not a soul in sight" and
then suddenly after the next turn, there is a friendly local sitting on
a rock with jeans on and a plastic bag that shows he was at the local
"Stop&Shop / Albertsons / Pick 'n Pay / Aldi's" just 10 minutes
ago, and you know that the closest store is at least 100 miles away!

So we thought we cleared civilization and
set up camp in a riverbed bend where the motorcycles could stay on high
ground next to the river, but shielded from the road. The other side of
the river had a nice natural table for boots, clothing, gear, etc.

It was not even 20 minutes before we were discovered and presented with
plenty of women wearing little clothes. They kept asking for tobacco
and medicine and we kept asking for just one night in peace. So they
finally agreed and left us just with the frogs:

The firewood picked up here was of the
very dense type, so the fire would be burning until late. But I don't
think I even made it to 2nd helping of the main course before
exchanging my thoughts for dreams. Now some would claim that I
represent the wood carvers union while sleeping, so usually when it
gets time to pitch a tent or put bedding down, most inquire about my
location for the night. I guess it did not help that I fell asleep
right there in the middle of the river, right behind someone's chair
still eating his dinner!

* Back in the digital world 2
weeks later we discovered that we were quite lucky to be stopped by the
blue rocks, since that river was heading straight north to the Kunene
and not to the Marienfluss as we wanted it to.

 

[(RIP) maverick]

Day 8: The wish for better roads...

Written by Nambabwe


Route: Otjihaa Pass - Puros

Distance: 198km


The night was spent pretty tentless I believe, not sure, since I went
down first, see the sleeping bag in the middle of the river. Everyone
else had to find comfort further to the edge of the riverbed...from the
typical snoring complaint!

Some of the most polution free sunrises you would find on the planet:

Only two had the courage to venter into the riverbed's thick sand, the others found cover upstairs:

And upstairs had visitors very early that morning:

This is pretty much how all the roads looked to and down the Otjihaa Pass:

It is always more assuring to use the front and two side brakes!

This is and South-Western view from the top of the Otjihaa-Pass

Maverick was riding on a flat tire and
thought it would be good to spend some extra time next to wheels, just
to encourage them to treat him good:

The coolest plants hang out here, surviving on as little water as possible:

In the middle of this flat area the
road splits, and if you did not have a GPS, it would be just as good as
throwing a dice when it comes to picking which side:

Maverick and Lootch spend some time here
taking pictures, but actually also to replace bad tube on the GS, while
the front ones are sitting at the next split. They were sitting so
still that the snakes felt at liberty to crawl out of their holes...no
pictures of that though, and sitting still was officially over!

The road started to hit the more flat
parts of the valleys and we managed to get the speed up a bit. Lunch
was at a point where the road left the river and Uncle H had to be
called back from his quest to only ride in the river.

Some of the bikes, if not all, took the chance to refill. My blue horse was already 17 clicks in reserve at this point.

Leaving the river was not improving
the road off course, but soon after this we joined the road coming from
the North and the flat plains allowed us to ride next the road again.
Here is a shot just before joining the road from Rooi Drom to Orupembe:

At joining the "big road" there are plenty of nothing:

Then, as you approach a waterpoint of some sort, you need to be careful of the local people's extended family:

The was almost turning nicer, but still two tracks:

At the top of the road, which we guess was the center of the city of Orupembe was the "million (Namibia) dollar" police station:

We looked back at the incoming support vehicles:

And they have one windmill to un-thirst about 500 animals, 30 people and 2 police officers:

View to the West just as the road makes plenty of curves leaving town:

Now for the road from Orupembe South...we
did not want to get stuck in the riverbeds with the elephants, so opted
for the marked road going South South West from Orupembe to Puros,
which was marked corrugated on all the maps that we could get our hands
on, but it should have been marked "YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN SUCH BADLY -" or "DO YOU REALLY FEEL LIKE SHAKING YOUR LIVER LOOSE - " or "HOW MANY PARTS CAN YOUR BIKE SHED - " CORRUGATED!!!

You can even see the mirage on film in the back:

We all hoped this was staged:

Lets call this a "Bike party in the middle of nowhere":

Even four wheels do some work on your back and but, this driver had enough of his white beast:

Yes, we have to go all the way down there and around those mountains, ouch:

More views of nothing else than pure beauty:

Loosing your number plate is called "stream-lining" around here!

And if your horse is streamlined, you should stand over it like this:

Where the big riverbeds through the desert cross the roads, it is quite a change of scenery, plus the danger of dust holes:

Where do you think we should ride?

A couple of miles north of Puros, the moutains surrounding the Huaruseb river was just amazingly pretty:

Finally we could see the end of the day's suffereing down there:

A happy-the-day-is-over-KTM-man:

The busy life in a camp:

Please sleep nice and still in this formation, even if you are inspected by an elephant tonight, pretty please?

Bikes are not food are they?

And if you have more HORSE power, you defend yourself against an
ELEPHANT by yourself, ok, we'll leave you with some purple padding:

We survived, even tribal counseling!

 

[(RIP) maverick]

Day 9

Written by nambabwe

Day 9: The chase of the Elephant

Planned route: Puros - Puros Canyon - Sesfontein

Distance: 147km

We woke up quite relieved that no elephants came to visit us during the night. We did however get some winged visitors, so at ease that they would pick crumbs right from your hand:

Breakfast was as always a good idea, but getting the bikes ready to run took a little longer than we wanted too. A new sparkplug here and there, too much dust in the air filters and so on. What we definitely enjoyed was having access to fresh water again. At some point yesterday, we were down to one or two water cans on Uncle H's bakkie, and the Bush Baby's 100 liter tank empty. So running water in a tap from a well in the river was much appreciated. Would you believe that there are two showers and two toilets hidden in these bushes, well if they can fool you, they might fool the elephants too:

Leaving the camp, we follow the riverbed towards the sea. Right outside the camp the river is just a very wide and dry riverbed. The camp itself is actually also in the river, but on a higher part of it. In a huge flood season, they will have to put some new showers and toilets back in.

Anyway, where the road crosses the river towards the small village of almost 10 houses there are some dust holes, and if you have never been in one, don't ever try it. The day before I was following Uncle H to find the Campsite, so we went up the road next to the river (but not far enough), then back down, then waving through the round bushes on the high bank of the river and down again, only to end up by these dust holes. Uncle H, pulling the bush baby trailer at some point stopped and went around a big bush and I thought "why is he doing that?", and without looking, proceeded to take the shortcut...wrong move dude...right into a what felt like a huge sink hole in the ground, about half a foot deep but just a little different what you would now imagine as driving from a typical sidewalk down into a paved road. The softest dust kicks up and suddenly you can not see a thing, nothing in front of you, behind, left, or right, nothing and then the panic sets in when you look up to the sky and see nothing but grey dust. They claim car engines break down when their air intakes breathe to much of this, and I believe that now. The second thought, after how the heck is this possible, is what happens to the guy, if there was one, behind you, who can't see you either? So in a split second I decided to open the throttle all the way and popped a wheelie out of the mess. Thankfully it did the trick and I was chasing Uncle H in the riverbed upstream again, while coughing my lungs clean.

We safely passed the dust holes today, riding in the riverbed itself, and if like in a fairy tale, got to a place where water is just seeping out of the ground to form small, shallow, about 6 inch deep little streams with all kinds of water plants and animals everywhere, unreal! Suddenly everything is lush and green as you can see in this photo:

Where the cars or 4x4s rather (because cars have a very tough route to get to this part of the world) crosses these little streams of water, they make the tracks deeper and deeper with every pass. Now bring a GS with sparkplugs on the top and the bottom through this and you get water seeping into the plastic holder around the bottom spark plug and whoopee doo, a disgusted Maverick is only encouraged by a never-take-no-for-an-answer Uncle H.

Three of us took a little different way chasing down the river, so did not see the sparkplug-dry-out-pit-stop, but did stop when we got to the first water in the main part of the riverbed. Usually we only stop when the road splits but the water was such a surprise that we stopped and eventually turned around to go look for the others, only to find them around the corner in a side branch of the river, drying out. This is where the main riverbed transforms into the main "river":

This might be a Kawasaki marketing shot: "Road to the future!", but I would not have guessed that this was taken in Namibia, we are just not used to the water or the green!!!

And so our water adventures started with VERY thick river sand when not wet:

Can you spot the grey cows way in the back to the right? Yes, not from the same species as the brown ones in the front!

Who is looking at whom?

Let's just quickly discuss these big ugly grey slurpy things hidden in the green spots of a huge dry desert. They tend to not like small noisy things, and motorcycles are dead center in that category. They can also run as fast as 60km/h, so they are not your friend on foot, and while you are in front, throttle up to keep it that way. The best advice is to stay away and the second best is to be very, very careful...Last year or the year before a tour guide operator (with a group of quad bikes, goes the legend) switched the current with the forever after meeting one of these guys. At the campsites, like the one we stayed in last night, they move through freely and hardly ever hurt a soul...as just said, keep your noise maker shut or grow a lot bigger.

We met quite a few of them during the day and most of them a) hurried away into the bushes, or b) was already backed into the bushes and waved us through with their ears, not a good sign usually, but we were doing more than 60km/h quickly or c) was not seen by us! Typically the GPS and company would ride neatly in the tracks in the sand with the odd back wheel coming through which would make riding in the same track impossible for the followers. So typically we, the followers, opt for riding outside the tracks, which requires a little more speed, but less skill, something we will work on next year. So when you do see an elephant, you speed up if you are in the track, and if not in the track, you just drift a little further away to make sure you don't run into the poor big thing. Well, both Maverick and I was drifting around the elephant on the left, ok, maybe more than the usual, because there was water by the elephant too, when I heard, without ever looking back, the trumpet on my right. Short story, I left him or her something to smell about. Drifting was also dramatically reduced after that! Maverick of course thought it was me yelling at him and could not understand why, suddenly, he was riding behind.

Sometimes the water gets into your boots, even if you did keep your feet on the pegs:

But it will almost always get to your sparkplugs:

Some water crossing points were of course much deeper than others, but don't worry, 007 just want to do this one again to prove that he really did it!

The Land Cruiser can do it too:

Puros Canyon, a small little canyon in the middle of nowhere, is a beautiful place to stop, but not exactly the kind of place you would like to occupy for too long, since it is the only passage for the huge mammals that travel up and down the river. Since we have not seen too many for a while, we settled for a quick lunch here:

When the elephants show up, I am ready to leave, thank you.

How would a movie do with the name "The Three Uncles"?

Thank you Lootch for taking a picture of your friends:

The apple fell close to the tree...because it was too heavy:

Not too shallow for a desert, huh?

You have seen this one before, but since it was taken here, lets do it again:

And another team one, ready to roll again:

Looking back:

So while the water is not that deep, probably less than a foot on average, it is a tough call to go for the deeper tracks made by passing 4x4s or to go for the real shallow and risk the sticky mud that sucks you in. The KTM needed 4 people to be rescued and then the rescuers needed help too. I can hear Brakkenjan swearing: "Did I mention this is not so !@#*~%^ funny?"

Here you can see what the choice looks like, ride the track, or drift away and try the bare river...unfortunately you never know how deep or black the mud is out there:

"Along came an Elephant", is what I would like on my grave please...but not yet...the road (just sand) continues on the left, then makes a 90 degree to cross the water right towards Mr. E, and where his nose is swinging, the road (mostly sand, yes) makes a 90 degree left again to continue down stream. So what would you do when Mr. E starts flapping his ears when he sees a 4x4 (Uncle H of course) approaching? (If he knew it was our Uncle H, the question is not needed, Mr. E takes a nice cozy vacation into the Skeleton Coast park). Well, all I know, is when Mr. E turns around like in the composite image below, you pack your camera away someplace safe, instantaneously figure out how to keep a KLR650 dead center in a river sand track and do that at more than 60km/h...so I guess we are all quick learners then! Uncle G and Uncle A was left behind by far and only they saw that Mr. E started chasing after us on the other side of the brush...well, it was just not his day today!

Almost showing how the road, between the moutains and the elephant makes you feel trapped (also notice the Gemsbokke way back, even they hurried away):

At only a few points in the river does the surrounding terrain allow you to leave. The ride out was gorgeous, it even shows on the satellite image how smooth road to less elephants are. We saw so many Gemsbokke (Oryx) by now, at least 50. Unfortunately, being used to them as a Namibian, we didn't take enough pictures to acknowledge their integral part of the landscape in this part of the country. By the way, these suckers can go without water for weeks:

Looking back North, towards the river, isn't that beautiful?

And then came the road between heaven in the desert and the main road to Sesfontein, I did not even made a pact with myself to never use these lanes again, I just won't! There was to start with no more soft white sand, neither was there water with lush green vegetation...and the color of the rocks was the same as the ground, and when there was a road, it was so corrugated (sinkplaat pad in Afr.) that I went back to drifting, hey there are no elephants here. It was also hot and to be honest, not that pretty either...so few pictures taken, if any. This one was taken almost at the end. The road is splitting here, so follow the one going to the left: (yes, we can hear you ask, what road? just feel our pain!)

Now, the story behind this repair is most likely better to be told by the owner of the ike..."Oh, Yeah, I was riding along in full control and a red bee stung me on my knee, as I kicked my foot out from the sting, my boot caught on the lever and it bent like butter...", yeah right!

So back on the main road again was not easy either, it was winding left and right through the hills and criss-crossing the riverbed all the time. At least there was plenty of wildlife to ease the pain and suffering:

The road surface was so bad, that you wished you could ride next to it, but hills and the rocks next to the road did not allow that. So quite often someone had to do a little detour or do a hard stop. A few places I (now riding in position #3) rode by some tracks going weird places, some out of the turns and some up to trees. And all I worried about was how the ones behind me would think that that was all done by me, the newbie! Just look at the road surface:

In this valley with the red sand, the road would become so sandy further on, that you would start thinking about jumping the 4 feet sand wall next to the road (which the grader left) just to get out...but then you have a quick peek at the rocks on the outside and settle back into your death grip counting km tenths along with the odometer just to keep your sanity.

After the red patch follows a few hills and a couple of signs for camping by the Hoanib river, which we did not get to see. It is apparently another great elephant viewing experience. A lot more sand and dust holes according to those who have been. On a random sunny day (in the middle of May) some elephants just get out of the Hoanib or Hoaruseb river and walk the odd 60-80km to the other river, how weird? We kept going however to get closer to Sesfontein before nightfall. As you can see here, no riding outside the road surface possible, not at any speed above 10km/h:

Now just after take-off, with the flaps down, you pull the front wheel in...

What does it feel like when your front tire is flat? My first time, so how would I know...If it was not for the big rock in the road that I hit while bottoming out, I don't think I would have suspected a flat tire, thanks to the crappy road surface. I only stopped to calm my fear of having a flat and there it was! Luckily the experts Lootch, Maverick and the 3 Uncles were there soon afterwards and we quickly put a new tube in.

From here it was an easy ride, whilst getting dark, to the Cameltop camp site. Now back in Damaraland where money counts again, we had the friendliest camp supervisor. She most likely came by 6 times to enquire about our camping experience and how many other people we would refer to the campsite...well here it is, please go, you can have hot water in the evening and in the morning for your shower and they have flush toilets too!

How do you spot a KLR? No number plate!

Is this now an example Staatmaker Voortrekker or a President Verkenner? ( Sorry I have no clue how this translates into Boyscout terms. Maybe: "Can you carry wood or more
wood?" )

 

[(RIP) maverick]

Last Day!

written by nambabwe

Day 10: The race to the ocean...

Planned route: Sesfontein - Myl 108

Estimated distance: about 360km +

Real route: Sesfontein - Hentiesbaai

Distance: 521km

Cameltop camp had nothing to prevent us from sleeping closed eyes, so that is what we did. We ate, cleaned, dressed, packed and left early, why not:

Sesfontein had fuel, but we had to find it first...there are some big development projects and all the signs says FUEL SOON. No sign however for FUEL NOW. In a little side street in town, most likely the only side street, we found three pumps in a row. 10 minutes later, just as we were about to give up, someone came running out of the bush to unlock the door to the little building to get the key to unlock the pump, yes only one worked...weird, but not for here.

We also had a quick peek at the German built Sesfontein fort which was nicely restored as a lodge:

Some riders discovered they had cell phones on them and got a little sidetracked by the wifes giving them the long grocery list of things to bring along. Nothing major, but it gave the others a chance to ride in front again and see more of the springbucks than before. If you ride last, you typically only see the springbuck pooh on the road!

At Palmwag Uncle A got a tire fixed. And we continued over the rolling hills ...

... back down 7 mile pass ...

... a quick stop for a picture here and there, nice rock on the left ...

... and a stop at a shibeen (liquor store / bar ) somewhere close to Twyfelfontein. Now imagine all the outside buildings stuffed with empty (beer or coke) crates, and then you peek around the back to find another couple a hundred stacked up. I could only imagine their thirst:

There is a small wall built around the tables, lets call it an open air bar with a roof, anyway the wall is built with empty beer bottles and cement (look right behind the person entering the building), so they must have been thirsty when they designed the place already!

Maverick: Will I do this again, hell yeah without hesitating a second