Mountain, sand, sea and South Africa


The trip has changed a lot since Dan left, for example the world famous cocoa stops have somehow been replaced by a ham and cheese toastie stop, usually accompanied by a Windhoek lager or 2. Another change has been the accommodation, whereas in the north you were lucky if you had a roach infested toilet and a bucket of water, in the south they actually have seats and toilet paper!!

All this high living has taken its toll on us, my weight loss program has taken a dramatic u turn and Sven has developed a rather fetching pot belly (Walt is of course as good looking as always – where the hell does he put all that food).

The landies are currently running well and are looking forward to a long rest and maybe a cruise together (wals is definitely female mine is definitely male! We are hoping to send two Dutch motorbikes on the cruise with them to keep them in check!).

Leaving the Okovango delta we eventually ended up in Windhoek after a couple of days and a hassle free border crossing. This is not however strictly true as Walt was pulled over by the police for not stopping at a stop sign, cue a fifteen minute chat, cross police and Walt talking himself out of a fine (how come it never works for me?).

Windhoek is a great city (well a town really) and we had a couple of good days there wandering around and meeting locals. A certain Miss Green will forever be imprinted on our brains, as will singing Standard Liege songs at the top of our voices in the last bar open in Windhoek at 4 o’clock in the morning. Hot springs were calling us and we ended up in the hilariously named resort of fat barman and indulged our selves swimming around in a pool heated to 45 degrees and totally deserted.

Swakopmund, was our next port of call, seeing the sea again after 5 months was a bit of a shock and jolted us into realising that we had just drove all the way across Africa, all we have to do now is drive all the way down Africa! In Swakopmund we participated in the local sport of hurtling down sand dunes at 50 Km/h on a 2mm thick piece of plywood great fun and healthy too! (you have to hike back up the 150 metres of sand).

The seal colony was an interesting stop as Wal is apparently quite fluent in not only English, French and Dutch but also in seal and held a captive audience of 1 for at least 5 minutes.

Leaving Swakopmund the team split up with Wal going back to Windhoek to try and get some genuine parts and Sven and I continued south towards Sesrien, making a stop at a jedi village resort, all that was missing in the labyrinth of a hotel was Jabba the Hut and that dodgy band he always had playing.

The team met up again at Sesrien (big red sand dunes !) and continued our journey south with some arcade game style driving on gravel roads that would put most motorways to shame.

We Called in at the Fish River Canyon Natinal park where Wal pursued Sven and I that it would be a great idea to see the sunrise at the canyon, hence, getting up at 5.30 and driving to the canyon edge! (anybody that knows me will find that quite amazing). Also near the canyon are hot springs where the Belgian contingent skinny-dipped after yet another quiet night on the beers (the Brit was wearing shorts honest mum!).

Leaving Namibia was a strange feeling, for me, it was the number 1 country for scenery (Wal does not agree he thinks Ethiopia is the best) it was also the last border crossing before the end of the trip. We are currently (here) sitting 260 kilometres from Cape Town so close that we can feel the end is nigh. Not sure how we will feel when we see Table mountain in a couple of days time but whatever the feeling will be, I know it will definitely be a feeling!

Seeing Scally (aka Carl Munro) and Wals brother at Cape Town will be fun and a great way to cross the finish line and hopefully have a great party, we will keep you posted!

On a personal note ALWAYS!

Gav, Clan William dam, South Africa, 13th April 2002


Click here to return to the top of this page.
1