We drove to Windhoek where Alex and Jimmy dropped me off at the Hilton, i figured after 3 months of freezing my ass off in a wooden cabin with cold water and with 11 months of camping ahead of me i deserved a little bit of luxury for one night!! It was a beautiful hotel in the centre of windhoek and had only been opened for 2 months. Long soak in the bath followed by a drink on the roof top bar (the highest building in windhoek) and a heavenly sleep in the biggest bed in the world! The next morning i had a swim in the roof top pool and a breakfast with so much choice i didnt know where to start. it isnt until you have that kind of luxury that you know what you have been missing out on. And in all honesty i didnt miss anything whilst i was at harnas, apart from strong cheese and the compulsory pasta and baked beans!!!
On Friday we started our overland trip, I am travelling with a friend from Harnas (Pattrick). The plan is to drive from Windhoek through southern namibia, across botswana and into south africa where Pattrick will drop me in Nelspruit and drive back to Harnas. Thats the plan anyway, but with overland trips you just never know where you are going to end up!
We left Windhoek in Pattricks car which he has been working on for several weeks to ensure it is fit for travel.We are also pulling a Echo trailer, whcih is a 4x4 trailer with everything you need in it (tent, kitchen, gas hob, freezer, shower, etc). 20kms down the road or should i say steep gravel path and the car starts to over heat! Pull over, put the bonnet up and out pours boiling water. Game over!! Unfortunately despite thousands of dollars and weeks of work the car still wasn't in good enough condition to make the journey. So we turned back! Unbelivable that we had barely left windhoek and already had car trouble! but its all part of the process!!
Luckily one of pattricks friends had a spare 4x4 car that he could lend us, so after camping out in his back garden (not quite where we were planning on spending our first night!) we left early saturday morning with the new car. This time we made it 150km before the car broke down! Yes i can hear you saying how unlucky can we be! The whole rear axel of the car had come loose and the car was going no where. We were stuck on a steep incline and had no way of fixing the car. After being towed to the top of the hill pattrick spent the next 2.5 hours tightening the axel back to the rest of the car! (this man can fix just about anything on a car). Off we go again, 10kms down the road and the axel comes loose again!! At this point i was ready to hire a car for the trip!!! We managed to make it to the nearest farm and lucky use their welding machine. Another 3 hours later and Pattrick had welded the axel back togetehr and we were finally on our way to Sossusvlei.
Arrivng in the dark we found our campsite and pitched the tent.. When I say pitched the tent the whole thing pretty much pops up at the push of a button!! very easy and doesnt even feel like camping! The next morning we got up early and made our way into the sand dune for sunrise. Absolutly beautiful as the sun pops up over the top of the mountain range and shines onto the dunes, one of those take your breath away moments! After a morning spent in the national park we started the long drive south to Fish River Canyon (about 7 hours drive). I was given the worst gravel road stint of the journey to drive but pattrick tells me it is all part of the experience and i need to learn to drive on gravel!!! This time it wasn't us breaking down but we must have seen at least 10 cars on the side of the road. I had to drag pattrick form each and every one of them as he tried to help and fix the problems!!
We made it to fish river after what felt like the longest road in the world finally ended! "pitched" the tent and could finally relax with a beer knowing the trip was underway and excited for what the next 2 weeks would bring.
The next day (lost track of days, dates, time as it all seems pretty irrelevant!) we headed to the canyon which is stunning, it is the second biggest canyon in the world after the grand canyon, over 500 meters deep and over 100km long with a river winding through it. We spent the day driving along the edge of the canyon and eventually watched the sunset over it which once again was magical.
The next day we drove through Ketmanshoop where we met up with Alex and Jimmy, who had also been to sossusvlei and fish river at the same time as us but staying in different places. After a sad goodbye and an awesome week spent with them on Harnas we left to drive to the border post, rushing madly to make it there before it closed at 4.30pm. We made it with minutes to spare and there ensued the usual border post hassle. Questions like "why do you have 40 litres of diesel spare in your car, are you going to sell it on?" and why do you have a bag of fire wood in your car?". If it wasn't obvious by the huge trailer and tent we were pulling we had to spell it out to them that we were on an overland trip and need spare fuel!! They also struggled to understand why a Namibian guy and an English girl would be travelling together! Pretty funny but we made it through to South Africa!!!
