Ned_da_biker
Pack Dog
So here goes!
Day19
Got up and started to pack, as I stepped out of the little bungalow house thingy, I nearly got blown back in to the house, It felt like I was in the Cape and the south-western was angry! Apparently if it?s cold on the Drakensburg the wind blows up there. So now it was time to battle the wind!
Not so nice in loose sand! :shock:
The plan was to head for Luderitz, but first I wanted to see the Dusib castle.
Very nice, only a crazy German can build a castle in the middle of the desert!
This guy was stinking rich! There is furniture from all over the world, the thing that really got me was that this castle was abandoned for 30 years and nothing was stolen!
The wind decided to give me a break, but the African sun didn?t.
I decided to take the desert route to Aus, the D707, What a beautiful and Lekker road! Lots of wash-outs but this road is a must if you can take it! I saw waterfalls in the desert, and this was one of the most memorable roads!
This was kind of nice to see, dunes on this side and mountains and hills on that side, I got a little distracted by the scenery and ended up aquaplaining over this little pond in the road! Very refreshing!
Also I think I only saw 2 cars the entire way to Aus. If you stop and switch off the bike, all you hear is the sand under your boots.
I also came across some very interesting Windmill namibian style!
Aus was a fill up and tire-top-up stop. It was gonna be tar for the next few km!
I saw some wild horses along the way! And even more grass in the desert
Near Luderitz in the middle of the dry desert I had to slow down to cross the water in over the tar road!
Lots and lots of water in the desert!
The municipality of Luderitz was having a hectic time trying to clear up the water! Every low lying area was full of water, even the roads in Luderitz were washed away, they got 140mm in 5 days! That?s more than the entire year?s rain in only 5 days!
LUDERITZ
It seems camping in Namibia is more expensive than lodging and I again opted for a backpackers. R 100. Dinner was at a small pub, where I was introduced to the local pastime, diamond smuggling. I got offered uncut diamonds for cheap! Anyone interested?
Stats 4 the day
530km
Backpakers and dinner R150
Day 20
Thanks to the other travelers at the backpackers I got a nice breakfast, Dankie tannies van die Groot gat! (Kimberly)
I decided to check out luderitz a little more the next day so I did a little self tour, I visited the ghost town Kolmanskop:
Apparently Egoli did a thing there?
These guys were crazy! This town is so small it takes you 5 min flat to walk from the one end to the other, and they decided to build a railway between the homes, so that you wouldn?t have to walk back with your shopping! The mayor?s wife was one spoiled girl, she had this home built for her in Luderitz,
and she had a necklace of uncut diamond reaching to her naval!
This is the teacher?s house, the new resident is a dune!
I also did a small trip to Agate beach, where you can still pick up agate on a daily basis. The road to Agate beach was not reachable with a car since there was a lagoon of rainwater where the dirt track used to be, So getting to the beach was some fun as well! And I regret not having pics of that road, it was a great way to spent a morning.
And on to Seeheim.
Water next to the road... just km's of water
I stopped here to take a pic and then the bike didn?t want to start again!
It took forever to figure out that the battery terminal was loose! So after a quick fix it was off to Seeheim, Again only tar
This place you can?t see from the road and it started as a station for the railway, got abandoned for nearly 100years until a couple from SA bought it and re-started the hotel.
I played with my camera a little in the setting sun.
What a beauty of a bike!
I decided to get the battery terminal fixed for good so I got some working juice and fixed it.
Stats for the day:
300 Km for the day
Hotel Seeheim B&B about R160
Day 21
It was time to head for home, but I decided to have a look at the Canyon first, see how far I got the day and then maybe sleep next to the road or somewhere in Namibia.
But first I had to head to Keetmanshoop for fuel, then on the way back I came across a dirt road that passes a Recreation area and then rejoins my planed route. Good decision indeed! Some pics of the road: Dirt woo-ho!
And then I had to cross this little river? the moss-crap that covered the concrete here was so slippery that I couldn?t even stand on it without the one boot going this way and the other that way! Yes, I had a fall. I was only doing about 15km/h but the fall still managed to crack my pannier and ego!
I went for a quick fanta at the Canyon roadhouse, what an interesting place, they have a hell of a lot of old cars, and a very nice bar.
This poor guy is realy stuck!
The road to Hobas was full of 4x4?s, heading out to see the canyon. Entrance money for the park was R60 and this was a ?special? since I am a South-African. What a rip off, I mean what exactly do I get for that money? And its not like they are doing anything with it, the park doesn?t even have dustbins at the lookout point!
So this is the Canyon, Have a look at the vis river going, the normal water color is green.
I decided to check in at Ais-Ais for lunch, A lady steak and chips.
I guess it was about here that I decided its time to make for SA. In a as straight a line as possible, this happened to be a nice stretch of dirt highway.
Fuel at Keetmans and on to the border, this was the last sunset in Namibia.
I got to the border at about 8 or so. Thanks to the friendly SA border cop I had a nice hot coffee, he specially made one for me from his own coffee, I guess that?s just one of the perks of driving a bike alone over the border at 9 in the night. Nearest Sleeping spot?Upington. What a drive, It was very dark and the moon decided not to show. Every now and then I could smell buck or cattle. And then after a while every funny bush becomes a kudu wanting to hitch a ride. Of course the trucker at the border that told me a story of how just last week he hit a kudu didn?t help!
By 10, I was looking for a spot to sleep when a guy told me I should check out the Protea hotel. So that?s were I stayed.
Driving at night is never advisable, but looking back at it now, that was fun!
Stats 4 the day:
730km for the day
Stayed in Upington R 230
Day 22
Homeward bound!
The rest of my Biker family was on the way to meet me from PTA. Seeing them after 21 days of traveling alone was really great!
We had a very good lunch at ?die watergat? just outside Delareyville, and a short tour report was done there and then. Now I had an escort back home! It was a nice drive back home to PTA.
HOME
Stats 4 the day
890km for the day.
Only one thing to say,
NAMIBIA IS KONING!!!
SOME TRIP STATS:
6002 km was covered and only about 2500 was on tar!
Cost? still counting the slips! I will post it when I am done.
I killed:
5 birds: 2 on the helmet, one on the engine protector bar, one on the handle bar and one under the wheels.
About 2milion bugs
I nearly killed:
About 400 or so small birds.
A impala or 8,
And this stupid woman walking over the road near Aus.
The bike had only 2 minor problems, on day 2 the pressure release valve thing for the oil in the transmition came out because I overfilled the transmition with its previous service. But not a problem thanks 2 ducktape!
And a loose battery terminal that just rattled loose near Seeheim. Again this was probably my own fault since I installed lights and a compressor in to the bike before the trip. I striped the tank off and fixed the terminal and cleaned out the air filter!
Say what you like about BMW they made the best off-road touring bike ever!
I used a fujifilm finepix S5600 for all the pics, mostly sommer on auto setting.
This was a kick-ass trip! Cant wait to go back to Nam!
THE END!
Day19
Got up and started to pack, as I stepped out of the little bungalow house thingy, I nearly got blown back in to the house, It felt like I was in the Cape and the south-western was angry! Apparently if it?s cold on the Drakensburg the wind blows up there. So now it was time to battle the wind!
Not so nice in loose sand! :shock:
The plan was to head for Luderitz, but first I wanted to see the Dusib castle.
Very nice, only a crazy German can build a castle in the middle of the desert!
This guy was stinking rich! There is furniture from all over the world, the thing that really got me was that this castle was abandoned for 30 years and nothing was stolen!
The wind decided to give me a break, but the African sun didn?t.
I decided to take the desert route to Aus, the D707, What a beautiful and Lekker road! Lots of wash-outs but this road is a must if you can take it! I saw waterfalls in the desert, and this was one of the most memorable roads!
This was kind of nice to see, dunes on this side and mountains and hills on that side, I got a little distracted by the scenery and ended up aquaplaining over this little pond in the road! Very refreshing!
Also I think I only saw 2 cars the entire way to Aus. If you stop and switch off the bike, all you hear is the sand under your boots.
I also came across some very interesting Windmill namibian style!
Aus was a fill up and tire-top-up stop. It was gonna be tar for the next few km!
I saw some wild horses along the way! And even more grass in the desert
Near Luderitz in the middle of the dry desert I had to slow down to cross the water in over the tar road!
Lots and lots of water in the desert!
The municipality of Luderitz was having a hectic time trying to clear up the water! Every low lying area was full of water, even the roads in Luderitz were washed away, they got 140mm in 5 days! That?s more than the entire year?s rain in only 5 days!
LUDERITZ
It seems camping in Namibia is more expensive than lodging and I again opted for a backpackers. R 100. Dinner was at a small pub, where I was introduced to the local pastime, diamond smuggling. I got offered uncut diamonds for cheap! Anyone interested?
Stats 4 the day
530km
Backpakers and dinner R150
Day 20
Thanks to the other travelers at the backpackers I got a nice breakfast, Dankie tannies van die Groot gat! (Kimberly)
I decided to check out luderitz a little more the next day so I did a little self tour, I visited the ghost town Kolmanskop:
Apparently Egoli did a thing there?
These guys were crazy! This town is so small it takes you 5 min flat to walk from the one end to the other, and they decided to build a railway between the homes, so that you wouldn?t have to walk back with your shopping! The mayor?s wife was one spoiled girl, she had this home built for her in Luderitz,
and she had a necklace of uncut diamond reaching to her naval!
This is the teacher?s house, the new resident is a dune!
I also did a small trip to Agate beach, where you can still pick up agate on a daily basis. The road to Agate beach was not reachable with a car since there was a lagoon of rainwater where the dirt track used to be, So getting to the beach was some fun as well! And I regret not having pics of that road, it was a great way to spent a morning.
And on to Seeheim.
Water next to the road... just km's of water
I stopped here to take a pic and then the bike didn?t want to start again!
It took forever to figure out that the battery terminal was loose! So after a quick fix it was off to Seeheim, Again only tar
This place you can?t see from the road and it started as a station for the railway, got abandoned for nearly 100years until a couple from SA bought it and re-started the hotel.
I played with my camera a little in the setting sun.
What a beauty of a bike!
I decided to get the battery terminal fixed for good so I got some working juice and fixed it.
Stats for the day:
300 Km for the day
Hotel Seeheim B&B about R160
Day 21
It was time to head for home, but I decided to have a look at the Canyon first, see how far I got the day and then maybe sleep next to the road or somewhere in Namibia.
But first I had to head to Keetmanshoop for fuel, then on the way back I came across a dirt road that passes a Recreation area and then rejoins my planed route. Good decision indeed! Some pics of the road: Dirt woo-ho!
And then I had to cross this little river? the moss-crap that covered the concrete here was so slippery that I couldn?t even stand on it without the one boot going this way and the other that way! Yes, I had a fall. I was only doing about 15km/h but the fall still managed to crack my pannier and ego!
I went for a quick fanta at the Canyon roadhouse, what an interesting place, they have a hell of a lot of old cars, and a very nice bar.
This poor guy is realy stuck!
The road to Hobas was full of 4x4?s, heading out to see the canyon. Entrance money for the park was R60 and this was a ?special? since I am a South-African. What a rip off, I mean what exactly do I get for that money? And its not like they are doing anything with it, the park doesn?t even have dustbins at the lookout point!
So this is the Canyon, Have a look at the vis river going, the normal water color is green.
I decided to check in at Ais-Ais for lunch, A lady steak and chips.
I guess it was about here that I decided its time to make for SA. In a as straight a line as possible, this happened to be a nice stretch of dirt highway.
Fuel at Keetmans and on to the border, this was the last sunset in Namibia.
I got to the border at about 8 or so. Thanks to the friendly SA border cop I had a nice hot coffee, he specially made one for me from his own coffee, I guess that?s just one of the perks of driving a bike alone over the border at 9 in the night. Nearest Sleeping spot?Upington. What a drive, It was very dark and the moon decided not to show. Every now and then I could smell buck or cattle. And then after a while every funny bush becomes a kudu wanting to hitch a ride. Of course the trucker at the border that told me a story of how just last week he hit a kudu didn?t help!
By 10, I was looking for a spot to sleep when a guy told me I should check out the Protea hotel. So that?s were I stayed.
Driving at night is never advisable, but looking back at it now, that was fun!
Stats 4 the day:
730km for the day
Stayed in Upington R 230
Day 22
Homeward bound!
The rest of my Biker family was on the way to meet me from PTA. Seeing them after 21 days of traveling alone was really great!
We had a very good lunch at ?die watergat? just outside Delareyville, and a short tour report was done there and then. Now I had an escort back home! It was a nice drive back home to PTA.
HOME
Stats 4 the day
890km for the day.
Only one thing to say,
NAMIBIA IS KONING!!!
SOME TRIP STATS:
6002 km was covered and only about 2500 was on tar!
Cost? still counting the slips! I will post it when I am done.
I killed:
5 birds: 2 on the helmet, one on the engine protector bar, one on the handle bar and one under the wheels.
About 2milion bugs
I nearly killed:
About 400 or so small birds.
A impala or 8,
And this stupid woman walking over the road near Aus.
The bike had only 2 minor problems, on day 2 the pressure release valve thing for the oil in the transmition came out because I overfilled the transmition with its previous service. But not a problem thanks 2 ducktape!
And a loose battery terminal that just rattled loose near Seeheim. Again this was probably my own fault since I installed lights and a compressor in to the bike before the trip. I striped the tank off and fixed the terminal and cleaned out the air filter!
Say what you like about BMW they made the best off-road touring bike ever!
I used a fujifilm finepix S5600 for all the pics, mostly sommer on auto setting.
This was a kick-ass trip! Cant wait to go back to Nam!
THE END!
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