Incomplete Namibia Trip for Bring It On (April 2013):

As most of you know by now, the long awaited dream I had for many years, of going to Namibia was very quickly shattered when I wrote my bike off (on Thursday 25th April), just 2 days into our planned 11 day trip to Namibia. You can read up on these 2 threads regarding both the:

1.  Namibia Bash - https://wilddog.net.za/forum/index.php?topic=113699.0
2.  Brief story of what happened - https://wilddog.net.za/forum/index.php?topic=123069.0

Well almost 2½ month since I got back home & I’m finally getting around doing this RR.

Onthou die hartseer foto goed ou maat

As most people that know me & out of all the rides & trips I had previously done, this planned 11 day Namibia Trip (which would incorporate the Namibia Bash) was by FAR the biggest trip that I have been looking forward to doing for MANY years now!!! I had always read the many RR’s of others, seen far too many photos/videos & heard so many wonderful stories from friends & fellow WD’s…..of the really Gr8 trips that everyone else has enjoyed across our border, in this AWESOME place called Namibia.

I have always had to be content with the dream that hopefully things would one day work out, that I too would be able to be in the situation where I could…. “Have everything packed, mount my bike & head off in a northerly direction with some really Gr8 friends to enjoy the many wonders & really Gr8 riding that Namibia has to offer”.

Well finally somewhere near the end of December 2012 I had popped around to my neighbour/friend (Joyride) for a visit & while chatting, the subject of the “Planned Namibia Bash for April 2013” came up. After a short while of going over a few photos & stories of various other trips that he (Joyride) & “RideAlot” had previous done, Joyride very quickly got my heart geared into seeing if there was a way that I could finally get to make this looooong overdue dream become a reality & join in to start planning for a trip to Namibia that will incorporate the Namibia Bash.

After many lengthy discussions with SWAMBO (I can assure you all that this part took a hell of a lot of pleading, justifying & promising to Colleen “SWAMBO” that I would commit to finishing off a lot of the many long term projects/renovations in/around our home, before I would set off on this trip)….Colleen finally gave me her blessing to go ahead with joining the rest of the guys in getting this long awaited & loooong overdue trip planned. Thanks my love….for your blessing….it meant a lot to me & would not have gone ahead if I didn’t know that you were OK with me going on this journey.

Over the next few months, quite a few “get-togethers” were arranged in order for the planning, preparing & organising to be done. I have to admit that the meticulous detail of the part of planning that “RideAlot” was involved with….was truly marvellous!!!! I know that the other guys had been on many of these trips before & knew how things worked, where to go ,etc, etc, etc…..but having a spread sheet worked out by “RideAlot”….showing things like, “all the planned fuel stops, places we would stay at, places to eat, alternate places/detours, worked out distances, etc, etc, etc…..” made this planned 11 day journey even more exiting to look forward too than ever before.

Yes please been waiting for this!

Here are a few photos of one of the "Get-Togethers" we had......where we sorted out some of the tools we were planning on taking with.

Don't you just love that really Cool Little Yamaha that Joyride was keen on taking with for the trip....instead of his 950SE eepwall: ot: :spitcoffee: :lol8: :lol8: :lol8:

:ricky:

Details of Planned 11 Day Trip (24 April – 04 May):

Day 1 (Wed 24 Apr) - Durbanville to Verneukpan (613km).
Day 2 (Thu 25 Apr) - Verneukpan to Augrabies (234km).
Day 3 (Fri 26 Apr) - Augrabies Falls National Park to Ais-Ais Hot Springs (407km).
Day 4 (Sat 27 Apr) - Ais-Ais Hot Springs to Fish River Canyon Lookout  (158km).
Day 5 (Sun 28 Apr) - Ais-Ais Hot Springs to Duwiseb (454km).
Day 6 (Sun 29 Apr) - Duwiseb to Solitaire (374km).
Day 7 (Mon 30 Apr) - Solitaire to luderitz (557km).
Day 8 (Tue 01 May) - Luderitz to Luderitz (61km).
Day 9 (Wed 02 May) - Luderitz to Abiqua (440km).
Day 10 (Thu 03 May) - Abiqua to Kotsesrus (303km).
Day 11 (Fri 04 May) - Kotzesrus to Caltex Durbanville (399km).

Total – 4000km

I was fully repaired to take lot of photos & Video footage!!!!…… in the  Namibia Bash thread, “Road Hog” said it best: “Shaun are you planning on making a documentary”……as I had in my possession the following SD Cards:

1x9GB, 9x16GB, 4x32GB. I did not want to miss out on any photo/video opportunity. ;D ;D ;D ;D

I have a little over 500 photo (various photos I took + screen shots that I took out of the video footage I captured from my one Helmet Cameras). I still need to figure out how to “Extract” the section of video, from the incident where I hit the ditch/wash-out, so that I can post it on YouTube…..in order to embed it into this thread when I get to that point……but for now I will start posting some of the photos & give explanations as I go along.
:ricky:

OK then…..Here we go…..hope you guys enjoy the ride.

As we fast forward now a few months later……on the morning of 24th April 2013, the following group finally mounted our “well packed bikes” & departed from “Joyride’s” house, to start our planned 11 day trip to Namibia:

Joyride – KTM 950SE
RideAlot – BMW R1150GS
Bring It On – BMW R1200GS
Dave – KTM 990Adventure
Fred – BMW R1200GSA

We would meet RAPTOR F22 – BMW R1200GSA... later on out in Ceres.

It was really nice to have Johnny pop around on his way to work, to see us off. :thumleft: Pity things didn't work out & that he was unable to join us for the trip.

Looking good, keep it rolling :thumleft:

BTW.....just thought that I'd take this photo with us.....just in case the okes @ the border post wanted to give me stick for not having enough "Reflective" measures on my bike ot: :lol8: :lol8: :lol8:

Quick stop on top of Bainskloof Pass, where Fred gave Johan (RAPTOR F22) a call to let him know we were on our way.

BTW....thanks Dave for the Biltong you made for us, to enjoy as "Pad-Kos" along the way. :thumleft:

Bikes were still far tooooo clean @ this stage. >

Sub  :thumleft:

Few s/shots from some the video footage, of us heading down/through Bainskloof Pass.

Few shots of us meeting up with "RAPTOR F22" in Ceres.

At this point..... I am just soooooo happy to finally getting the chance to do this trip. ;D

Yes, Yes, Yes......here we have the start of the first bit of GRAVEL TRAVEL :ricky: :thumleft: :thumleft: :thumleft: :thumleft:

Just over 200km of some FRIKKING Awesome Gravel Highway - the R355

It was here where I remember shouting out loud as we pulled away here...... BRING IT ON ;D ;D ;D ;D

Quick stop a little further down the R355, to re-group, check that all our luggage is still behaving itself & in place.

......did I mention that I was really HAPPY :hello2: :hello2: :wav: :hello2: :hello2:

Eish.......this Telkom line sure is not in a happy mood tonight.....taking extras long to upload everything tonight. Will give it a break for now & continue tomorrow night again.

Lekker slaap almal. :bueller: ;D

:thumleft: