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I agree 100%.

These are all such good questions and I have many of them myself. I'll just share my experience and I'm not saying that I do it correctly or the "right" way, but I've had no issues with the products I use so far. All my patches stick on and stay on. For the last few years, I've only used Slime...

Your frankness is welcome. The reason I was comfortable with the slime in the tube is that I'd already successfully patched a tube with it. I carry vulcanizing glue and big Slime (brand) motorcycle patches, not those flimsy bicycle patches. I can assure you, if you apply the vulcanizing glue to...

Next, I have to find coolant. That begins to seem like an impossible task. I visit every campsite and shop in the town and everyone tells me the same thing. “Nobody in Epupa sells coolant.” I’m feeling a little frustrated. I suppose I could add water to the radiator, but I really don’t want to...

Then, Jan Lucas and I get to work on my radiator fan. He whips out his multimeter and we begin probing the electrical connectors around the fan. Sure enough, the fan is not broken, but there's no power getting to it. We trace the fan wire up the harness and lo and behold we discover an...

We use fuel from our tanks to clean our foam air filters.

We decide that today is maintenance day. Marc has convinced himself that he can fix the 18 holes in his inner tube. We all need to clean our air filters. I need to find out what is happening with my radiator fan, which has never come on. If I don’t, perhaps I’ll blow up my engine in the dunes...

I signal for them to wait for me and I head back up towards the campsite where I’d seen a woman selling curios who spoke English. Her name is Millicent (on the right in the photo below). I ask her if she will teach me how to say my name and ask them their name. She seems delighted at the idea...

While I’m taking in the view, three teenagers arrive. One has a baby on her hip and one of the boys is wearing  a strange looking hat that I’ve seen on a lot of the Himba boys.   I approach them slowly, and introduce myself as I had the day before. Nothing. They don’t get it. I’m determined...

The next morning, I wake up and take my coffee equipment outside. I notice a couple washing their clothes in the river by stomping on them, like some kind of ritual dance. I decide to walk over to the falls and see it for myself. It’s pretty spectacular.

Off we go to get fuel. That in itself is an adventure. We arrive in what feels like the crib of the local gangster. He’s the only guy in the place and is surrounded by women doing all the work. We fill our tanks and our 6 liter fuel bladders too. We’re going to need all the petrol we can get...

We pull into Epupa Falls and our first mission is to find a place to stay. The Epupa Falls lodge has a special offer on for R350 each sharing. We gladly accept and are led far down the path to the furthest corner of the campsite. At first, I’m thinking that we’re being taken to the crappiest...

Later on, I see this notice: If you want to donate, there’s a bank account number on the image.

It’s along this road that I have my first interaction with the Himba. I come across two Himba huts in the middle of a field alongside the river. I’m alone at this point. I sit on my bike wanting to make contact with whoever might live there. I see a woman in the distance and a boy. Nobody else...

We’re following the old road to Epupa Falls. It’s beautiful and leads us through some sandy single-track, across a vast empty riverbed and then right along the river. The riding is superb. 

The road to the lodge is one long straight boring 2-hour transport section. We arrive happy and order a big lunch. All I want to do is swim in the river, but I’m cautioned that it FULL of crocs. I can be stupid, but I’m not that stupid. No swim for me. I ask one of the staff if the crocs...

For a change, we woke up and our #1 priority was not coffee. It was finding spare inner tubes. Yesterday had cost us two inner tubes, which meant that both Marc and I were running on our spares. If we blew up one of our spares today, we'd still be OK because Jan Lucas had his spare tube and...

Thanks man, but I'll have to increase my prices becasue jirree, this takes a LOT of time. :-)

That trip inspired me a lot.

Thanks Martin. That's high praise coming from you (whose long form ride reports I love). I'm 6 hours of writing into this ride report and estimate I have at least an other 8 hours of writing to go! I guess it's helping me cement the memories. :-)