Day 6 - part 1
(pictures in this episode can be viewed at better resolution here:
https://flic.kr/s/aHskwemyDk)
In the morning we had a breakfast at the restaurant, packed up and set-off as usually about nine-ish. We were definitely heading for Van Zyl’s pass, but the final objective for the day wasn’t entirely clear. The traditional route would be to head after VZP all the way up Marienfluss valley and stay at camp Syncro (or community camp) back at Kunene river. Which is the route I have plotted and distributed, but by now I also wanted to have a go at those upper reaches of Hoarusib, which I haven’t ridden yet, later in the trip. So I was tempted to skip Marienfluss and instead turn south after VZP and sleep over at the Marble campsite at Onjuva. That would save us about 120 km or petrol and may give me extra time later on for Hoarusib exploration. I was figuring out how to sell this to the other two (who quite frankly didn’t care - I should have just told them we are going Marble and they would merrily follow) as I felt I may be robbing them of Marienfluss experience, but then it resolved itself organically later in the day.
Darth Vader leaving the lodge:
We headed down south to Okongwati about 70 km away on a dirt highway, where we would turn off to the double track west heading to VZP another 70 or so km away. The ride down to Okongwati was a non-event and once there we stopped to attend to few admin tasks - two to be specific. Fill-up on petrol and get patches for tubes as we were down to last two thanks to Justin using up many of my patches, to fix many of his holes and thanks to me using many of the rest to fix one hole (and thanks to the fact that I was the only one who bothered to bring any patches…)
Last time I was here there was only one fuel depot selling petrol, so I was surprised to see petrol advertised all over the show. Obviously it must be a good business and the situation to our relief was the same later on in inner Kaokoland where petrol was available in Onjuva and Puros. Still, the first place we pulled up to was dry, but they send us to their sister in the next street who should have some. The sister - Brenda - did indeed have some and we filled up no only the tanks, but also took 4 - 5 liters spare earh in Coke bottles and fuel container.
Brenda eyeing our ladies man, Justin looking on with jealousy:
You see what I mean:
Again, jealous Capie spoiling otherwise perfectly good photo:
Filled up, it was time to locate some patches. We went back to the first place where we asked for petrol, as they were also advertised as tyre repair shop, but the owner wasn’t there and they sent us to the main shop in the village on the main road we came from called creatively ‘Good road market’. They didn’t have any, so Bertie and Justin settled themselves into a shade there and I went prowling the village for patches. Walking the main street I asked in every shop and they all were directing me back to the Good road one - not a good sign. I eventually ended up the tyre repair shop for the third time and the helpful lady directed me to another shop where she was absolutely sure they do have. But no luck, the half dead saleswoman there, barely able to raise her sleepy eyes to meet mine, just shook her head no.
This became a major concern as it didn’t seem particularly clever to hit inner Kaokoland with basically our day ratio of patches (if we are lucky). I wasn’t keen trying to ride out hundreds of km on rocky roads on flat tyre, so I felt we should not go unless we will be able to sort this out. Walking dejected back past the tyre place I was intercepted by the nice lady asking if I got them. When I said no, she said ******** or some such and dragged me back to the shop shouting at the woman there and sure enough, she pulled up a box with about 100 of them, of all sizes and shapes. I bought about quarter of them, and the mummy apologized that she was asleep first time (‘no **** Sherlock’).
I thanked the helpfull lady profusely and walked back to good road with a spring in my step. Bertie and Justin by now developed fondness for lethargy so prevalent among the local men, so it took a while to gear up and get going again.
By the time we set-off, it was way past noon, and naturally very hot. We crossed the village and hit the double track heading west. Initially reasonably good, the track winding through the bush and alternating between sand and rocks gradually deteriorated. Nothing extreme, but the going was quite slow. This is the thing that catches many people going to VZP out - getting to the pass takes much more effort than riding the pass itself, as it is very short (probably 2 km) and not that difficult - at least on the right bike.
We were riding in our usual order, Justin opening the track and me sweeping. And Bertie between us, falling way too often for my liking. Now, we all fall on trips - otherwise we are not trying hard enough, and Bertie fell many times in the prior days. But this was different. In prior days it was mostly (with possible exception of Robbie’s pass) easy spills that we all laughed about and took pictures. But now the falls were getting more hazardous - usually at quite a always ending with Bertie stuck under the bike facing in the wrong direction and woven into thorny bush or tree. It wasn’t funny anymore and I was dreading the moment I come around and find Bertie in agony with broken leg. I have ridden with Bertie before and could tell what the problem was. It wasn’t the terrain or lack of skills - he has already ridden over 800 km of similar terrain without a problem just on this trip. It was exhaustion. Snowball of multiple days of hard riding and late starts has caught up with us and was getting worse. And one day of rest in Epupa clearly wasn’t enough for him to recover sufficiently to ride safely.
I didn’t say it, but I was contemplating whether we shouldn’t turn back, knowing full well that once we are down VZP it is at least 250 km of offroad riding (that is the good alternative - the bad one is onroad riding - i.e. horribly corrugated D3707) to get to some kind of civilization in our direction. But Bertie is a trooper and assured me each time I enquired that all is fine, so we pushed on with me keeping close eye on Bertie.
Justin and Bertie feeling unbelievably blessed and lucky to be able to ride such a nice tracks:
Meeting the locals. Justin keeping them entertained, while I sneak some pictures from the flank. You can also see Bertie trying a little clown trick on the arrival (this one was actually funny, because soft):
