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Mev Vis Arend said:
Ah, nog n lekker RR to follow soon!
8)
Christmas Safari 2 - 2014 Edition (Bots & Nam)
- Thread starter Xpat
- Start date
Ah, nog n lekker RR to follow soon!
8)
brettp
Race Dog
Excellent report, and damn fine riding.... well done.
sub..............
sub..............
Day 14 - part 2
After a break, I jumped back on the bike and headed across the river to climb the pass between Huarusib and Khumib river. I've done it before, but still the change in scenery as the terrain changes from the green riverbed surrounded by sandy desert to the martian-like volcanic mountains is something to behold. Despite being much lower, the mountains resemble parts of the Altiplano around Salar de Uyuni in South America.
I've been beaten to the exit from the river by two Namibian farming families on vacation in two 4x4. They missed the exit from the river heading to the pass first time and had to retrace for a bit. We would take over each other few times as they and I stopped alternatively for pics and breaks - they were also heading to Marble Campsite in Onjuva.
For some unfathomable reason there are people living in few huts in the barren desert next to the exit and the kids couldn't resist the entertainment provided by those weird whiteys in staggeringly expensive vehicles, who's idea of fun is to ride in the middle of summer through dust and rocks, and sleep in tents eating smash, rather than go for an all inclusive beach holiday as any sensible Himba would do (well that's at least what Himba in me would do - but the Czech in me says naaah):
From the river it's uphill to the summit through rocks for 10 or so km:
First overtake:
Harsh barren rock that makes my soul sing - if you can, do this pass in the early morning or late afternoon (this pictures are from midday, but I did it no the last trip), the deep red of the rocks has uncanny resemblance to those images from Mars:
And where I came from - the Huarusib river, my favourite place on this planet:
And onwards and upwards:
The top is nigh:
A tree:
The top and much more gradual descend to Khumib river:
Khumib river by most standards is a fantastic place on its own, but in the context of Kaokoland it feels a bit bland compared to its sisters Hoanib and Hurusib. It carries probably much less water, the vegetation is sparser and while I've seen warnings on GPS about elephants, I have not seen any wildlife there on my 4 visits, except one family of giraffes. Still a nice ride alternating between dry riverbed and high ground on its left bank all the way up to Onjuva.
The pass from Huarusib:
And the Khumib river:
Taking over the two families again - they definitely seemed to have a great time:
Heading to Orupembe at the bottom of those mountains dead ahead for a shopping spree:
Orupembe CBD and Woolies:
The lady shop proprietor coming to open the shop and posing:
And her house:
Wonder what they farm here - probably rocks:
From Orupembe it's about 25 km to Marble Campsite, first about 5 returning through the barren rock back to the Khumib river and then following river up across a big sandy plain.
Orupembe satellite development:
Man, this place was busy:
The turn-off north to Onjuva and Marienfluss:
Here the tracks crosses about 10 km of a red sand plain until the Onjuva village sitting at the bottom of the mountains on the other side:
And over the first set of mountain to the next valley with the campsite:
The hills on the right are made of marble - hence the Marble campsite at their bottom:
A new clinic built by private contractor, but not paid by government due to some unresolved defects - so closed. Quite sad as it is the only clinic for the huge area probably spanning all the way to Opuwo:
Turn-off sign to the campsite - nailed appropriately to a marble stone:
The campsite was full - the German gang was there, as well as the two Namibian families, who took me over again when I did my detour to Orupembe. Quite strange to see so much traffic in this remote place. I was fully expecting to camp for the first time on this trip, but to my surprise there are three chalets/houses on a hill above the campsite and yes, they can be rent. Not keen on the whole camping hassle night before my final push up the Van Zyl's Pass, I immediately zoomed on the last of the available chalets and after an hour or so - the houses do not belong to the campsite and the guy who handles them was in the village - I managed to score one. I know this probably costs me adventure credibility, but I was quite tired after 5 days of solid riding and wanted to rest the best I can and start as early as possible for the push to Epupa next day. And quite frankly, even if I wouldn't be, I would go for the chalet ;D.
This far in the sticks I have fully expected very basic facilities - and was surprised how well the campsite was set-up, and especially the comfortable set-up houses up on the hill. There was a fully equipped kitchen with the gas stove and lots of arty details (made surprisingly mostly of welded metal) that would make this to stand out anywhere on the Garden route. It was another proof of the resourcefullness and entrepreneurship of the (quite frankly white) Namibians, I came to admire so much on my travels. I hope the owner does well in his venture in Onjuva.
My villa:
And the interior:
And the view form the verandah with resident baobab:
After a dinner of spam and something I headed for the bed early as I knew the next day ride up the VZP and onwards to Epupa will be an exhausting one.
After a break, I jumped back on the bike and headed across the river to climb the pass between Huarusib and Khumib river. I've done it before, but still the change in scenery as the terrain changes from the green riverbed surrounded by sandy desert to the martian-like volcanic mountains is something to behold. Despite being much lower, the mountains resemble parts of the Altiplano around Salar de Uyuni in South America.
I've been beaten to the exit from the river by two Namibian farming families on vacation in two 4x4. They missed the exit from the river heading to the pass first time and had to retrace for a bit. We would take over each other few times as they and I stopped alternatively for pics and breaks - they were also heading to Marble Campsite in Onjuva.
For some unfathomable reason there are people living in few huts in the barren desert next to the exit and the kids couldn't resist the entertainment provided by those weird whiteys in staggeringly expensive vehicles, who's idea of fun is to ride in the middle of summer through dust and rocks, and sleep in tents eating smash, rather than go for an all inclusive beach holiday as any sensible Himba would do (well that's at least what Himba in me would do - but the Czech in me says naaah):
From the river it's uphill to the summit through rocks for 10 or so km:
First overtake:
Harsh barren rock that makes my soul sing - if you can, do this pass in the early morning or late afternoon (this pictures are from midday, but I did it no the last trip), the deep red of the rocks has uncanny resemblance to those images from Mars:
And where I came from - the Huarusib river, my favourite place on this planet:
And onwards and upwards:
The top is nigh:
A tree:
The top and much more gradual descend to Khumib river:
Khumib river by most standards is a fantastic place on its own, but in the context of Kaokoland it feels a bit bland compared to its sisters Hoanib and Hurusib. It carries probably much less water, the vegetation is sparser and while I've seen warnings on GPS about elephants, I have not seen any wildlife there on my 4 visits, except one family of giraffes. Still a nice ride alternating between dry riverbed and high ground on its left bank all the way up to Onjuva.
The pass from Huarusib:
And the Khumib river:
Taking over the two families again - they definitely seemed to have a great time:
Heading to Orupembe at the bottom of those mountains dead ahead for a shopping spree:
Orupembe CBD and Woolies:
The lady shop proprietor coming to open the shop and posing:
And her house:
Wonder what they farm here - probably rocks:
From Orupembe it's about 25 km to Marble Campsite, first about 5 returning through the barren rock back to the Khumib river and then following river up across a big sandy plain.
Orupembe satellite development:
Man, this place was busy:
The turn-off north to Onjuva and Marienfluss:
Here the tracks crosses about 10 km of a red sand plain until the Onjuva village sitting at the bottom of the mountains on the other side:
And over the first set of mountain to the next valley with the campsite:
The hills on the right are made of marble - hence the Marble campsite at their bottom:
A new clinic built by private contractor, but not paid by government due to some unresolved defects - so closed. Quite sad as it is the only clinic for the huge area probably spanning all the way to Opuwo:
Turn-off sign to the campsite - nailed appropriately to a marble stone:
The campsite was full - the German gang was there, as well as the two Namibian families, who took me over again when I did my detour to Orupembe. Quite strange to see so much traffic in this remote place. I was fully expecting to camp for the first time on this trip, but to my surprise there are three chalets/houses on a hill above the campsite and yes, they can be rent. Not keen on the whole camping hassle night before my final push up the Van Zyl's Pass, I immediately zoomed on the last of the available chalets and after an hour or so - the houses do not belong to the campsite and the guy who handles them was in the village - I managed to score one. I know this probably costs me adventure credibility, but I was quite tired after 5 days of solid riding and wanted to rest the best I can and start as early as possible for the push to Epupa next day. And quite frankly, even if I wouldn't be, I would go for the chalet ;D.
This far in the sticks I have fully expected very basic facilities - and was surprised how well the campsite was set-up, and especially the comfortable set-up houses up on the hill. There was a fully equipped kitchen with the gas stove and lots of arty details (made surprisingly mostly of welded metal) that would make this to stand out anywhere on the Garden route. It was another proof of the resourcefullness and entrepreneurship of the (quite frankly white) Namibians, I came to admire so much on my travels. I hope the owner does well in his venture in Onjuva.
My villa:
And the interior:
And the view form the verandah with resident baobab:
After a dinner of spam and something I headed for the bed early as I knew the next day ride up the VZP and onwards to Epupa will be an exhausting one.
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2010
- Messages
- 3,605
- Reaction score
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- Location
- I would rather be in Great Brak...
- Bike
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Again, all I can say is "Wow!"
:thumleft:
:thumleft:
popipants
Race Dog
Geezzz. What a nice place to stay...in the middle of nowhere!
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
JACOVV
Race Dog
Cannot wait for the rest. :thumleft:
brettp
Race Dog
Bring it on.............. welld done to you! You truly embody the spirit of true adventure.
Day 15 - part 1
This was supposed to be the toughest day of the trip. The plan was to ride up the Van Zyl's pass and onwards to Epupa Falls about 220 km away, where I would have a rest day. Like so:
There were some tough days before, but I always felt confident that I will be able to make it through. This time I wasn't sure I will be able to make it up the Van Zyl's pass. Now, I've done it before, but it was going down and on Husky 630. And while the Husky may seem to be in the similar category as Tenere - both singles about 600-700cc, they are actually world's apart weight and size wise. While Husky is basically an agile enduro bike akin to KTM 690 (just better of course), Tenere is just big - not just heavy, which I may be able to handle, but big in size. At 179 cm I'm not exactly tall, and Tenere's height - especially with WP front and Hyperpro back - would not allow to get a foothold in the tricky rocky sections. So my only option was momentum, which requires a level of commitment and persuasion that I wasn't sure I'm capable of. But hey, no point dwelling on it - I've come this far so I'll try and see how it goes.
To give myself a fighting chance I woke up early still in the dark, so I was up for another beautiful African sunrise:
I packed up quickly and set-off to take advantage of the lower temperature. I also knew from the Germans were staying one more day in Marble campsite, and few of them planned to do a day trip up and down the VZP - so I was keen to get there ahead of them as they may help me up the pass should I get stuck there. The campsite was just beginning to wake-up as I passed it on the way out:
I knew from my prior trips that first challenge will be the Red Drum pass, which is not long but steep and gnarly enough to provide plenty leg breaking opportunities and good warm-up for VZP:
I've battled here a bit, but after a tense moment or two I made it up without too much drama:
Made it to the top, but didn't relax yet as I still had to go down:
Once over the pass the riding eased up quite a bit into a rocky double track winding right-left and up-down through the morning bush:
As I was probably the first vehicle for the day I've bumped into quite a bit of wildlife (unfortunately the helmet camera makes them way too small, even though they were actually pretty close). First Oryxes:
Then springboks:
And finally ostriches - these for some reason run for about km or two in front of me on the track before veering off to the bush:
After an hour or so I arrived to the Red Drum - a major navigation point on all maps, which is exactly that - a red drum in the middle of nowhere, and took a break. There was a local guy selling trinkets and straight away I could see he was not well - very skinny with a bit of fever. He asked for some medicine. I feel iffy distributing medicine as quite honestly I have no clue what most of it is for and what are the side effects. But he looked like he can use some relief, so I gave him a box of painkillers, few Rehydrate packets and box of Salticrax for sustenance. He asked for malaria pills, but I had only 4 Lariams as a last resort if I catch it (I was not taking any as prophylaxis) and wasn't keen to give them up. I hoped some other tourists - I knew there will be quite a few bikes and cars through that day - could help him out.
From the Red Drum I continued north another 12 km to the southern boundary of the Marienfluss valley. The double track pretty soon changed from the rocky hard-pack to the red sand covering most of the valley:
Small settlement where they Red Drum guys was from:
And back to the sand:
Little Himba kraal:
At the southern end of the Marienfluss valley. My original plan was to ride 60 km up the valley and sleep over in the Syncro camp in Otjitanda (I think) and return next day for the VZP ride. But I was short of time and decided to skip Marienfluss and head straight to the VZP.
Here is another shameless plug of my ride up the Marienfluss valley on my last trip:
Instead of heading north to Otjitanda, I turned east and followed sandy track along the southern boundary of the valley to the Van Zyl's pass 12 km away:
And into the mountains:
Bottom of the VZP, where I took another breather to psyche myself up before hitting the pass:
The pole to which the Ford Ranger Odyssey marketing thingy - with two of my mates in it - nailed a plaque to remember this pinnacle of human achievement. To my dismay the plaque was gone - I planned to piss ritually underneath to mark the territory as off limit for any future commercial malarkey.
By now the summer heat was starting to bear down - what more could one hope for for ascent up the VZP:
To be continued...
This was supposed to be the toughest day of the trip. The plan was to ride up the Van Zyl's pass and onwards to Epupa Falls about 220 km away, where I would have a rest day. Like so:
There were some tough days before, but I always felt confident that I will be able to make it through. This time I wasn't sure I will be able to make it up the Van Zyl's pass. Now, I've done it before, but it was going down and on Husky 630. And while the Husky may seem to be in the similar category as Tenere - both singles about 600-700cc, they are actually world's apart weight and size wise. While Husky is basically an agile enduro bike akin to KTM 690 (just better of course), Tenere is just big - not just heavy, which I may be able to handle, but big in size. At 179 cm I'm not exactly tall, and Tenere's height - especially with WP front and Hyperpro back - would not allow to get a foothold in the tricky rocky sections. So my only option was momentum, which requires a level of commitment and persuasion that I wasn't sure I'm capable of. But hey, no point dwelling on it - I've come this far so I'll try and see how it goes.
To give myself a fighting chance I woke up early still in the dark, so I was up for another beautiful African sunrise:
I packed up quickly and set-off to take advantage of the lower temperature. I also knew from the Germans were staying one more day in Marble campsite, and few of them planned to do a day trip up and down the VZP - so I was keen to get there ahead of them as they may help me up the pass should I get stuck there. The campsite was just beginning to wake-up as I passed it on the way out:
I knew from my prior trips that first challenge will be the Red Drum pass, which is not long but steep and gnarly enough to provide plenty leg breaking opportunities and good warm-up for VZP:
I've battled here a bit, but after a tense moment or two I made it up without too much drama:
Made it to the top, but didn't relax yet as I still had to go down:
Once over the pass the riding eased up quite a bit into a rocky double track winding right-left and up-down through the morning bush:
As I was probably the first vehicle for the day I've bumped into quite a bit of wildlife (unfortunately the helmet camera makes them way too small, even though they were actually pretty close). First Oryxes:
Then springboks:
And finally ostriches - these for some reason run for about km or two in front of me on the track before veering off to the bush:
After an hour or so I arrived to the Red Drum - a major navigation point on all maps, which is exactly that - a red drum in the middle of nowhere, and took a break. There was a local guy selling trinkets and straight away I could see he was not well - very skinny with a bit of fever. He asked for some medicine. I feel iffy distributing medicine as quite honestly I have no clue what most of it is for and what are the side effects. But he looked like he can use some relief, so I gave him a box of painkillers, few Rehydrate packets and box of Salticrax for sustenance. He asked for malaria pills, but I had only 4 Lariams as a last resort if I catch it (I was not taking any as prophylaxis) and wasn't keen to give them up. I hoped some other tourists - I knew there will be quite a few bikes and cars through that day - could help him out.
From the Red Drum I continued north another 12 km to the southern boundary of the Marienfluss valley. The double track pretty soon changed from the rocky hard-pack to the red sand covering most of the valley:
Small settlement where they Red Drum guys was from:
And back to the sand:
Little Himba kraal:
At the southern end of the Marienfluss valley. My original plan was to ride 60 km up the valley and sleep over in the Syncro camp in Otjitanda (I think) and return next day for the VZP ride. But I was short of time and decided to skip Marienfluss and head straight to the VZP.
Here is another shameless plug of my ride up the Marienfluss valley on my last trip:
[flash=800,600]https://www.youtube.com/v/ClNcmFS2fU0[/flash]
Instead of heading north to Otjitanda, I turned east and followed sandy track along the southern boundary of the valley to the Van Zyl's pass 12 km away:
And into the mountains:
Bottom of the VZP, where I took another breather to psyche myself up before hitting the pass:
The pole to which the Ford Ranger Odyssey marketing thingy - with two of my mates in it - nailed a plaque to remember this pinnacle of human achievement. To my dismay the plaque was gone - I planned to piss ritually underneath to mark the territory as off limit for any future commercial malarkey.
By now the summer heat was starting to bear down - what more could one hope for for ascent up the VZP:
To be continued...
heti
Pack Dog
Befok!!
BFG
Race Dog
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- Mar 12, 2012
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- Yamaha T7
I con't remember if you have answered this or not, if so I'll look for it, but do you set you camera to video whilst riding and then pull out screen shots or does it snap pics every couple of seconds and you sieve through them?
I record a video and then scrap pictures from the video at home. That way I have video and pictures - the picture quality is not as good as if I would have it set for the interval photo taking, but for ride report purposes it is good enough. I have used the interval photo taking - image taken every 5 - 10s once before, but didn't like it as it usually takes picture a second too early or too late.
Can't wait for the next installment, I have always looked at Van Zyl's pass and wondered if it is possible to go up from the South. Most people say it is not possible?
Really loving this RR. Makes our Southern Nam trip seem so tame by comparison. Keep it coming please.
Thanks for help funacide!
No it's not flat between Onjuva and Red Drum, it is actually more gnarly than VZP as far as I remember.
And yes, you can ride up the VZP - you are not supposed to do it in 4x4 as they destroy the track, but bikes are considered OK. There are few people on this forum who rode up. Whether I can make it up - you'll have to wait for the next instalment. It's coming this evening if I can shake off the horrible headache I have right now.
No it's not flat between Onjuva and Red Drum, it is actually more gnarly than VZP as far as I remember.
And yes, you can ride up the VZP - you are not supposed to do it in 4x4 as they destroy the track, but bikes are considered OK. There are few people on this forum who rode up. Whether I can make it up - you'll have to wait for the next instalment. It's coming this evening if I can shake off the horrible headache I have right now.
