Collective RR - Namibia Tour June 2021 with Specialized Adventures

[Hardy de Kock]

The crew arrived this afternoon - Three days driving from Windhoek was my nail in the coffin. How else after spending 12 days in one of the most beautiful places on earth, chasing  riders on epic gravel trails?
Thank you to our crew and all the temp staff (Chantal, Oubones, Kamanya, Adriaan, Nic, Li-Mari and Jaco - YOU WERE FANTASTIC!
With Nic, Adriaan, Jaco and Kamanya and Oubones being Quest veterans, it should have been expected. Thank you again.
I believe every person on the tour is very grateful for Chantal and Li-Mari's cuisine - Your food was great.

@Burp - Thank you for doing this. Knowing your sense of humor and your attention to detail, it should be epic.

To our guests:
Rickus Vermeulen, Kobus Etsebeth, Andre Fox, Pieter Lourens, Mark Johnstone, Kevin Knoop, Jacques Tredoux, Hugo Minnaar, Bart Steffels, Werner du Plessis, Johan Liebenberg, Mike Lang, Rob Westerman and Braham Edwards
Thank you for being the amazing guests you turned out to be - We really enjoyed your company and would love to hook up for another tour in the near future.

 

[Gumba]

Being good mates for close to 40 yrs and in the later years getting shit scared of not riding bush again, we eventually took the plunge and three of us souties decided before our old body’s give up , we clupped a berumde tarentaal, to brave the wife’s and tell them we will be going away for close to 3 weeks.
Confirmation with Hardy was made , deposit paid and nothing was going to stop us from a beeeeeg joll . We thought.
Then sadly we lost one very special member to the dreaded disease, he had fought hard for 4 yrs . Big shock to our system.
So we sent him on his way with a good few whiskeys like he would have loved .
Then decided between us now 2 piellie to carry on with the trip.
Thanks Andrew for some sound advice, take 3 rocks . And at a special place leave a rock and remember the good things and take a new rock . Works wonders , think my first rock I left was with the barman at palmwag
After a brilliant meal, and lots of kak spoken you find a spot to sleep. The difference in snoring sounds is amazing some like world war 2 bombers coming in to land and some spluttering like they ran out of fuel, ( apparently reflux from 100 smokes)
Then it’s amazing to hear 16 guys waking up . Like a lister engine, all farts and splutter!
Ready for the next days riding

 

[2StrokeDan]

:imaposer: :imaposer: Nicely written Bob!

 

[Onetime]

:sip:

 

[Kamanya]

It was far safer to keep everyone off their bikes and get out of Windhoek, pile into the vehicles and headed off for a short drive to Usakos.









A short coffee along the way



Reunited with my old Quest mate [member=5100]Twister[/member]



And another old mate [member=3864]Rickus[/member]



All the bikes were unloaded, and with much anticipation we headed off to Spitzkoppe with a stop at the local bar





For those that haven’t been, It’s a magical place with rocks that seem both a little out of place and planted as if they’ve been there forever. It really is a great place to start the trip. It was especially magical for me as this was where the Honda Quest started in earnest too.













It’s quite hard to take a kak photo here.

Many had small issues to sort out, Rob had a leaky sump plug. Easily fixed.



But for most it was settling in an getting to know each other







Tomorrow would be the first full day. Noting too exciting other than the landscapes. The mission was to get as quick as possible up to the Cunene. The 3 days helps to get into a groove and sort out any bike niggles before the serious stuff starts.

 

[petri oosthuizen]

Wow looks STUNNING

Mooi bikes.........maar daai Mog gaan my vanaand naughty thoughts gee...... :drif: :drif: :drif:

 

[Hardy de Kock]

Two of our riders did not make it to Namibia....
@Rooies called me about a week before we left to say that his wife tested positive and that there was a very good chance that he would test positive too. He decided to stay behind and take care of his wife and kids.

Stephan Volschenk - a medical doctor, found out that his partner in their practice's wife tested positive and that his partner would have to isolate. This meant that Stephan had to make the decision not to fly on the evening before they had to fly to Windhoek. Stephan's KTM 500 was already in Windhoek waiting for him..
This Covid thing has caused a lot of people a lot of money.

Stephan and Roux (@Rooies) will definitely join us agin at a later stage - I will make sure of it.

 

[twister]

We took the opportunity to explore the Spitzkoppe site a bit

 

[twister]

The "swim hole" was a bit of a disappointment. Looked like you could catch all kinds of nasty diseases in there

 

[twister]

A very rare photo of ets doing manual labour.

 

[ETS]

A very rare photo of ets doing manual labour.

Ha. Ha.

 

[deapsquatter]

Some more shots of bikes at the swim hole at Spitzkoppe.

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[deapsquatter]

@SparkMark chilling under the tree next to the rock chimney. Spot the two lone little black birds.

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[frankmac]

After a brilliant meal, and lots of kak spoken you find a spot to sleep. The difference in snoring sounds is amazing some like world war 2 bombers coming in to land and some spluttering like they ran out of fuel, ( apparently reflux from 100 smokes)
Then it’s amazing to hear 16 guys waking up . Like a lister engine, all farts and splutter!

Now there's a familiar face. The Mayor of Mfazazane, Hibberdene. The only pale face allowed to fish there after he saved a local from drowning.

 

[Hardy de Kock]

ETS always brings surprise with him:

Ets has paid me for a Kaokoland tour in 2018. Since then numerous incidents happened that (on the last minute) prevented him from going. In 2019 he crossed swords (or locked horns) with a Kudu and broke a leg. The Kudu did not make it either.
This year was no different - as I shall explain.

The crew left Loxton on the 8th of June very early in the morning. I received a call from Ets at around 8pm the previous evening that went something like this:

Ets - Jis my ou maat, hoe gaan dit met julle.
Me - Nee bakgat Ets - wat die moer het nou weer gebeur?
Ets - Ek het positief getoets......

Me -  Long silence - Fok nee man - waar sou jy dit gekry het? (thinking here we go again)
Ets - Nee die siekte is nou rampant in Prieska, maar ek het nie simtome nie - Klim nou net van die threadmill af. (At this point and because of the last comment I now thought he was pulling my leg.
Me - Is jy ernstig ETS?
Ets - Ja, maar ek dink dit is dalk 'n vals positief - Ek ry more Upington toe om weer te toets.
Me - Ok, het jy vir Pieter laat weet? (Pieter (Twister) was about to leave Bloemfontein at that point to collect ETS and his bike from where they would drive to Windhoek)
Ets - Yes, ek het
Me - Ok, ons ry more vroeg, maar laat my asb weet as jy weet wat met jou aangaan
Ets - Ok my maat ek maak so - (Not knowing that I felt utterly miserable at that stage)

I drove past Ets later that morning between Upington and Prieska as he made his way back home after his test. I later heard that the results were going to take too long and that he then drove to Bloemfontein to do a quicker test which eventually confirmed his theory that the first test was a false positive.
I remeber being truly happy when he sent me his test result .

 

[Hardy de Kock]

Our incident at the border:

We usually collect the client's bikes a week or so before the crew leaves for Windhoek. This time was no different and with our trailers fully loaded we drove to Upington from where we headed towards the Nakop/Ariamsvlei border where we have crossed countless times.

Hennie (@Oubones) and Jacques Tredoux (@Jacques650) was in the Unimog, Chantal was in the Cruiser D/C and Jaco (@Hartebees) and myself was in the SC. Both the cruisers were pulling an eight bike trailer.

Hennie and Jacques had their passports stamped first and crossed after a quick visit to the customs office who gave them the thumbs up.
Next was Jaco and myself and as we were about to cross, two female police officers came out of the border police office and asked for a lift to the Namibian border (30km away)
I agreed that we would give them a lift and told them to jump on the back. "No" we do not want to drive in the back was the reply. Now - just to be clear, I was driving a SINGLE CAB Cruiser with me and Jaco in the front.
Suit yourself I replied and drove away.
About a minute later Chantal called me over the radio and told me that the Customs lady (who were friends with the police women) said I must come back and report to her office. If Chantal were not still on SA soil I would not have turned back, but in this case I had to.
Once I arrived back on the SA side and reported to the customs office, the black customs official informed me that I now had to officialy export the customer's bikes.
I have no exporters code and I have transported customer bikes many times, and in all my years I have never had to do this.
Despite me showing her the authorisation letters from each customer, the certified copy of ownership from each customer, and receipts from our previous tour (three weeks prior) she still refused and told us to speak to a clearing agent and to start the export process.
For this process I needed the original purchase invoices from each customer and my customers were already on their way to Windhoek.

I went to the clearing agents who told me that she was crazy and that they could not legally do what she required.
There we were - the 3 of us standing at a clearing agent that told us it was not possible to do what she wanted, and we still needed to get to Grunnau. Oubones and Jacques had already crossed into Namibia and were waiting for us on the other side with no hope of us crossing that night.

After contemplating our situation (an hour later) we drove back to the border with the clearing agent and he explained to the customs official that she requested the impossible. She threatened him by saying she would make his job difficult and basically told him to piss off.
I will be banned if I tell you of the things I contemplated at that moment.
I have never had to bribe an official and always were able to make things work by doing things the right way. This situation though made me feel so helpless as I was at the mercy of a power hungry woman who had an axe to grind it seemed. It was now tho hours and forty minutes after I have already crossed the SA border and had to come back. It was already dark outside, and getting cold quickly. I then decided to go the police at the gate. This meant that I literally had to make sure that the customs official did not see me through the window as I walked towards the gate. I also had to hide the cars and trailers so that she could not see it either.
I called the clearing agent (coloured guy) and asked him to be present as I stated my case to the two black police officers at the gate.
After listening to the whole story which started with the women that needed lifts, the police officer replied.

"This woman is a vindictive bitch and a racist. She does this to white people. She knocks of at 7'and if you could hide from her till then, we will let you through."
I then embarked on what has to be the most difficult thing I have ever done. - Hiding myself,  my people and my vehicles, trailers and bikes from a corrupt official for another 40 minutes.
At 7:15 we drove towards the gate where the police officers waited for us and did as they promised.

On the Namibian side it took us exactly 28 minutes to cross.

4 hours and 12 minutes after I went through the SA gate for the first time we crossed into Namibia.

 

[Vis Arend]

Yip, dit bly moelik as mense dink hulle is belangrik en hulle "status" misbruik.  :eek7:

Ek se altyd, die wiel draai, party keer vinnig, party keer stadig, maar die wiel draai en daai mense sal hulle dag kry.  :deal:

 

[Gumba]

Amazing thing men , as the stars get dimmer and lower in the sky ,the snoring and farting gets louder. Think nature intended it to prevent predators! And as the day’s added up the further the stretches were placed
One lesson learned early on into the ride was NEVER follow a Ktm 950 !
Hulle gooi Klippe ver , en in die sand it leaves trenches that if you’re not careful, you’ll fall into and never be seen again.
Us sophisticated English men whose diet is mainly chicken were introduced to proper vlies! Choppies the same size as spa has cock chicken. And bloody tasty meat you can’t find here in natal.
Only problem after listening to Hardys story’s of problem animals a boss kak becomes a hasty affair, no time to even read the opening instructions on a packet of wet wipes. And after so much meat half the day you were ( touching cloth )

 

[sidetrack]

Stunning scenery  :thumleft:

 

[8 min Mark]

Our incident at the border:

We usually collect the client's bikes a week or so before the crew leaves for Windhoek. This time was no different and with our trailers fully loaded we drove to Upington from where we headed towards the Nakop/Ariamsvlei border where we have crossed countless times.

Hennie (@Oubones) and Jacques Tredoux (@Jacques650) was in the Unimog, Chantal was in the Cruiser D/C and Jaco (@Hartebees) and myself was in the SC. Both the cruisers were pulling an eight bike trailer.

Hennie and Jacques had their passports stamped first and crossed after a quick visit to the customs office who gave them the thumbs up.
Next was Jaco and myself and as we were about to cross, two female police officers came out of the border police office and asked for a lift to the Namibian border (30km away)
I agreed that we would give them a lift and told them to jump on the back. "No" we do not want to drive in the back was the reply. Now - just to be clear, I was driving a SINGLE CAB Cruiser with me and Jaco in the front.
Suit yourself I replied and drove away.
About a minute later Chantal called me over the radio and told me that the Customs lady (who were friends with the police women) said I must come back and report to her office. If Chantal were not still on SA soil I would not have turned back, but in this case I had to.
Once I arrived back on the SA side and reported to the customs office, the black customs official informed me that I now had to officialy export the customer's bikes.
I have no exporters code and I have transported customer bikes many times, and in all my years I have never had to do this.
Despite me showing her the authorisation letters from each customer, the certified copy of ownership from each customer, and receipts from our previous tour (three weeks prior) she still refused and told us to speak to a clearing agent and to start the export process.
For this process I needed the original purchase invoices from each customer and my customers were already on their way to Windhoek.

I went to the clearing agents who told me that she was crazy and that they could not legally do what she required.
There we were - the 3 of us standing at a clearing agent that told us it was not possible to do what she wanted, and we still needed to get to Grunnau. Oubones and Jacques had already crossed into Namibia and were waiting for us on the other side with no hope of us crossing that night.

After contemplating our situation (an hour later) we drove back to the border with the clearing agent and he explained to the customs official that she requested the impossible. She threatened him by saying she would make his job difficult and basically told him to piss off.
I will be banned if I tell you of the things I contemplated at that moment.
I have never had to bribe an official and always were able to make things work by doing things the right way. This situation though made me feel so helpless as I was at the mercy of a power hungry woman who had an axe to grind it seemed. It was now tho hours and forty minutes after I have already crossed the SA border and had to come back. It was already dark outside, and getting cold quickly. I then decided to go the police at the gate. This meant that I literally had to make sure that the customs official did not see me through the window as I walked towards the gate. I also had to hide the cars and trailers so that she could not see it either.
I called the clearing agent (coloured guy) and asked him to be present as I stated my case to the two black police officers at the gate.
After listening to the whole story which started with the women that needed lifts, the police officer replied.

"This woman is a vindictive bitch and a racist. She does this to white people. She knocks of at 7'and if you could hide from her till then, we will let you through."
I then embarked on what has to be the most difficult thing I have ever done. - Hiding myself,  my people and my vehicles, trailers and bikes from a corrupt official for another 40 minutes.
At 7:15 we drove towards the gate where the police officers waited for us and did as they promised.

On the Namibian side it took us exactly 28 minutes to cross.

4 hours and 12 minutes after I went through the SA gate for the first time we crossed into Namibia.

I can only imagine how furious and helpless you must have felt for those couple of hours. No doubt the relief at getting through the border must have been an absolute rush of adrenaline. I too experienced a similar glitch crossing into Nam and it casts a massive shadow over everything at the time. Well done Hardy for getting it sorted. Stress levels must have been stretched to new limits. Hopefully one day I’ll ride in Kaokoland again, but with you and your team.


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