Pongo
Pack Dog
Day ten, Friday October 22:
After breakfast we took the C14 towards Solitaire. First we visited “Duin Sewe”:
did the Capricorn thing
and had apple crumble at Café van der Lee. Solitaire has since my last visit become very much commercialised. The apple crumble is no longer served in a foamalite holder with plastic fork, but in ceramic ware with a metal fork – it definitely did not taste the same as before. Besides the lodge, restaurant and general dealer there is now also a bakery with coffee shop. I guess healthy competition can sometimes be unhealthy.
Sorry if it sounds like I’m negative, I’m not. Maybe it is just that I expected to show Andre what I experienced on the previous trip and found something totally different. Even with the roads.
From Walvis to Solitaire the C14 bears evidence of heavy traffic. Tourists are not travelling here in overlanders or busses any more – everybody has his own rented 4x4. Parts of the road are so worn out, it cannot be graded any more. Long deep sand pits have formed and in trying to avoid these, the vehicles create new ones. The road will definitely have to be built up or tarred to make any lasting difference. Since tourism is Namibia’s second largest industry, it will have to happen soon too.
Unless you have some experience of bad dirt roads and sand, and in these conditions are willing to dodge heavy tourist traffic in thick dust, keep off this road.
The only other bikers we came across on the dirt roads were a group of Germans on some kind of rented bike touring expedition. They did the loop from Sesriem and stopped at Solitaire for lunch. We started chatting to them, but did not get any response other than “Hi”. They did not look very happy and must have been dehydrated, because most of them were riding in full black leathers. Didn’t anyone tell them what the temperatures are in Namibia?
We intended sleeping in the desert just south of Bullsport, but it was already weekend and the long distance home started looking gloomy. My body was also telling me to stop this beating.
Andre and I understand each other very well and we think alike – the ideal kind of partnership for a bike trip without any issues. This also makes it easy and quick to make or change any decision.
We decided on taking the nearest tarred road to get as close to Ai-Ais as possible before dark so we can spend the next day there and at the Fish river Canyon before going home on Sunday.
In Maltahöhe we refueled, inflated the tires and hit the tar towards Mariental at about 16:00.
About 35km down that road I had a spine-chilling experience. The wall of my front tube must have been pinched on the bad roads. As I was passing a bakkie at 180km/h the GS suddenly started swerving. The flat came so suddenly, the beading popped and it felt like riding on marshmallows. Fortunately it happened on a straight, so I could just free to a standstill. The bakkie passed me and disappeared. Andre was up front and I knew he wasn’t going to stop before reaching Mariental 70km’s further on, since we did not ride slingshot on the tar. With a vehicle passing maybe once every hour and with no cellphone signal I knew I was going to wait some time for a helping hand. Meantime I prepared everything and loosened the wheel. A Samaritan stopped, but could not help me as he had been in an accident a few days earlier and could not apply any pressure. He then offered to take the wheel with him to Maltahöhe, have it repaired and bring it back to me. He even called Andre from Maltahöhe to tell him what has happened. Nog regte boere-mense in daai wêreld.
By the time I was mobile again, it was getting dark and we had an unplanned but very pleasant night ride in full moon to Mariental, where we called it a day.
We have lost more precious time and Andre must’ve noticed that the high speed flat had a retarding effect on my riding, which would take a few hundred km’s to cure, so that evening we also decided to cut the visit to Ai-Ais and head back home the next day.
Day eleven, Saturday October 23:
The last morning on the trip was a chilling 6º C again. After a Wimpy breakfast in Keetmans we each took on our own long way home. I arrived in CT just before sunset and Andre was forced by a heavy thunderstorm to overnight in Vryburg.
WHAT A RIDE!! Thanks Tjomma.
I had an awesome trip on the 800, love the bike even more and I will never knock the GS, but the Super Ten did extremely well, had no problems at all. The GS? - back home the top gasket and neck bearing had to be replaced. Nothing major, but still.
Although the GS had already done 10 000 km at the offset of the trip, I still tip my hat for the Tenere - 6500km later (in 9 days) and no problem whatsoever.
The next trip? - Malawi via Botswana, Caprivi, - I will share it with you when it happens.
Keep your dreams alive…...
After breakfast we took the C14 towards Solitaire. First we visited “Duin Sewe”:
did the Capricorn thing
and had apple crumble at Café van der Lee. Solitaire has since my last visit become very much commercialised. The apple crumble is no longer served in a foamalite holder with plastic fork, but in ceramic ware with a metal fork – it definitely did not taste the same as before. Besides the lodge, restaurant and general dealer there is now also a bakery with coffee shop. I guess healthy competition can sometimes be unhealthy.
Sorry if it sounds like I’m negative, I’m not. Maybe it is just that I expected to show Andre what I experienced on the previous trip and found something totally different. Even with the roads.
From Walvis to Solitaire the C14 bears evidence of heavy traffic. Tourists are not travelling here in overlanders or busses any more – everybody has his own rented 4x4. Parts of the road are so worn out, it cannot be graded any more. Long deep sand pits have formed and in trying to avoid these, the vehicles create new ones. The road will definitely have to be built up or tarred to make any lasting difference. Since tourism is Namibia’s second largest industry, it will have to happen soon too.
Unless you have some experience of bad dirt roads and sand, and in these conditions are willing to dodge heavy tourist traffic in thick dust, keep off this road.
The only other bikers we came across on the dirt roads were a group of Germans on some kind of rented bike touring expedition. They did the loop from Sesriem and stopped at Solitaire for lunch. We started chatting to them, but did not get any response other than “Hi”. They did not look very happy and must have been dehydrated, because most of them were riding in full black leathers. Didn’t anyone tell them what the temperatures are in Namibia?
We intended sleeping in the desert just south of Bullsport, but it was already weekend and the long distance home started looking gloomy. My body was also telling me to stop this beating.
Andre and I understand each other very well and we think alike – the ideal kind of partnership for a bike trip without any issues. This also makes it easy and quick to make or change any decision.
We decided on taking the nearest tarred road to get as close to Ai-Ais as possible before dark so we can spend the next day there and at the Fish river Canyon before going home on Sunday.
In Maltahöhe we refueled, inflated the tires and hit the tar towards Mariental at about 16:00.
About 35km down that road I had a spine-chilling experience. The wall of my front tube must have been pinched on the bad roads. As I was passing a bakkie at 180km/h the GS suddenly started swerving. The flat came so suddenly, the beading popped and it felt like riding on marshmallows. Fortunately it happened on a straight, so I could just free to a standstill. The bakkie passed me and disappeared. Andre was up front and I knew he wasn’t going to stop before reaching Mariental 70km’s further on, since we did not ride slingshot on the tar. With a vehicle passing maybe once every hour and with no cellphone signal I knew I was going to wait some time for a helping hand. Meantime I prepared everything and loosened the wheel. A Samaritan stopped, but could not help me as he had been in an accident a few days earlier and could not apply any pressure. He then offered to take the wheel with him to Maltahöhe, have it repaired and bring it back to me. He even called Andre from Maltahöhe to tell him what has happened. Nog regte boere-mense in daai wêreld.
By the time I was mobile again, it was getting dark and we had an unplanned but very pleasant night ride in full moon to Mariental, where we called it a day.
We have lost more precious time and Andre must’ve noticed that the high speed flat had a retarding effect on my riding, which would take a few hundred km’s to cure, so that evening we also decided to cut the visit to Ai-Ais and head back home the next day.
Day eleven, Saturday October 23:
The last morning on the trip was a chilling 6º C again. After a Wimpy breakfast in Keetmans we each took on our own long way home. I arrived in CT just before sunset and Andre was forced by a heavy thunderstorm to overnight in Vryburg.
WHAT A RIDE!! Thanks Tjomma.
I had an awesome trip on the 800, love the bike even more and I will never knock the GS, but the Super Ten did extremely well, had no problems at all. The GS? - back home the top gasket and neck bearing had to be replaced. Nothing major, but still.
Although the GS had already done 10 000 km at the offset of the trip, I still tip my hat for the Tenere - 6500km later (in 9 days) and no problem whatsoever.
The next trip? - Malawi via Botswana, Caprivi, - I will share it with you when it happens.
Keep your dreams alive…...
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