Namibia DRIVE report, the Landy made it back!

[m0lt3n]

Ongongo waterfall campsite was very nice, a definite must visit.
The access road requires a 4x4 which I enjoyed, some rocky steps to navigate and then there is a waterfall you can have a swim at after setting up tent. In our instance though it was a little crowded at first with some 10 odd tourists and two local guides hugging the nice spots. This was okay but the one guide did not get much attention growing up so now he was collecting! Good thing there was no pipe off cuts or baseball batt shops nearby  :BangHead:

The children loved the campsite, the rocky riverbed was in front of your braai and it was very relaxed watching them climbing jumping and goofing around. The pics should give a good idea.

 

[ClimbingTurtle]

They have really done the camp up nicely now!
in 2012 there was a couple of reed shelters and a couple of concrete bases - nothing else at all!

Stunning pics!!

:thumleft:

 

[aka.Goliath]

Nice report so far. Keep it coming [emoji6]

 

[TinusBez]

:sip:

 

[Dragonfly-XC]

:sip: Ek sien jy het n oog vir 'n goeie foto, watter kamera het jy gebruik?

 

[m0lt3n]

Is that a human skeleton I see there in one of the photos 

thats an affirmative

:sip: Ek sien jy het n oog vir 'n goeie foto, watter kamera het jy gebruik?

Thanks. Ons het nogal probeer moeite doen met fotos, op die ou einde is dit al wat mens oor het.
Die ster van die verhaal is egter die Huawei P20 pro. Als is met my foon geneem, hy het n besonderse goeie kamera (oftewel 4)

 

[m0lt3n]

From Ongongo the next stop was Mowani en route to Brandberg. We had to drive back via Palmwag where some of my meat was confiscated at the vet post. They should have taken more than what they did and were at least friendly so my day wasnt spoiled. The scenery was good again with the ever changing landscape and we made good time.

We stopped at the Organ pipes. It gave us the impression (again) that Namibia was really trying hard to benefit out of all possible tourism attractions. It was okay, basically what you see in the pictures.There was a burned mountain nearby we also went to see, but it was a waste of time I did not even take a picture of it. There was a roadside lodge/bar on the road near these attractions which brought some appreciated relief.

Some time later after passing a number of homemade signs for the petrified forest we got the real deal and had a nice experience with a friendly educated guide. I actually enjoyed the information he had to share on the veld more than the petrified wood information. He explained how the Melkbos was used as poison on the arrow tips of Bushman etc.

At Mowani there is a very expensive lodge while we stayed at the much cheaper camping site. On their website they make it very clear that a camper is not overly welcome at the lodge but we did enjoy friendly service and a nice drink at the lodge. The campsite was also super with good ablutions and a great view. The children loved climbing on all the rocks again and we managed some nice sunset pics.

 

[m0lt3n]

Driving at the camp site my daughter thought she was in total control! The video is very funny. Some more pics of the camp site.

 

[m0lt3n]

Next up we had a short day to Brandberg White Lady Lodge and another big highlight of the trip. We were really getting gatvol of all the corrugation and starting to miss home nearing Brandberg. There was a dry river bed crossing and looking at the map it seemed to be heading to the lodge so we decided to drive in the river bed to escape the corrugation, did not work. But we barely started and a guy in a cruiser comes heading the opposite way, stops and asks if we saw the elephants...caught me by surprise and I asked what elephants. Well, turns his bakkie had the lodge signage on so I told him I am early can I follow him. He had some Afrikaans tourist on the back, hitting to coolers very hard...

About 15km later we were just starting to get tired of the slow going in the riverbed when we found the elephants! What a great experience! There was a lot on both sides of the river bed and we could drive right in between them. It was awesome.

Driving back was less awesome, I climbed out of the river bed and ended up on a super slow going rocky road, had to engage rock crawl at times. took forever. Fortunately the lodge was truly like an oasis. It was great to have a swim and just relax. We also discovered the Marula Vigo drinks, as not much of a drinker/cooldrink drinker I love these!  We would really recommend this place. Also ended up having a long chat with the Land Cruiser driver I met earlier, which turns out was the owner, Naude. Learned a lot of interesting stuff of the way things worked in the area and such. One thing he mentioned was on the reason for the bad roads, how in the past the tourists came in busses and now everyone is doing a self-drive in a rental. There is a lot of traffic in the area, their restaurant was also stacked for the night. The sunset lookout point was also awesome.

Camping spots were nice, there was a lot of shade otherwise not much to say. The next morning we again went to the lodge for a swim and breakfast. They were also not priced to badly like the other places. We managed to get some ice and they helped me out with some milk as well. We were properly recharged for the rest of the trip and there was even rain in the air!

 

[m0lt3n]

Next up was a long day of visiting Spitskoppe before getting back on tar to get to to Lake Oanob for the night.

Spitskoppe was a bit of a sad story, when we got there I may or may not have listened for my wife's directions and ended up driving around the whole place on a two-spoor looking for the entrance gate. The whole place is fenced in. Eventually we got in at some back door gate and drove around a bit, without a map or anything looking for the "nicest" rocks.

We found some arch and myself and my son climbed on and over it. I did not have my phone with me for pictures but saw a very weird lizard. Looked like an overgrown plain 'akkedis' as I know them but it was the size of a monitor. (basies n bruin likkewaan!)
The colourful lizard in the attached picture = its not that one.

I did get bored a bit drove onto one of the big rocks. Don't know if its allowed there isn't any signs stating so, but it was fun. My wife on the other hand did not think it funny and got out, fortunately she took the phone along for photos

 

[m0lt3n]

After the quick stop at Spitskoppe it was the long road to Rehoboth via Windhoek. It was nice making good time again driving on tar. In Windhoek we stopped at some mall for supplies and found it all very upper class compared to our local offerings.

Lake Oanob was awesome as well. Gave me the impression of being the same as an ATKV resort. We got a luxury stand there as well but decided to dump our beds on the second floor and sleep there. A nice bonus not to have to pitch our tents again. The sunset was great on the water and we would like to visit this place also again in future. The next morning we went to the restaurant as well and had a good breakfast and swim. It was quiet and cheap. I think the lodgings for the night was R375. A bargain compared to almost all other camping spots being more than R500.

Funny also, we bought our daughter a toy camera. She was photographing EVERYTHING. It was very funny but a bit worrying as she must have seen it happening somewhere...

 

[DJLSteenkamp]

Moet net nie se dit is amper klaar nie. Love die updates even al hou dit my uit die werk uit.
:sip:

 

[m0lt3n]

Moet net nie se dit is amper klaar nie. Love die updates even al hou dit my uit die werk uit.
:sip:

Ja ek het nou net hier gesit en dink dat ek kort n nuwe doel. Om so die report te skryf is om dit als te herleef, maar nou is tot die herkou amper klaar. Ek kort nou dringend n nuwe doel, iets nuuts om op te fokus!

 

[Chrisl]

Molt wanneer jy klaar is met RR gooi asb vir ons syfers van wat so n trippie vir vier mense kos. OK nou nie helemal vier mense nie!!

 

[m0lt3n]

Molt wanneer jy klaar is met RR gooi asb vir ons syfers van wat so n trippie vir vier mense kos. OK nou nie helemal vier mense nie!!

Ons het die naweek nogal daaroor gepraat. Dit was so net onder die R40 000. My vrou doen die budget vir ons vakansies so sy betaal amper als. (ek kan nie budget nie, alle aftrekkings gaan by my af en watookal oor bly kan ek op bikes spandeer )
ons het so 5000km gery, en teen die 8 na 8.5kmpl wat ek gekry het is dit so R9000 net daar aan petrol al klaar. Die 3 nagte in Swakop was so 800 elk en die kamp plekke was seker as gemiddeld so R500 n nag. Dit was 15 nagte so daai is dan rofweg nog so R10k op verblyf.
Omtrent alle besienswaardighede is so R80 per person en soms ekstra vir die kar ook, dan is die kos ook maar duur oor die algemeen. Die duine ry was R800. So kom n mens dan maklik uit by die R1000 n dag spending money, dan prober ons redlik matig wees en nie te veel uit eet en so nie.

Ja mens kan netsowel oorsee gaan.
Verder my tyres was opgesit vir die trip, die vorige stel was te sag, dit was R11k tweedehands daai Roofrack en drawer system nog R11k (tweedehands) en die tent nog R5k. Ek weet die goed is een keer gekoop klaar gekoop maar die geld moes uitgehaal word nogsteeds. 

Nou is dit maar weer n jaar spaar vir die volgende vakansie.

 

[Brucet]

Nice. We going in March next year. Did you take a second spare wheel with you? Also did you remember to turn TC off when in the sand? That really makes a massive difference.

I have a 19 inch D4 rim that Im selling if you or know anyone who may want it. (R1000)

I have converted to 18 inch on mine.

 

[m0lt3n]

Nice. We going in March next year. Did you take a second spare wheel with you? Also did you remember to turn TC off when in the sand? That really makes a massive difference.

I have a 19 inch D4 rim that Im selling if you or know anyone who may want it. (R1000)

I have converted to 18 inch on mine.

No, the 19s were awesome, sell your 18s to me!?

I believe if I stuck with the Pirellis I got with the car I would have gotten a lot of punctures, but after some reading on 4x4com I fitted the Duratracs. I had the one spare beneath the car and dumped one of the Pirelli tyres on the roofrack in case I lost a tyre then I can still have some small-town-tyre-shop fit that tyre, solving the whole "rare size' issue.

My sand struggle was because I was driving in gravel mode and not in sand mode. I would dearly love to go back and make amends to the bad show I put on! I think I also have to write to Land Rover HQ and apologise for tarnishing their image!

 

[Brucet]

:laughing4:

Yes Pirellis are kak

 

[0012]

Moet net nie se dit is amper klaar nie. Love die updates even al hou dit my uit die werk uit.
:sip:

+1 ek ry nog lekker saam  :thumleft:

 

[Sithe]

This trip report makes me want to give up work and become a roadie .... it's too nice  :thumleft: