Day 71
On the road again, we headed west, into the Komas Hochland and then turned north-west on some stunning back roads, eventually coming out at Omaruru.
Then we turned West again and headed for Uis, on the south eastern side of the Brandberg. It was on this road that Claude’s bike started it’s trouble again, making the sandy bits a bit treacherous.
Our plan was to explore the Brandberg area, but now with Claude not being able to ride sand, we decided that he would stay in Uis and maybe chat to the KTM guys on the Monday, and we would continue round and up on the western side of the Brandberg, and meet him either back at Uis or in Swakop.
The 3 of us headed up a riverbed on a sandy track that dead ends deep into the mountain. It was a great place to camp, but the road was tricky, with very deep sandy sections, and Gazza had a fall of two.
We slept on the sand and had a really nice camp, apart from Claude’s absence.
??
Day 72
Our plan was to head towards the Ugab River, on the Northern side of the mountain. I had been there before, and wanted to show the others.
However, after packing up, Ryan’s bike was dead when we tried to start it.
Now we were in a bit of trouble…. No way of push starting in the ankle deep sand, 3km of sand till a dirt road, and Claude had the jump leads.
Eventually, Ryan came up with a great idea - we jump started it with tying wire (it gets moer hot by the way) and headed off. On the way out, in the river-bed, Gazza had a hard fall though, and re-hurt his ankle pretty badly.
There was no way he could ride any more sand like that, so we decided to abandon our plan and head back to Uis to find Claude.
Fortunately, as we got to the junction that joins the Swakop-Uis route, Claude was heading past. It was really lucky, because if he had not had a puncture that morning in his front tyre, we would have missed him.
After chatting about a plan, Ryans bike was dead again.
pull start
We pull-started it, but it wouldn’t idle at all, and needed to be kept above 4000 RPM to not cut out. We decided to head back to Uis and try to find a solution. I was worried that the alternator was poked, but it could also just be the battery. As we pulled into the campsite there, the bike died again.
We switched the battery to Gazza’s bike, jump started it and ran it for a while – no difference, it was dying too, so it was the battery that was buggered.
Battery trouble
Now Uis is a little dorp in the middle of nowhere, but while we were figuring out what to do, we heard a bike…. Off Ryan went to investigate, and found a chap that had a honda XR 650 (if I remember right) He was an awesome dude, and lent us the battery (which we managed to fit in) from his bike. The plan was that we would meet him in Swakop later and give it back to him, and there was a Yamaha dealer there that would have a battery for us.
In no time we were ready for the road again.
Now Claude and Garrick decided that they would head for Swakop and wait there. Ryan and Myself decided that we would head into the Ugab river and ride around the Brandberg, starting at Uis and ending in the Messum river. This was something that I had always wanted to try, and we didn’t want to miss out while we were here.
So we parted ways for a short time.
It was now lunch time, and pretty damn hot. Ryan and I headed north out of Uis on the C35 and then turned west on the D2359 that takes you to the White Lady Painting. Just before reaching the mountain, we turned north again, on the ‘road’ that hugs the Brandberg mountain, and goes to the White Lady Lodge on the Ugab river.
This road was very deep sand in a river bed, and made for some interesting riding. Ryan had a fall and cracked his nose-piece and broke a mirror. We were pretty loaded up with fuel and water too, so the sand took some getting used to.
Just before the lodge we turned west again on a nice little track that eventually ended up in the sandy Ugab river bed. As we entered the river, there were elephant tracks everywhere – fresh, and I must admit, I was nervous when we were in the thick vegetation coming into the river!
1st elephant dung - near the white lady
Once we were in the river-bed, the sand was pretty deep, but if you kept your speed up, it was good fun. The vehicle tracks made things more interesting though.
After about 3 km, we ran into some desert elephant – I was ecstatic!
Elephant in the background
Fortunately, they were a way off, and merrily browsing. We stopped for awhile and watched. When we wanted to get going again though, it was a bit touch and go, cause there was only a narrow section to pass the elephants on a track that was pretty sandy. As we were passing, one of them gave a little mock-charge kind of thing, and I shat myself. I think Ryan shat himself more, cause he was behind me, and they were pretty close. It was quite a rush.
wild horses in the riverbed
Once that was over, it was lots of sand and stunning scenery - we were really enjoying it, and the bikes were handling really well, criss-crossing the river-bed which is pretty wide at points, and up and down banks of sand to stay out of the 4x4 tracks.
We made really good time, travelling pretty fast.
After awhile we bumped into a landrover, and stopped to chat to the guy. He said he had just had a scary encounter with an aggressive bull elephant, which charged him. He gave us a good description of where it was and fortunately, the last time I was there, we’d found a cool track that leaves the Ugab before the place that the elephant was.
So we left the river at an old abandoned mining place, and had a few nervous moments in the thick bush again, where I could see fresh elephant tracks in the sand…
We travelled about 1.5km from the river and then stopped to make camp.
We were both pretty tired from the events of the day, so it was a good nights sleep.
Day 73
We wanted to make Swakop today, but there was a lot of riding 1st.
We headed along a really scenic road along the north-western side of the mountain, eventually coming out on the D2342, which heads north to the Ugab Rhino Camp.
We went south a bit on this road and then took a track that basically follows the Messum river to the Messum Crater. We took our time exploring the area a bit, and checking out some caves nearby. It’s just the most amazing place – such wide open space and nothingness.
After the crater, we took a track that headed south west to the coast which was really badly corrugated.
We hit the coastal salt road near Cape Cross and headed south, stopping in Henties bay for some lunch and fuel. While eating lunch, Ryan fortunately noticed that I was missing a bolt on my subframe where the rear strut attaches near the swingarm pivot.
I went across the road to a bolt shop (how lucky was that) and bought a bolt that fitted and lots of nuts to make it thread properly.
Then we burned the last section through to Swakop after putting on all our accessible warm clothes.
We pulled into Hotel Gruener Krantze mid afternoon, met up with Gazza and Claude, and started the afternoon off with Jagermeisters and beers. It went downhill from there, and we partied late into the night with some overlanders who we had met in Malawi, and who happened to be staying at the same place. Good times.
Day 74
Hungover, we potted around and did pretty much nothing. Claude headed to Windhoek to get his bike looked at again, and we just sat around and waited for another big party that night. Ryan put in his new battery that he bought from the Yamaha dealer across the road, and met the guy from Uis and gave back his battery with many thanks.
More jagermeisters, more beer, etc etc. awesome
Day 75
Claude was in Windhoek, and our plan was to continue southwards, and meet up later.
We travelled south to Walvis bay and changed dollars back to Rands. Then we took the desert road (C14) that heads south east and goes over Kuiseb and Gaub passes and on to Solitaire. Here we stopped for fuel and some food before heading south to Sesriem. We arrived mid afternoon.
After booking into the last available campsite, and getting out the KY for the price, we unloaded our stuff and headed off to the Sesriem canyon for a look around. Very interesting place.
The camping at Sesriem is quite a pretty place, but very busy. We got an early night, cause it was gonna be an early morning to go to the vlei.
Sunset from the campsite
In the middle of the night, Ryan had to chase a Jackal into the desert and retrieve our pot that it had stolen – way too white I tell you!
Day 76
Up early, the plan was to get to Sossus Vlei before sunrise. But we were a bit lazy, and ½ way to the Vlei, we stopped to see the sunrise over the dunes – stunning.
There was also a fair bit of game that we saw – Gemsbok, Ostrich, Springbok.
We stopped at the end of the tar, where it is advised that only 4x4 vehicles continue.
Gazza left his bike there and took a taxi 4x4 onwards. Ryan and myself decided that we would give it a go on the bikes.
Actually, it wasn’t bad at all. Deepish sand and lots of tracks, but otherwise, with the bikes unloaded, it was a piece of cake compared to the Ugab river.
How legal it was, I’m unsure, but we got to Sossus Vlei on the bikes – I was super chuffed!
We met Gazza there and walked up the big dune above the Vlei. Then we went on to dead vlei to have a look there and laugh at some stupid tourists fall their way down the big dune to the south of the dead vlei.
Incredible place – go there. But there are some campsites a short distance off from sesriem – rather camp there if you can – much cheaper.
By the time we left Sossus, it was becoming a scorcher.
We packed up our stuff, and headed south on the C27 to Helmeringhausen, where we camped at a very nice little campsite called Helmeringhausen hotel.