Day 3
We woke up that morning without knowing that Day 3 would be the mother of all days… No, let me rephrase – the overweight-GRANDMOTHER-with-the-crooked-nose-and-missing-teeth, of all days. It was not the wake-up call you get in a fancy hotel, or even at home. I expected at least a cup of coffee, but noooooo – me and Abe got kakked out early about our snoring. Again. And then a whole bloody discussion and in-depth analysis followed by Willem summing it up: “Ek is nie geworried oor Abraham nie – hy het n reëlmatige diep snork. Jy weet, soos in: (there he gave an example that only made sense to him and resembled someone that is trying to pry loose a booger that’s stuck to the back of your throat) Maar Mickey het my geworry – hy verander die heel tyd van hierdie soprano high-pitch na ‘n sort-van alto snork. Wag, luister self: (at this point he actually produced his iphone and promptly plaid a clip of someone snoring. He said it was me… I’m not convinced, as that bloke featuring has a problem for sure…)
The plan for the day was simple – get some meat for two nights, buy a Kolmanskop pass, take a couple of snaps threre, and then head for Sesriem. Easy as pie. And although the total kms would be 465km, the first stretch would be tar to Aus, so how difficult could it be? Ha!
Let me just say – if you want to buy meat in Luderitz, don’t go anywhere else than OK Food. The steaks and chops were fantastic! At the Tourist Info we got ourselves a pass for Kolmanskop, and then we were off. Not in a great hurry. (Although Kobus did try to get us into some sort of 2nd gear, but we learnt quite early to just brush off his usual comment of “Kry nou julle gate in rat!”
Kolmanskop was more than I expected, much, much more. It is a tog’s dream. I hoped for unpolluted rooms of sand, and although we were the first group in, we got a windless day. So the previous day’s footprints were all over, but it did not take away the wow-factor. I walked around like a kid in a sweets factory. (Although a comment was made that cannot be repeated here, as it refers to me and a piece of wood in one dry sentence)
I did not even get to half of Kolmanskop, when we decided that we had to push on. More or less then Abe came up and told me that I HAVE to go and take a shot in the hospital. Before Kobus could realize what I was up to, I threw my tripod over my shoulder and ran to the hospital wing. I must have looked quite the sight in motocross boots, and I will not recommend running in them again, as it leads to immediate blisters. But fekkit… I could have spent two hours there alone! (Thanks for the heads-up Abe!)
The first couple of shots were taken with the mik and druk, and came from everyone’s cameras, and the last lot is the edited shots that I took with my camera gear that made up a third of the weight in my panniers.
Part 2 to follow…
