"Twie Tiewe" and dinner with a President - another side of Namibia

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Day 7 â?? 8:  14/6/2008 to 15/6/2008

Khorixas â?? Trwyfelfontein â?? Uis


After a night sleeping very well under armed guard and going to the loo very carefully, we started preparing for a round trip via the Petrified Forest to Twyfelfontein and back. 

I got a temporary pet for early morning coffee.  It followed me around since we arrived.

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We just finished coffee when one of the security guards came to tell us that the entourage is going to leave soon and that we must please stay way back from the road.  We waited a bit and got these shots and the vehicles sped past.

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Interesting people on Khorixas as well.  One of the camp employees came over for a chat.  He told us that his mother was a Damara, but my father â??Was â??n witman soos jy meneerâ? (a white man like you).  All in perfect Afrikaans, of course.  Not one English word. 

Yet again we distances wrong.  The GPS and the map indicated that it would be around a 100km trip, but it turned out to be more than 200km.  What the heck.  We were on holiday.  Who cared?

At the Petrified Forest we were taken around by a guide.  There must be a million of these petrified trees in that valley.  Amazing.

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This one is 30m long up to where it disappears under the ground.

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For the first time in our lives we saw welwitchias in the wild.

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On the way to Twyfelfontein we saw this mountain. 

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When we got to the Twyfelfontein turn-off, we unfortunately had to make a call.  It was late already and we did not have much fuel left.

We went on and saw a sign.  â??Cold refreshmentsâ?.  Yip, the same place that POFUNPLOT found.  It is called Granietkop Campsite.  The gas were still finished and there were no cold beers, but what a nice place.

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Contact details:
Information:   Maureen Ades        Cell:  081 308 0311
Camp:  Lukas:  081 327 7160

We wanted to kick ourselves that we were not on our packed bikes.  We could have slept there at the drop of a hat.

We packed and left for Uis the next day.  In Uis, there is a real â??mineralistâ? - Monty.  We traveled all the way there to see what he had in stock.

The road to Uis was OK, but with a lot of riverbeds. 

As you get into town, there is a pub type establishment.  We parked there and had lovely cold beers.  As we got used to during the trip, we had a chat with almost all the locals around.  Stephan scored quite a few points because of this military background.  Once that was sorted, everyone was ready for  a â??kuierâ?.

The campsite at the White Lady was really very nice.  I will recommend that to anyone.  The owner came out to greet me by hand because I got there on my own steam.  8)

We met a couple who was traveling through Namibia with a 4X4 and an off road trailer at the camp.  As it turns out they are living about 10km from us in Centurion.

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Cost for camping:  R100.
 
Day 9 â?? 10:  16/6/2008 to 17/6/2008

Uis â?? Hentiesbaai - Swakopmund


Our new friends told us that they were going to go on a micro light flight.  Very early we heard the micro light starting up and started preparing for coffee.  We were in time for a spectacular sunrise.

It looked as if the sky was on fire.

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Our friend and Nico, the pilot, arrived.  They went to KDP2.  Nico named his landing sites KDP1 to KDPn.  â??Koffie Drink Plekâ? 1 is the white heap next to town; KDP2 is the little mountain just out of town.

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We went to visit Monty after the micro light landed.

Monty mines some sites himself, but according to him he did not have any big finds the last two years.  He had some nice stuff, but we were not really into what he had available.

We left for Hentiesbaai.

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The bikes at Henties.

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Then on to Swakopmund.

We stayed at the Swakopmund at the municipal resort.  Very good value for money.

The next day we walked around in Swakopmund.  It is one of the nicest places to just chill.

We went mineral hunting again.  We met the shrewdest saleslady ever in a place in Swakop.  She treated us like royalty even after we told her that we are not going to buy anything and that we are real amateurs. 

This is real amethyst.  I was completely blown away. 

Sorry, the quality of the pic is bad.  Stephan took about 5 photographs.  All of them blurry.  I think he was shaking a bit.

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Cost for 2 bed chalet:  R200.




 
The Namibain trips looks fantastic and it really inspires one to start planning a trip.

Great stuff, keet it coming.
 
Ag come on Red carry on with the report. Need some good bedtime reading to remind of the good 'ol days in Nam.

I heard a rumour that you met such wonderful people and had fun at Joe's  :ricky:
 
Ja, Joe's is a cool place.  Will see tonight.  The saltmines are keeping me busy.
 
CAPTAIN SLOW said:
Is daai sakke van julle waterdig?


Just like that, I don't know.  You get little raincoats with them.  So far we had no problems with wet stuff.
 
As is reasonably water resistant, will handle a quick shower/light drizzle but you get a black raincover that fits over it with the bag, then no problem.
 
Day 10 Revisited - Uis

We had dinner with our Uis friends (YES, after the Ladies Training day).  She sent me these pics to add to the collectionâ?¦.  She is still e-mailing me, so I probably kept my pose.    :p

Her husband took these on the micro light flip.  If I am not mistaken the hill with UIS written on it is KDP2 (Don't know where they could have landed, though)

A friend at work commented - "Ja, jy kan die fokkolgeit oral sien rondle...." - (You can see the stuff-all lying around everywhere)

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On the whole trip we only had one pic of Stephan and me together.  As you can see, polishing our boots was not high on the tasking checklist.  :biggrin: :biggrin:

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I have lost my sunglasses on the Gobabis - Waterberg road, and Hannelie gave me her pair because she was concerned about me battling with the glare on the Hentiesbaai road.  Amazing woman.  I am sure I was meant to be in Uis on that specific day.
 
Day 11 â?? 13:  18/6/2008 to 20/6/2008

Swakopmund â?? Windhoek â?? Botswana Border (almost)

During our two days in Swakopmund we had real English weather.  It was overcast and miserable.  When we started packing I decided to get rid of the bread we had left and started feeding the pigeons.

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It did not take long for the seagulls to joinâ?¦

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We made for Windhoek on the TAR road â?? so shoot me â?? I will explain later.

In Windhoek we tried to get place to sleep at the same Backpackers where JustBiking and TraveGravel stayed, but they got the last room about 3 minutes before us and we had to go hunting for a place to stay.

We met them there at the Backpackers for the first time.  Strangely, when we pulled up and we saw the other bikes, both of us were smiling and getting ready for a good chinwag.  Why do two wheel devices have this effect on us??

The resort where the 3 musketeers stayed over was fully booked.  Not a campsite, not a chalet, nadaâ?¦..  They referred us to a B & B. 

Wow â?? it turned out to be the most luxurious place we stayed on the whole trip.  The bath was the size of half a swimming pool.  I dived in immediately.  BLISSâ?¦.

We met our fellow Wilddogs for dinner at Joeâ??s.  Interesting place.  Food not bad eitherâ?¦

The next day we walked around in Windhoek the whole day.  Lots of nice stuff â?? no space to pack it â?? so we just looked.

We found this full size beauty. 

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We went to the movies and watched the last Indiana Jones.

When we started our day, we decided to go into town via taxi because we wanted to walk around.

After the movie we went looking for a taxi to take us back.

"Twie Tiewe"

Right outside the shopping mall (looking like a standard South African shopping mall with all the same shops â?? Clicks, Pick and Pay, Mr Priceâ?¦.) we found the taxis.  We were approached by a driver parked right in front of the door.  We accepted his price and as we walked up to the taxi, we saw that in true taxi style, we are going to share with two other passengers in a normal sedan.  Stephan offered me the front seat (speaking English for some reason) and he got into the back with two coloured girls who probably thought we were two English speaking tourists, because they let rip in Afrikaans.

Mark Lotteringâ??s backside.  He just does not understand.  These two girls did.  Pulling away they started discussing the â??Twie Tieweâ? (the two bitches) who stole their boyfriends.  They held nothing back.  All in absolutely PERFECT Afrikaans.  The trip lasted less than 5 minutes.  By the time we stopped I ran for the B & B, hanging on the gate howling, while Stephan was trying to pay the driver with a straight face.  We were in stitches for hours afterwards. Next time in Windhoek, I will pay for a one hour trip with similar characters through Katatura.  It will save a fortune on Shrink bills.

Then our trip was over and only the â??getting homeâ? bit as left.

We made for the border and stayed over at Zelda Guest Farm.
Very nice clean facilities and very close to the Botswana Border.

The campsites were grassed and the ablution blocks were spotless.  Donâ??t try and book a room.  It was more expensive than our fancy B&B in Windhoek but the campsites were R60 a head.

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Every camp site has a name.  We stayed in the Lionâ??s Den.

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We joined the keeper when he fed the leopard and two cheetahs on the farm.

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The poor lonely camelâ?¦.

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It was our last night in Namibia and we started thinking about the next trip already....





 
Nice trip, thanks for sharing.  Riding a bike through Namibia is always special.  :)
 
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