Really great stuff so far MAx :thumleft:
Keep up the good work!
Keep up the good work!
Two Scotsmen and le Mirage in le Desert Tour
- Thread starter MaxThePanda
- Start date
MaxThePanda
Race Dog
And in we rolled to Sesriem. All I can remember from 1988 is a circle of stone where you could camp inside and my parents - who were sleeping in the back of the combo - waking up in the middle of the night to find a gemsbok with his entire head inside the vehicle staring at them.
Time and money holds no prisoners and it's now a flourishing little metropolis. Bummer. Oh well..
Went to the park gate to find that the swines have banned bikes from doing the ride in to Sossusvlei! NoooOOOOoOOOOOoOOOOOOOoooooOOoooooooo!!!!!!!!!!
Only 3 months before or something, and we'd really been looking forward to leaving our bags and enjoying those last few miles of rally sand to the pan. So disappointing. Luckily, thanks to the Scotts, we had a booked 4x4 tour of the area the following morning, so off to find our hotel. Ride into desert, look for castle. Turn left and ride until you find le Mirage in le Desert:
See, I'm not even kidding.
It has high windows you can shoot invading barbarian hordes out of:
And, believe it or not, even a moat.
Which we wasted no time jumping into.
We like our moats heated in Aaaafrikaaaaa.
There was even a note at the front desk welcoming us. Turns out the Scotts' travel agent is a mate of ours from Cape Town. Small world.
More castle:
Just something absurdly absurd absurd. Beautiful thing.
And in case you want to heli in from who knows where? I mean, what is the range of a chopper???
And you will NOT!!!! believe the sunset that night. These pictures are not even colour-corrected.
Oh so different to steak and cheap whiskey around a camp fire.
And I'm more than a little bitter to report that after the poor no-show of the Swedes, the Danish, Norwegian and even Aussie volleyball teams were nowhere to be found, and we each had one of these to ourselves. A ridiculous, absurd, shameful waste.
Time and money holds no prisoners and it's now a flourishing little metropolis. Bummer. Oh well..
Went to the park gate to find that the swines have banned bikes from doing the ride in to Sossusvlei! NoooOOOOoOOOOOoOOOOOOOoooooOOoooooooo!!!!!!!!!!
Only 3 months before or something, and we'd really been looking forward to leaving our bags and enjoying those last few miles of rally sand to the pan. So disappointing. Luckily, thanks to the Scotts, we had a booked 4x4 tour of the area the following morning, so off to find our hotel. Ride into desert, look for castle. Turn left and ride until you find le Mirage in le Desert:
See, I'm not even kidding.
It has high windows you can shoot invading barbarian hordes out of:
And, believe it or not, even a moat.
Which we wasted no time jumping into.
We like our moats heated in Aaaafrikaaaaa.
There was even a note at the front desk welcoming us. Turns out the Scotts' travel agent is a mate of ours from Cape Town. Small world.
More castle:
Just something absurdly absurd absurd. Beautiful thing.
And in case you want to heli in from who knows where? I mean, what is the range of a chopper???
And you will NOT!!!! believe the sunset that night. These pictures are not even colour-corrected.
Oh so different to steak and cheap whiskey around a camp fire.
And I'm more than a little bitter to report that after the poor no-show of the Swedes, the Danish, Norwegian and even Aussie volleyball teams were nowhere to be found, and we each had one of these to ourselves. A ridiculous, absurd, shameful waste.
Oom Foe-rie
Race Dog
I like .................... the writing style, the photos and to be back in Namibia :thumleft: :thumleft:
White Rhino
Race Dog
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- Johannesburg *South Africa*
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If that's the sunset without Photoshop tweaks - blow me over - nothing to touch that!
Bessie
Pack Dog
dis kief
is julle boeties?
is julle boeties?
- Joined
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- 174
- Location
- I would rather be in Great Brak...
- Bike
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Classic !! ... with a capital K! Some of the best photo's of 2011 RR's ... no doubt about it. Thanks for sharing. 8)
ThomTom
Race Dog
Well done; I often show my wife some RR, not the castle though; she would just drool over a visit!
MaxThePanda
Race Dog
roxenz said:
Gasp! :
I'm deadly serious!!!!
MaxThePanda
Race Dog
Bessie said:
Ya meneer.
MaxThePanda
Race Dog
White Rhino said:
Actually, amazingly those pix haven't been retouched. Was one of the most amazing sunsets I've seen...
MaxThePanda
Race Dog
Up damn early for a 4x4 trip into the dunes. Now I don't mean to sound ungrateful or anything, but when the guide arrives to pick you up in a Prado and you're ushered into the back seat - and I mean BACK seat... those little parcel shelves that were designed for 3-year-olds - for an hour ride out to the pan it's hard not to feel a little grumpy. Both of us are over 6 foot. Anway, this was still courtesy of the Scotch largesse, so I'm really not going to whinge any more. We wondered why our guide had us at the gate 15 minutes before they opened, until we saw the queue of about 40 vehicles forming behind us. The wilds of Africa...
This little fellow appeared on our left in the early morning light:
While the really lucky few were getting a different viewpoint.
Apparently the ex-Congolese (French?) guy who owns this operation has proliferated all over Africa doing balloon safaris. He keeps politicians in his pocket and competitors in the dirt, and makes absolute squillions out of it. If I was a rich man.. deedle deedle deeedle dum.
And the obligatory Sossusvlei gemsbok.
Taking off your shoes and walking up the red sand in the early morning might well be worth being squashed into the back of a Prado for an hour.
And the view from the top is... well...
Apparently when the rain came in Feb all of these pans were under water, and you could even swim on some of them...
Oh for a sand board:
More pictures, less words:
This little fellow appeared on our left in the early morning light:
While the really lucky few were getting a different viewpoint.
Apparently the ex-Congolese (French?) guy who owns this operation has proliferated all over Africa doing balloon safaris. He keeps politicians in his pocket and competitors in the dirt, and makes absolute squillions out of it. If I was a rich man.. deedle deedle deeedle dum.
And the obligatory Sossusvlei gemsbok.
Taking off your shoes and walking up the red sand in the early morning might well be worth being squashed into the back of a Prado for an hour.
And the view from the top is... well...
Apparently when the rain came in Feb all of these pans were under water, and you could even swim on some of them...
Oh for a sand board:
More pictures, less words:
MaxThePanda
Race Dog
Wonderful, wonderful place, Sossusvlei. Makes me all the more keen to do a trip across the Namib if I can wangle it sometime. It was Friday morning, and work beckoned in Cape Town on Monday, so time to turn around and head for home.
We'd saved the western-most road for that, running along the eastern edge of the desert in a big lazy arc, and this tossed up probably the best views of the trip. Hours of wide open roads and this endless carpet of velvet.
There were zero trees and no river beds, though, so bush camping was starting to look like an unlikely possibility. When we came across this, we decided for our second night of paid camping of the trip.
We rode into the farmyard of a little german lodge and were immediately met by this cheeky little sod. His german name, loosely translated, means something like "oh my god, imagine how tasty my bacon must be" but he squealed loudly whenever we approached and our chances of tying him to the back of my bike and riding off to the braai place went down the tubes.
Mike had a dream that night the piggie was running around with some chops missing.
But this is what we got for our R100. Simply the most spectaculalicious campsite EVER.
A very happy-making experience.
(of course I didn't inhale.)
And we were again rewarded with an outrageous sunset. I mean... REALLY?!
Did I mention the stars?
We'd saved the western-most road for that, running along the eastern edge of the desert in a big lazy arc, and this tossed up probably the best views of the trip. Hours of wide open roads and this endless carpet of velvet.
There were zero trees and no river beds, though, so bush camping was starting to look like an unlikely possibility. When we came across this, we decided for our second night of paid camping of the trip.
We rode into the farmyard of a little german lodge and were immediately met by this cheeky little sod. His german name, loosely translated, means something like "oh my god, imagine how tasty my bacon must be" but he squealed loudly whenever we approached and our chances of tying him to the back of my bike and riding off to the braai place went down the tubes.
Mike had a dream that night the piggie was running around with some chops missing.
But this is what we got for our R100. Simply the most spectaculalicious campsite EVER.
A very happy-making experience.
(of course I didn't inhale.)
And we were again rewarded with an outrageous sunset. I mean... REALLY?!
Did I mention the stars?
MaxThePanda
Race Dog
Last day dawned bright, sad and early... and farking cold.
But definitely pretty:
and with a herd of gemsbok to say cheers:
You know that the wilderness is nearly gone when you find this for breakfast. At the turnoff from the Luderitz road to Rosh Pinah - can't remember the place and too lazy to look it up. Decent eggs and sausage.
Rosh Pinah is a dump and I can only imagine what the bored locals get up to for amusement at the local chistmas market (in November WTF?). I'm thinking large quantities of organic narcotics and very poor behaviour with the mules. I'm sorry to say we couldn't hang around long enough to find out.
Nothing much more to say - a last blast along the river road next to the Orange and a night on the lawns at Felix's.
Again a complete lack of enthusiastic, gorgeous young backpackers with low moral values, but you really can't have it all. What more to say? Over and out.
GOD BLESS MOTORCYCLES!
But definitely pretty:
and with a herd of gemsbok to say cheers:
You know that the wilderness is nearly gone when you find this for breakfast. At the turnoff from the Luderitz road to Rosh Pinah - can't remember the place and too lazy to look it up. Decent eggs and sausage.
Rosh Pinah is a dump and I can only imagine what the bored locals get up to for amusement at the local chistmas market (in November WTF?). I'm thinking large quantities of organic narcotics and very poor behaviour with the mules. I'm sorry to say we couldn't hang around long enough to find out.
Nothing much more to say - a last blast along the river road next to the Orange and a night on the lawns at Felix's.
Again a complete lack of enthusiastic, gorgeous young backpackers with low moral values, but you really can't have it all. What more to say? Over and out.
GOD BLESS MOTORCYCLES!
Beserker
Grey Hound
You have to post during office hours ??? Beats work though, well done RR, Thanks.
Spore
Pack Dog
Spectacular, mouthwatering and amazing! Thanks you guys ... this is the story of adventure riding! :thumleft: :thumleft:
Really really nice RR you guys. :thumleft:
I remember stopping at that german farmer's place in Des of 1999.(farm Namtib)
What struck me as weird he had shaved armpits!!!! Maybe it makes sense in that heat.
No I do not do camping only chalets which I could not afford.
So I went back to the D707 and camped there. Not one car all night.
I remember stopping at that german farmer's place in Des of 1999.(farm Namtib)
What struck me as weird he had shaved armpits!!!! Maybe it makes sense in that heat.
No I do not do camping only chalets which I could not afford.
So I went back to the D707 and camped there. Not one car all night.
MaxThePanda
Race Dog
chrisL said:
Yeah... I can imagine. He did seem a little bit of a strange fellow, although I'm deeply amused by your memory of his shaved armpits!
