Virgin Sand In Kaokoland (a post lockdown adventure)

[BoskakBruce]

It wasn’t getting lost that worried me, it was running into a pissed off elephant in the riverbed that worried me.

I was happy to see their faces. We exchanged stories and continued. Shortly afterward, we did run into an elephant.

30 minutes later, we emerge onto an open sandy plain. It’s gorgeous.

 

[BoskakBruce]

It’s like being a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Just sand and animals. I don’t think we had seen another vehicle in 24 hours.

I spot a hill to the left and signal to the guys? Jan Lucas gives me a look that I interpret to mean “Be careful, young man. We don’t want any reckless accidents.” After all, he’s 15 years older than me and is proving to be the most responsible of us all.

Ah, screw it. I head towards the hill and blast up it.

I’m rewarded with a breathtaking view of the plains below.

I yell to the guys to join me and they too blast up the hill. We all soak in the view for a few minutes and then like good Wild Dogs, we take a piss to mark our territory!

Savages.

 

[BoskakBruce]

It takes about 5 minutes to cross the plain.

We’re all standing on our pegs to navigate the deep sand.

My front wheel is noticeably better since raising the forks in the triple clamps. Not even close to normal, but better. I can live with it.

 

[BoskakBruce]

We exit the plain into another riverbed which eventually opens up into a green grassy area. 

Ahead, lies a river and on the other side, some treacherous trees...

 

[BoskakBruce]

Now look at the photo below… 

Looks like fun riding, right?

Nooooooo….

See those trees in the distance?

They hide potential elephants around each corner. You don’t want to come blasting around a blind corner and ride into an elephant. That will just piss the elephant off and he’ll stomp you to death. At least, that’s how I imagine it will go down.

So, Marc and I look at Jan Lucas and say, “You can go first”.

Using Jan Lucas as elephant bait meant that he’d be stomped to death and we’d survive.

As Darwin said – it’s the most adaptable species that survive. Marc and I were adapting fast!

It was nerve wracking riding for about 15 minutes as we crept around each blind corner tentatively, hoping not to find a big beast waiting for us.

Fortunately, we all lived to tell the tale and nobody was stomped.

Thank you, Jan Lucas, for your service.

 

[BoskakBruce]

We dropped into another dry riverbed.

Again, I hold back because of the dust and let the boys go ahead.

I notice a pretty date-palm plantation in the distance and as I get closer I stop to take a photo.

 

[BoskakBruce]

Looking down to get my phone out of my leg pocket, I notice two wet patches in the sand beneath my bike.

Then three. Then four. Then ten!

Fuck! My bike is leaking something.

Shit! It’s coolant.

Fuck shit! This is NOT good.

Houston, we have a problem… and it’s not the leaky pipe attached to my radiator… it’s the crazy man sprinting towards me like a zombie in a zombie movie.

I kid you not.

One of the plantation workers is sprinting towards the fence that separates us. Something is not right in this scene.

His eyes are bloodshot red and his dreadlocks flapping madly in the breeze and he yells something at me.

“Are you American?” He shouts as he reaches the fence.

“No, South African” I reply while trying to assess the situation and watch my radiator hose leak more precious coolant.

“German?” he yells, more insistently.

“No, South African!”

He starts parting the fence and trying to climb through it.

Now normally, I’d be cool with chatting to locals, even if they were drunk. But this guy was clearly high as a kite on some drug and was not wanting to make friends.

After frantically climbing through the fence, he makes a mad dash towards me.

Is he going to attack me or hug me?

I’m looking at my radiator leaking more and more of my precious coolant onto the sand. I look at the crazy guy and I have to make a choice fast.

Do I stay here and not waste any more fluid, but risk being attacked (or at the very least harassed), or do I ride away to safety, but lose more radiator fluid and potentially overheat my bike.

I start the engine and spray sand everywhere as I pull away as fast as I can. I’m acutely aware that every second I ride I am losing fluid, so I get about 700 meters from the crazy guy and pull over under a shady tree. I cut the engine and get off the bike to inspect the leak, looking over my shoulder just in case the crazy dude has followed me.

He hasn’t.

The leak isn’t too serious. Looks like the radiator hose is sliding down off the radiator.

I can fix that!

So out comes my Leatherman and I attempt to push the hose back onto the radiator.

Instead, I manage to pierce the hose with the Leatherman and boiling hot fluid comes spewing out in my face.

Fuuuuuuucccccckkkkkk! Nooooooooooo.

This is more than bad. This could be the end of the trip!

I’m such an amateur. Why did I poke a hole in the bloody radiator hose? Why????

I just made a small problem a big problem. No bueno.

I throw the bike onto its side to stop the leaking when Marc and Jan Lucas arrive looking for me.

They can see from my face that I’m concerned. 

After about 10 minutes of throwing around ideas for how to get out of this mess, we come up with a plan.

A pretty fantastic plan, actually.

I figure that it’s a rubber hose, so it can be patched with vulcanizing glue and some tire patches. The problem is that the pressure of the coolant will surely blow off the patch within seconds.

Marc comes to the rescue with a genius idea. He whips out a roll of inner tube cut into a long strip. 

I look at him as if to say, “And now?”

He slowly wraps the inner tube around the radiator hose and over the patch I’ve vulcanized to the hose. He then uses cable ties to keep the inner tube in place.

“This might even work” I think out loud. 

We start the engine and our fix holds.

Phew…

Thank you, Marc!

So, now I’m down to only one fork with oil and a potentially dodgy radiator hose, but other than that the bike is running fine.

 

[BoskakBruce]

I comment to the guys that so far, I’ve never heard my fan come on – ever.
They both shake their head and say, “That’s not right. Our fans are constantly on…”

What? Seriously?

Crap. What if my fan is broken AND I’m running on reduced coolant? I could blow a cylinder head gasket overheating the bike. But it’s been fine this far.

Oh, fuck it. I’m not debugging the fan here in the desert heat. I’m just relieved to have fixed the leak I created and want to get a move on so that we can get away from this creepy date palm plantation.

So we keep on riding. The sand gets sandier. The heat gets hotter. And the riders get tireder (that’s not a word, I know).

The fan still doesn’t come on. And now, every time we stop, all I can hear are the fans from the 701 and the 690. Maybe I should take the fan thing a little more seriously.

A few hours of amazing riding later, we arrive at Palmwag Lodge.

Exhausted from the day’s riding, I definitely am not in the mood to set up a tent.

Jan Lucas and I send Marc in to negotiate again.

He scores another great deal and we share a glamping tent with elephants as neighbors.

 

[BoskakBruce]

We strip off, hit the shower and search for beer.
 
That night, I had the scare of my life….

The boys had already gone to dinner while I was chatting with my wife on WhatsApp. After I hung up the call, I strolled out of our tent and began walking towards the restaurant in the pitch black of night. My headlamp torch is not very bright, so I might as well have been walking in the dark when…

I bumped into 2 elephants.

They trumpeted loudly as if to say” WTF dude! Can’t you see that I’m an elephant and you’re a measly human? Get the fuck outta here!”

I froze.

What do I do? Run? Stand still? Retreat slowly?

I eventually decided on all three!

I stood still for a while, then I retreated slowly, then I stood still again and then I ran for my life towards the restaurant.

I’m sure that if the locals were watching me, they would have been laughing their asses off thinking, “Stupid white tourist”.

I made it to the restaurant and lived to tell the tale. That was some scary shit.

Elephants are not pets.

And that my friends, is the end of Day 2. More tomorrow.

 

[funacide]

Awesome keep it coming.

 

[Chrisl]

:thumleft: :drif: :drif:

 

[Xpat]

Boy, I'm glad Amsterdam took you under his wing. Day 1 and you are already completely lost. You will reach Ongongo -  where you believe you started on Day 1 - by the look of things only on day 3.  8) ot:

Ongongo, in local dialect called Warmquelle is where the warm spring is and where I suspect you might have sleep on Day 3 - unless you just passed it and slept in Sesfontein fort given great negotiation skills of Marc.

 

[BoskakBruce]

Boy, I'm glad Amsterdam took you under his wing. Day 1 and you are already completely lost. You will reach Ongongo -  where you believe you started on Day 1 - by the look of things only on day 3.  8) ot:

Ongongo, in local dialect called Warmquelle is where the warm spring is and where I suspect you might have sleep on Day 3 - unless you just passed it and slept in Sesfontein fort given great negotiation skills of Marc.

Awwww crap! You're right. I meant Omaruru, not Ongongo. Will fix it now. Thanks Martin.

 

[funacide]

On a bit of a technical note, how often do you service the KTM 500 and how do you handle that on these long trips?

Thanks

 

[RedDust]

Hi Overland Bruce,

another idea for making coffee, (as I also enjoy coffee when travelling - I do a lot of hiking now-a-days, as unfortunately I have no bike over here), so I have seen a lot of Chase Mountains' videos (an Australian chap now in Spain, who does much hiking in the Pyrenees), he has some useful tips about hiking/camping gear.

You will be able to get this gear online, or adapt your present gear, using some of his ideas.

He uses a Jetboil cooking pot system to boil water/cook his food, and then adds the Jetboil Coffee Press accessory (or "Java Kit" as he calls it, (but any plunger would probably fit this as well).

See: https://kit.co/ChaseMountains/mountain-kitchen-kit

For the video on the kit:  (Coffee press accessory at 10:00)

https://youtu.be/kZORfbXj2Ow

Or one could just use a stainless steel (travel) coffee press,

I am not wanting to hijack your thread - so just link to video above.

Thanks for sharing your trip - I really enjoyed travelling in Namibia - but only been to some of the northern areas in four wheeled vehicles, and your photos have brought back many good memories. I am sure this trip will stay with you for a long time when you return home again.

 

[bud500 (R.I.P)]

Loving this so far keep it coming please.

Great read.

But where the hell did Funacide crawl out from? :eek7:

 

[Leo]

But where the hell did Funacide crawl out from? :eek7:

I was also very surprised to see the fcuker is still alive and well and still drinking too much coffee.

Sorry, hijack off

 

[Rooikoos]

for a light durable coffeemaker, Google AEROPRESS. they work very well

I agree, My Aeropress goes in the bag whenever I travel.
https://aeropress.com/

 

[Three Dawg]

Sub.

Would coffee bags be a solution for on the go coffee?

 

[funacide]

But where the hell did Funacide crawl out from? :eek7:

I was also very surprised to see the fcuker is still alive and well and still drinking too much coffee.

Sorry, hijack off

Been around all the time just not posting much. With all the none riding I am so interested in trips to Kaokoland, I NEED A NAMIBIA TRIP!!!