Travel Diary: Namibia (part 2)

In this second part of our Namibia travel diary we head to the coast and enjoy some long overdue beach and ocean time before getting onto the main tourist tracks through the Namib desert. Later on Mr. Jones gets a service in what will probably be the most remote dedicated Land Rover service station ever.

If you missed part 1 of the diary you can find it here: Namibia (part 1)

Leaving the desert behind we headed towards the coastal town of Swakopmund. Our first impressions were not great as the outskirts initially appear rather soulless but as you go deeper into town and closer to the beach it’s character changes and it turns into quite a nice little quaint seaside town. We chose to camp at Tiger Reef which despite some negative reviews on iOverlander turned out to be perfect as it allowed us to walk along the promenade, stop at a little food caravan and enjoy an awesome lunch of Calamari and Kabeljou followed by a little more exploration of the beachfront. Having had a rather fulling lunch we enjoyed sundowners (followed by a cheese and ham sandwich back at Mr J) on the restaurant deck adjacent to the camp, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean which was the perfect end to the day.

Turning our noses north for a bit we headed for the start of the Skeleton coast and the Cape Cross seal colony. The stark landscapes while never going to be able to hold us for long are beautiful in their barrenness and isolation, over the years many a ship has been wrecked along this coastline with usually disastrous consequences for the crew because even if you make it ashore your chances of survival would be minimal. This though is not the reason for the Skeleton coast name, that in fact comes from the many whales who have run aground here.

The seal colony at Cape Cross reserve is quite a site (and smell!!) to behold with hundreds of seals frolicking in the water and thousands on the land calling to each other and climbing over themselves. The birthing period is December to January so we were fortunate to see many baby seals, most of whom appeared to be on their own. The moms go out to sea for up to seven days and then return to feed the pups, how they find each other when Mom returns to shore is unfathomable to our brains but certainly probably has something to do with all the calling that was taking place, we can best describe it as being in the middle of thousand strong herd of goats. Apart from sights and noise the other thing that takes your breath away is the smell or more accurately the stench, it seeps into everything and upon getting to our camp spot later we needed to urgently wash both ourselves and our clothes.

Bizarrely the Portuguese explorer (Diago Cao) chose this point to come ashore in 1484 and plant a cross in an attempt to claim the land for Portugal, one would assume the seals were nesting at this point even back then so why he chose this smelly spot and not a few kilometres in either direction is a bit baffling unless the seals provided an easy source of protein and fat?

Mr Jones has been very good to us on this trip, there have been a few niggles here and there, which is to be expected considering his age and what he has been put through, but most of our maintenance log entries are non-him related. Stuart gives him a brief looking over and under most days but hadn’t done so since leaving Windhoek and so we got rather lucky that when reaching under to disconnect the grey water bucket he noticed a very loose nut on the rear suspension linkage. If that had come off while driving it could have got ugly! Fortunately, a quick tightening sorted it out and we were ready to hit the road but not before a new item was added to the “South Africa shopping list”, the correct size (#30) spanner.

From the coast we headed inland to Spitzkoppe which is often referred to as the Matterhorn of Namibia. The main massif rises high above the desert and is visible from many miles away. In the 90’s it was a climbing spot Stuart dreamt of visiting and climbing but at that stage it was not too be. While checking in the receptionist was complaining about how dry it is, we assured her that now that we had arrived she could definitely expect rain, lo and behold that night we got a big thunderstorm. The camping is quite organised with designated sites amongst the boulders and outcrops, each has a long drop toilet but no other facilities so we were most grateful for our onboard outdoor shower.

After a very relaxed morning hanging around the camp at Spitzkoppe we took a leisurely drive westwards and back to Swakopmund with the intention of spending the weekend there and enjoying some beach time. Unusually so we both woke quite early on the Sunday, so before heading down to the beach, Stuart jacked the car up, removed wheels, checked brakes and greased all the steering and prop-shaft nipples. While we have been doing small preventative maintenance on the road it has been 10 000km since his last service in Nairobi. The changing of oil will have to wait a little while but as Mr J has a mysterious ability to make oil disappear and require top-up’s every 1000km this is not too much of a worry.

The rest of Sunday was spent down on the beach, broken up with lunch from the same food caravan we had visited previously as the calamari and fish was just too good last time not to revisit.

In contrast to the day before we made a latish start when leaving Swakopmund, initially making a short detour via Walvis Bay to see if the Flamingoes were in the bay and then westwards on the C14 to once again traverse the Namib Nauklift park. However compared to our previous eastwards traverse on the C28 which was incredibly scenic we found the scenery a bit bland and boring this time around, our lack of enjoyment was not helped by at least half the 250km covered being on bone jarring corrugations. Based on the number of rental 4×4’s coming towards us all day we were clearly now on the main tourist route. Turning off the dirt road towards our overnight stop (Sossus on Foot) we were not too hopeful but pleasantly surprised as after a few kilometres the road all of sudden drops before you into a little valley and a small oasis with a few campsites looking out of over the vast landscape. As we were the only people camping and it was so hot we opted once again to setup the outdoor shower and enjoy a refreshing shower next to Mr Jones in the early evening.

On arrival at Sesriem the following morning we decided to first go and buy a permit for our next day’s visit into the Park (Sossusvlei) which caused much confusion both at the gate and at reception. It turns out the standard practice is to arrive at the gate on the day of entry, obtain an entry number, visit the Sossusvlei dunes and then only pay for your permit when exiting – hence the confusion as to why we wanted to buy it the day before but nobody told us this and we only learnt of the “standard” practice the following morning when sitting in the queue of cars at the gate.

On iOverlander we had read of a campsite (Sossus Oasis) being located behind the fuel station just outside the park entry gate so given that it was behind a petrol station we were not expecting much but fortunately were pleasantly surprised. Each site had a covered shade area and own ablutions with a semi outdoor shower plus there was a lovely little swimming pool located in the centre of the ring of campsites. Because we had stopped at Sossus on Foot the day before and therefore only had had a short hop into Sesriem we arrived long before the campsite filled up so the hammocks got strung up next to the pool and we settled in for an afternoon of G&T’s, reading and swimming.

The towering red dunes around Sesriem and at Sossusvlei are the iconic landscape picture which usually appears in any kind tourism literature for the country. Added to that is the stark contrasts of, and thus heavily photographed, Dood vlei (Dead Vlei) with its white clay floor, dead trees and red dunes as a back drop. The best time to photograph all of this is in the early morning but with the dunes being 60km inside the park and the gates only opening at sunrise it makes for quite the bun fight, once again as with the gorillas a few months ago we got to witness the worst side of the dog eat dog nature of many human beings. Despite this we did enjoy our time in the dunes trying to take artistic pictures of the trees but left knowing that we also prefer the hidden gems off the beaten track rather than the “must see” spots as per standard guidebooks.

For interest sake the trees are believed to have died 900+ years ago when the Tsauchab river path was cut-off by the shifting sand and have subsequently been preserved in their present form due to the aridity of the environment and thus the absence of wood boring insects.

Having taken our pictures and driven the 60km back out of the park by 11:00 in the morning we decided to head further south rather than spend another day “behind the fuel station”. Tania’s good friend, Emma, had sent us an article on some lilies which were flowering near Maltohoe after the recent rains and with that only being 120km away we programmed the GPS for that. It was a lovely drive, firstly because it would seem that as soon as we headed south we got off the main tourist track with once again lovely quite roads and secondly the scenery shifted from a moon landscape to more of a Karoo one which while barren has a lot of variety in terms of hills and plant life. Our sense of humor did however get tested at the end of the day when we headed down a small farm track to what was meant to be a wonderful camping spot only to find after 8km a locked farm gate. Once we had reversed our route and got back to the main dirt road Tania managed to slip in the mud while opening the final gate, rather funny afterwards but not at the time.

Unfortunately, viewing the lilies was not to be as they only flower for 4 short days after the first heavy rains and had disappeared a few days before we arrived. Nothing ventured nothing gained.

One advantage of our failed search for the lilies is that we got to drive along the valley between Maltahoe and Aus as this valley was absolutely spectacular, we nicknamed it the “valley of colours”. The landscape and plants/grasses changed constantly from whites, greys, reds, greens, yellows and various shades of brown making the 200km journey an absolute pleasure.

Basing ourselves at Klein Aus Vista we made the 240km round trek to Lüderitz and the ghost town of Kolmanskop. Approaching Ludertitz we had in the back of our minds that we had read that the Kolmanskop guided tours only took place until 13:00 so decided to stop there first which was very fortunate cause in fact they appeared to only have 2 guided tours per morning. The first takes place at 9:30 and the second at 11:00 and we arrived at 10:45. If you miss the tour you are welcome to walk around yourself but we don’t think you will get the same appreciation for the monumental effort that was required to both build and maintain the town when it was “alive”, as a plus the tour is free and included in your entry fee. For information purposes, access to the site closes at 13:00 unless you have a pre-arranged photographic permit.

Kolmanskop was founded in 1908 when diamonds were accidentally discovered while building the railway inland from Lüderitz and so began a diamond rush which kept the town alive for nearly 30 years, constantly fighting the encroachment of the desert and surviving despite the harshest of elements, for instance: all water was shipped in from Cape Town which is nearly 800km’s to the south.

After the tour we strolled around for a bit , taking pictures but with midday approaching it was baking hot and walking in slops on soft hot sand soon had us bailing for the cool ocean breeze which Lüderitz enjoys just over the hills to the west.

A number of times in the last few days we had heard of the camping spot at Shark “Island” but most people had put us off by telling us it was windswept and not very pleasant, plus being overpriced, so out of curiosity we drove out too it upon our arrival in Lüderitz. It is definitely overpriced but what a stunning location it enjoys wedged on a peninsula overlooking the Atlantic on the one side and the tiny protected natural harbour of Luderitz on the other, with many large rocky outcrops you could park behind for wind protection. We instantly regretted leaving some of our gear at Klein Aus as it would have been nice to spend a night there.

We have not had occasion to eat out much on the entire trip as all too often in the places we stayed the offerings are only overpriced burgers or pizzas, but we thoroughly enjoyed a little lunch of cheddar cheese meatballs on ciabatta with salad at the little deli opposite the Spar in town. With full stomachs we drove a little north to check out the views before parking on the beachfront to catch up on some social media time – the cell signal through the desert has naturally been mostly non-existent.

Having caught up on the latest cat, coffee, dog and corona virus posts we hit the road for the long and very straight drive back across the desert to Klein Aus Vista, with only one small detour to look at a few of the wild horses drinking at a waterhole close to the main road. The exact origin of these feral wild horses is unknown but they have been roaming wild and incredibly surviving in the desert for over 100 years. Their ongoing survival does look a lot more assured with the establishment of this permanent waterhole.

With all our mileage the last 1,5 months Mr Jones was a little overdue for an oil change which while we could do that ourselves, thanks to the not-so-brilliant placement by Land Rover of the oil filter it is a rather messy job and so best done at a proper workshop. On a farm 60km south of Keetmanshoop is a highly regarded Landy mechanic (Johann Strauss) and so we headed there but once again our timing with regards servicing was not great in respect to it being a weekend. We therefore broke the journey eastwards up with a night in Keetmanshoop which also gave time for shopping for supplies, before heading out to the farm on the Sunday afternoon.

Our intention was to have a quick oil change done on the Monday morning and then move on but from the daily monitoring we do on the road Stuart did have a few items he wanted to ask Johann about, one of these was what looked like some movement in the left engine mount rubber. Upon closer inspection it turned out that in fact the engine mount was broken and so a quick service turned into a long day of lifting the engine to remove and replace mounts with the inevitable small hiccups like a seized nut on the exhaust manifold and then a broken stud bolt. Thankfully by early evening everything was in place and a few other miscellaneous items had been fixed.

One of the miscellaneous items was fitting a rubber grommet seal on the rear prop-shaft, when the original plastic cover had perished in Tanzania Stuart had used zip ties to hold the individual seals together which has worked surprisingly well. A good quantity of Zip ties is an essential toolbox item. While all this went on Tania read her kindle, entertained the farm Jack Russell and played dodgem with the sun as she moved her chair between Land Rovers and workshop buildings.

The longer service time meant we spent another night camped on the farm but we weren’t complaining as we had found a lovely spot a kilometre or so from the farmhouse to enjoy the peace and quite of being literally in the middle of nowhere.

The following morning while settling the bill we had a lovely kuier (chat) with Johan and his wife and received all sorts of farm treats before heading off on our journey again. Who knows where else in the world we may end up servicing or fixing Mr Jones but this certainly was unique and a lovely service experience.

Our plan from the farm was to head south to the Fish River Canyon with an overnight stop at the Canyon Roadhouse but upon being allocated a disappointingly bare and sandy campsite right on top of a much larger group we made the quick decision to carry on to view the actual canyon before carrying on further south to camp on the Orange river instead. This turned a planned short day into a rather long one and upon arrival at Norotshama river resort it was an easy decision to stay a couple of nights and take a long overdue rest day.

Being on the orange river meant we had reached the bottom of Namibia and on the 12 March, we crossed back into SA exactly 7 months since leaving Johannesburg and normal life. The adventure and journey is far from over, in fact it is just beginning as we still have so much to see and do so don’t unsubscribe just yet.