Due to the many questions we have had, we put a page together with a few tips for other overlanders planning to do this trip. Please have a look, read and ask more questions! Look on the left under the tab TIPS and leave your comments under this blog post. thnx :) Bart & Jasmin
Namibia, Oshikango In the north we visited the Etosha National Park and were able to see almost all the wild animals we could think of. Elephants, hyenas, zebras, giraffes etc etc. We were so stunned of the number of animals we saw in one day. We were planning to have to stay a week to see everything but we managed to see everything in a day! We camped in the park anyway and I’m glad we did. We didn’t get much sleep as the lions were very active making love and making a lot of noises. We could see the humour of it and just slept in a bit longer the next day. Things like that don’t happen every night. In Kamanjab there is a camp ground called Oppi Koppi, owned by a Belgian couple that allow overlanders stay for free as long as they eat at the restaurant every day. It being low season, they were very happy to have us there and we ended up staying much longer than intended. The food was great, we slept great, the beer was cold and we were finally able to not to stress about visas anymore. It was time to relax and that’s what we did. No more having to worry about where to get money, water, food or a place to camp. At the day of leaving Oppi Koppi, guess who we see at the local supermarket. It was the overland truck we have been meeting many times before! Thousands of kilometres and two countries further we just meet them again. What a small world it is. We caught up on stories and decided to meet up in Swakopmund a few days later to go out and have some fun. In the meantime we visited the Petrified Forest with big trees turned into stone over time, we camped next to hyena dens in the desert just because the sunset was so amazing, visited the cape fur seals colony and drove down the coast famous for shipwrecks. When we arrived in Swakopmund we met up with the overland group on the truck again. As the overland tour was going straight to Cape Town after this, we knew it would be the end of the journey together. We celebrated the success of our journey together by going out in the lively (kuch) nightlife of swakop. Swakopmund being the first tourist town for us to arrive in, we decided to take a tour in the dunes. Instead of taking our heavy car into the sand we hired a few quads with a guide and raced through the massive sand dunes. In the end we had sand everywhere again, but luckily the campground had a good shower. Every morning in Swakopmund a strange thing occurred. Around 11 there would appear a blanket of clouds coming from the ocean, covering the whole coast and it would disappear a few hours later. In this time the temperature would stay very cold, keeping the sun away and the ocean breeze very cold. It happened every morning like clockwork. Our next destination was the capitol Windhoek, but first on the way was the Spitzberg National Park. We just drove through, but what a spectacular place. Big skies with the little clouds, giant boulders to climb on and the temperature was finally above 20 degrees again. Windhoek itself wasn’t to interesting as it was Easter Friday when we arrived. That meant that basically everything was closed or fully booked. We overnighted in the backpackers, stocked up on fuel and food and hit the road again the next day. We took the shortcut on the gravel road going directly to the famous Sossusvlei valley and sand dunes. On the way at our lunch stop and every photo stop we met up with 3 Namibian families that had the same idea as us. The first time it was pretty obvious that the elders (including drivers) were all a bit tipsy already and it was only early afternoon. We decided not to get bothered about it, refused their offers to have drink with them and drove away every time. In the end of the day we were looking for a camp spot, so we drove into the Nukluft national park. Halfway into the park we hear a tire rumbling so we stopped to found out we had our second flat tire. No big deal, we start changing it and when i was about to take off the wheel spacer when Jasmin was pushing the brake, the brake line breaks and spits all the brake fluid all over me. Double trouble! But this was no good. I try to stop the leaking immediately by bending the end a bit but nothing seems to work. Guess who arrives at this moment, the 3 Namibian families. Even though we had been very cold to them earlier they were still very happy to help us. They helped us get to the park camp without brakes. When we arrived there it was soon clear that the whole park had been fully booked for months as this was the Easter holiday. The three families had booked ahead but something went wrong with their booking. Luckily there were still two cabins left which the families were able to book with a discount. They invited us to camp next to the cabins and before we knew it were having a beer and a proper braai. This is southern African for a bbq, except you eat when all the food has been prepared. This meant it was about 11 in the evening before we ate. After this much time the food always tastes great! In the morning everyone was a bit hangover but they helped us blocking the leaking pipe and we were able to brake again. I didn’t dare pushing it too hard, so we took it easy until the next proper town 600 kms away. On the way we did a bit of slow off-roading and visited Sossusvlei. We were still travelling with the Namibian families and they were very generous to us. They gave us so much meat and alcohol we were totally stuffed after two days. We couldn’t eat anymore meat so we were happy to eat some porridge for lunch and declined the braai they offered us. I don’t think they understood us very well and took it a bit offensively. We camped one more night with them and splitted our ways the next day as they were heading back to Windhoek. On the way to the next proper town, Keetmanshoop, we visited the Brukkaros Crater. From the outside it appears to be a large mountain in the middle of a flat desert. Driving up with the car and then climbing into the opening, was such an experience. Standing inside the crater, there was no wind or noise. Great place for echoes. In Keetmanshoop we changed the brake line ourselves, bled the system from air bubbles and off we were two nights later. Next we visited the Kolmanskop. A deserted diamond mining town, left behind to be taken over by the desert. Slowly the sand dunes are moving into the historic buildings. A fantastic place to make some pictures and get an impression of the times when diamonds were just laying around on the floor. Before entering South Africa we had a quick visit to the fish river canyon lookout point. Great views but busy with tourists. We stayed almost a month in Namibia and have a great impression of it. It was a great place to relax after the visa run down the whole west coast. We were able to slow down end enjoy this gem of a country. Definitely one of the highlights of our trip so far. South Africa, Vioolsdrift Crossing the border was a dream! Ten minutes later we had our passports and carnet stamped in and out. The fastest border crossing so far! What are we going to do with the rest of our day? Just having entered SA we got bored of the good road very fast, so we looked on the map and started the Namaqua 4wd trail. The trail itself is very good, but when we took the side trail towards the road to hell we stopped halfway and turned back. Normally Jasmin is the one stopping me to drive further over bad roads, but this time even I didn’t want to. It still made a brilliant bush camp as we were awaken in the middle of the night by sudden screaming of all the animals around. Monkeys, donkeys, wild dogs and more. It stopped as fast as it came, very spooky. The western coast didn’t have too much to offer this time of year, as it was becoming winter. We did camp next to the ocean spotting whales while making dinner. They were not the big humpback whales, but you could hear them flapping on the water and making noises when the wind died. Waking up in the morning and the first thing you see are whales in the water is a great thing indeed. Slowly arriving into Cape Town we could spot the table mountain from far away. It was soon clear our journey had come to an end. We had rented an apartment through Airbnb for a month to see whether we wanted to stay longer. If not, we would commence our journey back on the East coast of Africa. As you know by now we have moved on. We both received job offers but nothing good enough to make a decent living or doing something that would benefit our experience. One month flew by. We did many little fixes to the car and had a good rest to prepare for the next journey. We did a bit of sightseeing around the area of Cape Town. During this time it soon became clear that our buddy Bryan, whom we travelled with in Mauritania and Mali, would fly to Cape Town to meet up again. We picked him up from the airport and shared our stories over a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant in the city. Our time at the apartment had come to an end so we decided to do a little road trip together. We have an extra third seat that finally came in handy. Just when we were about to start our little road trip we get a message from another overlanding couple that have been following our footsteps all along the west coast. Very soon we were having a braai together talking about the strangest experiences we have had on the trip. It’s funny how stories can differ even though we travelled the same route a month apart. This evening was a brilliant end to an amazing journey and a promising start to a new one. We have left civilization again, now at the famous victoria falls in zimbabwe.
Soon more! We have hit the road again. We decided not to stay in Cape Town any longer. We were not ready to deal with all the power cuts and after almost getting our front bumper and winch stolen we were ready to leave. The car had a lot of work done as well. We got the exhaust welded and bent back into position, got new tyres, painted the roofrack, got new body mounts on the rear, changed front springs to the matching EMUs on the rear, repacked the front right wheel bearing, changed all oils (20 liters!) and cleaned the whole car of dust and mud. Next to that there were plenty of little bolts and nuts missing or just needed tightening. The car was ready too. Luvo - Angola Our worst day of our trip was about to have a major turn when we stopped at a catholic mission to ask if we could camp in their yard. We were warmly welcomed by an Italian pastor and before we knew it we were eating pasta and drinking beer and whiskey. They wouldn’t let us camp as they had a whole room prepared for guests (which are rare in this part of the world). Shower, own room and even electricity! We received a tour around the compound, involving the school and orphanage. What a great place to be. The next day we were sad to leave, but our visa days were counting. We still had a whole country to cross. In Luanda we stayed a few days with very welcoming friends and we were lucky to have them! I will never forget the amazing Argentinian steaks they prepared for us. They even organised our next stay at a beach club in Lobito. We were allowed to camp on the beach next to the club and use their toilets and showers. Unfortunately again we couldn’t stay longer. The drive towards Namibe was very interesting. It started out with a very good tarmac road, but ended up being a dusty truck missing bridges. One time we got stopped by a fast flowing river that was about a meter deep. No one dared crossing it as everyone was waiting for the river to slow down. After 2 hours it was still exactly the same and we decided to give it a go. Slowly entering the water it soon started flowing over our hood and pushing us to the side. The nerves started acting up fast now. The water was pounding against the side and the tires were losing traction. The engine was losing power as it was about to stall. We were already in first gear but not in low range yet. Stupidly regretting it at that moment we stopped in the middle of the river to change to low range gears. Water pounding against the side, the whole car was shaking. It had a bit trouble to get going again but we managed to start pushing ourselves slowly towards the other side. Finally at the other side we opened our doors and water was flowing from everywhere. Luckily we took extra time at home to waterproof the car. Makes you feel alive these kind of moments. All other cars followed soon after, now they knew it was no problem. Wild camping further down the road was good to settle our nerves a bit. There was no one else around and a stunning sunset made a good place to camp. After setting up camp we looked around to find some firewood and we noticed big foot prints of cats around the camp. We decided to camp anyway as we were way too lazy to pack up and find another place. Nothing bothered us until we were eating breakfast the next morning. A kid was walking past our camp and the moment he noticed us, he started running away immediately. We had a laugh and 10 minutes later we see a group of people staring at us from the nearest hill top. This moment we decided to start packing up to leave, just in case. They were faster than us so as we were packing up a man comes out behind of a bush and started coming towards as. I give him a friendly greeting and give him a hand. He didn’t accept it and left me hanging. Ok I guess no friendly people. I walk back to the car and we started packing up the last few things. In the meantime more people arrived and coming out of the bushes. Before no time there were about a dozen of Bushmen with big knives and spears standing around us. I give another try to communicate, but as I had no words of Portuguese and they didn’t know any English this became a very awkward communication. I fish out a few words here and there like Armos and figure out that they are worried whether we have guns. They were just trying to protect their own people I figured, so we showed them our car and try to tell them we are just camping here for the night. I try to tell them we are “tourists” but this soon became misinterpreted as “terrorist”. I say “no armas” and everything becomes a bit less awkward when they started laughing. I said OK and we got in the car and left. Next time I’ll definitely try to pick up some more Portuguese. Further towards Namibia we were entering Lubango going up a high mountain range. Its strange to see this pop up out of nowhere as we have been driving over flat areas all the time. We drove from sea level all the way up to 2200 meters and we couldn’t see a damn thing as it was all cloudy. The temperatures have dropped from 35 degrees all the way down to 7. We decided to camp there anyway, and luckily we did. The next morning the clouds were gone and we were rewarded with stunning views over the flat lands. We were so surprised about the pureness of the Angolan people. The landscapes are so untouched and we were received so warmly by many people. Many people skip out on Angola because of visa troubles or the high expenses, but it was so worth it for us. I hope we will be able to return some other day to explore this country some more without a short time limitation. We filled up all our fuel cans before we left Angola, as it was super cheap here. Entering Namibia was no problem and soon we were at KFC eating fried chicken wings. What a huge contrast these two countries have. A few days ago we ran into a group of Bushmen and now there were ATM’s, fast food restaurants, good roads and facilitated camp grounds everywhere. Now it was time to relax.
|
Time on the road:
Archives
October 2015
|