It's hard to believe that the map shows our first 5 days' travel - a long slog of 2002km. But this is how it is when one travels by vehicle to your African destination.
D1: Pretoria - GrootMarico (216km)
We travelled from Pretoria to Groot Marico where we slept at Siep and Johan's family - a very pleasant evening after the usual rushed start to a tour.
The start - is everything loaded?
Beautiful sunflower fields along the road.
No road ahead of our friends? Travelling is similar to a leap of faith.
The Swartruggens toll. Impossible to avoid if one wants to use Lobatse / Pioneer border post to enter Botswana - authorities know this and charge a whopping R73!
D2: GrootMarico - Kang (495km)
After a hearty breakfast we left our newly found friends and headed further north on our way to Kang (495km).
Authorities have great plans with the Lobatse border crossing - however, these have not come to fruition (yet) as this beautiful structure has been standing desolate for at least three years.
Friendly staff and the wise choice of tackling the border crossings on a Sunday, made it an easy passing - we were on our way north-west to Kang via Kanye.
Turn left!!!
Be warned - stay awake - right of way belongs to oxen/goats - even game!
According to Siep, this road was constructed +30 years ago using the available calcretes to create a special mixture which served as the foundation layer for this road from South Africa into Botswana. Now certain sections of the road are potted, but at the time the "recipe" was breakthrough technology.
After 495km of travelling on a mostly good road, we reached Kang, refuelled and bought delicious hamburgers for supper.
The last 25km beyond Kang to Kalahari Rest Lodge was a pleasure.
This is how our camp looked the next day before we left (it was too dark to take photos in the evening when we arrived). The 'privacy' of each campsite and the proximity to clean ablutions with warm showers, make this camp one of our favourites.
D3: Kang - Gobabis (477km)
We knew that the day's travelling would be a slog. Scenery much the same as yesterday, roads good but animals crossing making it quite dangerous - we had to do some 'repairs': stitching the zip ends together with dental floss (fantastic thread to work with!). We did this as we never remove our rooftop tent's cover - it merely folds up above the flip window of the canopy (can you see it?)
This corn cricket came to inspect our home. Some of the names it is also known by: Acanthoplus discoidalis (armoured katydid, armoured ground cricket, armoured bush cricket, corn cricket, setotojane or koringkrieke) See www.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acanthoplus_discoidalis.
Looking at the skid marks on the road, a previous traveller nearly collided with the ever present animals on the road.
Once again, the Buitepos/TransKalahari border crossing was a pleasure.
We chose to stay at GobaGoba Lodge as we knew that the showers had hot water and the staff was friendly.
Our fellow-traveller, Siep, was coming down with bad flue so we opted for known camping circumstances.
It was a freezing night.
D4: Gobabis - Windhoek - Okahandja (302km)
We left Gobabis to travel towards Windhoek. We were to
- meet Johan's brother, Tom, there;
- visit the Windhoek Geological Museum; and
- (most importantly) get Siep to a doctor.
Inge facing the new day.
We travelled further West to get to Windhoek as soon as possible. Siep and Johan found the Namibia Geology Museum at +-S22° 36' 01.3" E17° 04' 59.6" adjacent to the Eros Airport (Windhoek).
This interlude was well worth the time spent. Apart from a thorough display of minerals, there were also replicas of dinosaurs and their tracks which were found in Namibia.
I never thought about this - but, apparently Geology plays an important part in the manufacture of cars. There was even a display of all the "geological" elements which are present in the kitchen.
Stromalites found in Otavi, Namibia and (the second picture) a bed of natural stromalites on the coast of Australia - aren't they beautiful?
We were not planning on going to The Bogenfels Arch, but its beauty is remarkable. It must come on our bucket list!
Even unpolished crystals have their magic.
Obviously we could look out for many beautiful geological features and hopefully we would find such "gems"?
Siep and Johan stayed in Windhoek for Siep to recover from his pneumonia. Hopefully they would join us later on in the tour.
So - Tom, Mrad and Inge continued north on their journey. At Okahandja we found a good camping spot at the Okahandja Country Hotel.
Setting up a tent for the first time is always a challenge. Fortunately, Tom had good help and later he and Mrad celebrated our night's "home" with a glass of red wine.
D5: Okahandja - Kamanjab (383km)
The bathrooms at Okahandja Hotel campsite were immaculate and fun: "Shower together to save water!" Here Inge is reflected in a long mirror with Mrad's face reflected in the mirror above the basin.
This massive wooden basin is a real beaut!
All of Namibia's roads have wonderful well-maintained shoulders / reserves. We often passed baled grass and workers keeping the reserved tidy.
Could this ridge which the road passes be the "ridge consisting of Marble, schist and calc-silicate of the Swakop Group" which is mentioned in Schneider's book "The roadside Geology of Namibia" (2004:218)? This book is invaluable to a traveller interested in geology, but for a novice it needs many more pictures and co-ordinates to clarify the exact position of geological features.
However, it still was fun trying to identify the landmarks.
However, it still was fun trying to identify the landmarks.
After 177km we reached Otjiwarongo where we bought diesel and some supplies.
These rocks through which the road traverses just before Outjo could be "Cenozoic sediments [which] form prominent terraces SW of the road. The terraces consist of conglomerates cemented by limonitic calcrete and were deposited by the Ugab River" (Schneider 2004:235). So much for my expedition into geology ...
This hill NW of Outjo "is occupied by an anticline with older phyllitic schist of the Nosib Group at its core" (Schneider 2004:236) - hopefully this is what this picture reflects? However, the Commiphora made it beautiful.
The ever present animals along the road - at least this herd was being guarded!
The freedom of the road ...
These "outcrops of granitic and granodioritic rocks of the Huab Complex occur" close to Kamanjab - easy to identify as the "main part of the journey to Kamanjab shows little outcrop" (Schneider 2004:237-238).
At Kamanjab Tom & Mrad bought wood and diesel from the co-op.
We turned north on the Ruacana road and decided to overnight at Alpec. We found warm showers and clean toilets - even tented chalets!
This beautiful outcrop with its magnificent Commiphora must be photographed by every camper. Although we didn't examine the tree closely, it probably is the White-stemmed Corkwood (seems like a valid guess!)
Teatime!
And later - time for a glass of wine!
D6: Kamanjab - Ruacana (346km)
These immobile geckos greeted me behind the shower door. The night had been cold and they hadn't thawed yet!
Time to pack up and get going!
Our first elephant sighting - albeit just a static warning sign!
The next notable occurrence was the Werda Veterinary line - no problem taking meat north!
The photo below was taken at Lat. 19:12:31.0871; Long. 14:24:10.3257 - yet I can only guess from Schneider's book that this is the "rhyolite at the base, overlain by the white quartzite of the Otjivasandu Member" referred to by Schneider (2004:238-239). Can anybody help??
Horse riders along the road.
We had to wait for this herd to cross the road to their drinking trough. Their watchful owner made sure they crossed safely.
Calcretes along the road as the road to Ruacana north of the Opuwo turnoff "for the most part traverses Kalahari sediments consiting of loose sands and calcretes" (Schneider 2004:239). Can you see the wild ostriches running away from the car?
A welcome tea break under a magnificent leadwood tree.
The "Groot Wit Pad" as the road between Kamanjab and Ruacana has been known for years (Schneider 2004:238) soon will be tarred all the way - or, at least be turned into a beautifully graded red road
(on the right in the picture)!
(on the right in the picture)!
We found Eha Lodge easily, but set off to hunt for the elusive Cinderella Waxbill in a spot near the Namibia/Angola border - no luck!
This little might and her mother chatted to us while we drank a beer at the local shop.
Dusk enveloped us while we travelled home to find Tom baking his wonderful bread! He also gave us the most delicious bottled quince and custard for pudding - this is the life!
So we easily managed to cover the 2002 km from Pretoria in five days. Although one tends to feel that getting "there" is a waste of time, it also gave us pleasure to watch the countryside rolling by -
and to try to identify geological features.
and to try to identify geological features.
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