Mrad & Inge's 60+ Namibia KAOKOLAND: D14(1): Bushcamp - Hartmanns Valley - [D14(2): Monster Dune

The distance wasn't the issue - it was the surroundings:

Incredible.
Amazing.
Breathtaking.
Life-changing.
Indescribable.

Words cannot do justice to this day's travel.
Not even photos can capture the expanse and the beauty and the peace of the day.
Let alone the excitement.

D14(1): Bushcamp - Hartmanns Valley

Here is the map.

We were camped in the dry river bed. Mrad wakes up early - this view greeted him. He's the early morning tea maker too!

Time to pack up and get going.

On the road, the never-ending same (yet different) surroundings kept us spellbound. How do you think horses survive the desert? How are such varying colours generated in this dry world?

Johan's super-spotter-eyes picked up this black speck in the distance. With excellent binoculars and camera zoom lenses, we identified the speck as a Lappetfaced Vulture.

This section of the route was deep sand - nothing but sand and more sand.

Our young Swiss hosts at Camp Syncro had convinced us that the roads were open for all to travel. The "Restricted" signs were aimed at the private camps in the conservancy. So - "Here we go!"

This airstrip is marked as Serra Cafema on the T4A map. A deep donga separates it from the bypass road.

We drove further to the west. Each minute the scenery changed - it is impossible to make a small selection of pictures. I've included as many as possible in an effort to let you experience the gentle vastness of this world.

A skeleton here and a skeleton there reminds one that this is not really a "gentle" environment.

An eland spoor, the wind's tracks and the investigating team.

There is only one main road leading west so we knew that we were going to get to Hartmann's Junction in time. Tea-time was due by the time we reached the junction. Johan and her brother Tom had a "chat" which entailed much finger-pointing and laughter.

We had expected the sign to say "Hartmann's Junction" but it didn't. We gladly followed this directive - "STRICTLY NO OFF ROAD DRIVING".

How did we know this was Hartmann's Junction? Our T4A loaded GPS's told us so ...

This track caught our eye. We decided it was lunch and this gave us time to imbibe the surroundings without worrying about the road - just look what Mrad found! A massive chameleon: white, then shaded on one side, then white again. He really lived up to his name (which I cannot find ... help??) And the tracks belong to him.

We never found the maker of this track - thank goodness!

It was time to go on. The group had decided to follow Camp Syncro's Swiss couple's advice and to head for the Monster Dune - Sarah had said that the road virtually automatically takes you to the top of the dune and "then you fly down the other side! No problem!" So, although none of us had any experience or training for dune driving, we headed north.

Remember to deflate your tyres to 1.5 bar.

Once again, we entered the super-natural world of sand, amazing colours and textures, weird shapes ...

Another one bit the dust ...

These rocks must have been molten a long time ago but they withstood erosion to look serenely out over the desert. Perhaps some of the dunes are still hiding more such rocks?

Our road snaking forwards to reveal even more beautiful hues of reds and blues and beige and purple and ... it leads UP a dune - would this be the Monster Dune (also marked on our GPS)?

As we climbed up the side of the mountain, we could look back down into the valley through which we had just driven,

We reached the top and let the other know that in fact we had reached a plateau - this was not the place we were going to "fly down". A lonely gemsbok head watched over us - can you see the little red arrow? That's BigBlue. The green arrow? That's Tom slowly climbing up to us.

We had time to explore the flat plateau. First we drove south to look back onto the valley through which we had come.

Just see how different the valley is towards the north - no wonder the road chose to go up and not on.

Then we moved north on the plateau. Here we looked north towards Angola. However, the Kunene wasn't visible from this vantage point.

This circle of stones must have had a specific use - perhaps it still does? Siep identified the large white stone as "Silcrete".

We drove on to the extreme northern view point where the road ends on a precipice overlooking the Kunene and giving us a beautiful view into Angola.

Can you see the Kunene far below?