Road Trip, southern Africa.

[onlyMark]

Day 15 –

Mrs M was dropped off at the airport yesterday afternoon and I drove half an hour to my hotel where I intended to have a bit of a sort out.
As Mrs M was the main photo taker with her iPad, I’ll have to try and fit a few in with my phone, but I can’t promise much from now on.

The hotel, the Mercure, was fine as far as the hotel goes, but next door to me was a man who had his TV on. Loud enough such that at 10.30 when I went to bed, I could hear it in the background.
I dozed here and there but not slept as in my dozing I was always aware of the TV.
Eventually, at 2.30am I had had enough.
I knocked on his door. He didn't answer. I knocked a few times and realised he was asleep. I carried on knocking until I heard him move and come to the door.
The conversation went as follows -
"It's two thirty in the morning and your TV is keeping me awake. Could you please switch it off."
His reply was, "No."
Me - "No?"
"No", and he shut the door.

I went to the reception, nobody there but security, I told the man the problem and he came to listen outside the door of the next room.
He said he'd ring him.
I heard the phone inside ring and there was quite a long conversation, but eventually the TV was turned off.
I left the hotel at 6am and made a point of banging my bags on his door loudly as I exited.

Anyway, J'burg is busy in a morning. I drove a long way out, about 40km, and there still was traffic on the three lane motorway virtually at a standstill trying to get inside.
About 40km further I was on a main dual carriageway that goes all the way to Kimberley, my destination. The SatNav said my next turn was in 436km.

Then I saw a sign saying “High Crime Area”. Then another one later and another one later still. Then another sign showed up twice separated by about 10km saying “Hijacking Area”.
Oh dear.

About 100km further I came to a town with probably the best shopping mall in the world. Full of trees, a water wheel, a stream and so on. Also a good cafe where I had something like avocado and coleslaw on toast.

About 10km further I was on the dual carriageway going up a small hill to a set of traffic lights about half a km away. Two cars coming the other way were flashing their lights and making hand motions to me and a car near me to turn around.
We slowed down and saw a group of men blocking off the road at the lights. Couldn't make out details but it looked like they had stuff blocking the road as well.
Several cars came past us and drove nearer. I waited well back. Others came past then and turned around.
I saw there was no hope of progressing so I also turned back and turned onto a side road about another half km back, well out of sight. I stopped to check the satnav for an alternative route.

I noticed all the cars that had come past me had turned around and were driving again past me down the side road. All except one.
I followed other cars and the satnav directions parallel with the dual carriageway but couldn't see the junction at first until we were some way past it. Black smoke was now billowing up from there and I could make out a car was on fire. Maybe the missing one, maybe not.

We made our way down some back roads in an estate and popped out back onto the main road about a km further on - then we all shot off.
Exciting day.
The rest of the journey was uneventful. The rest of the road was also like we've seen it in that it is flat, scrubby brush here and there, dry and boring.
I intend to have a day rest in Kimberley. I have a few things to do as well.

[fumobici]

Sorry about the asshole. Lord knows, I love a good road trip and this is getting past good now. Hope you can add more. I'm riding along.

[kerouac2]

I had my own little security incident in South Africa in 1999. Looks like there are still some problems.

[onlyMark]

fumobici, thanks. The pace will slow down somewhat now but we'll see what happens.

k2, the machete thing? I caught a bus into Nairobi one time and it arrived about two in the morning. As we made our way through the city to the bus station I was watching closely through the windows for hotels. I saw a reasonable looking one and about 200 metres later we stopped. I shot off the bus and sprinted hell for leather into reception.

[onlyMark]

Day 16 – Kimberley.

A day off at last to regroup and sort a few things out like getting the car serviced. That was good and bad news in that it’s never been up on a ramp for me to have a good look at. It was fine underneath. Bad news in that the radiator water is showing signs of getting a little oil in it. This is indicative of the head gasket giving out. Nothing I can or will do about that as I’ve had cars that have suffered it for years, but it can blow quickly, and there is no way I’m interfering with the engine for now, if ever. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Kimberley was once a very prosperous town but it faded for many years and is now making progress back again.
A fairly typical South African major centre in that there is a posh part and a poor part. The difference here though is that the poor section is not in such dire straits as many towns and there is a seemingly large black middle class.
There are a lot of shopping malls and I’ve had cause to go in a couple today. I noticed straight away the mixture of colours walking around.

If you go to Johannesburg, I visited a mall with Mrs M where there was not a black face shopping. Here is a lot more like Lusaka in that the percentage of whites in the population is reflected in those you can see and there is not a skewed impression from the district you are in.

I’ve had a drive through the city centre a couple of times and the buildings are mainly modern with a few older ones, but dating no further back than about 1925. I certainly wouldn’t walk around the centre at night, but during the day I’d have no problem, unlike some of the towns/cities I’ve been in. I don’t get the ‘threatening’ air, the looks from pedestrians as though seeing a white face in their area is uncommon.
By the way, it has been mentioned elsewhere about the poor white beggars at traffic lights – yes, all those beggars I have seen have been white.

Few buildings are higher than about three stories.
As usual the suburbs are where the wealth is and again as usual the streets are wide and adorned with trees and bushes.
Mainly homes are bungalow types with verandahs and gardens. All do still though have electric gates and tall walls topped at times by barbed wire. You also see a lot of private security vehicles knocking around. So all is not safe for sure.

It all started in 1866 when a child found an unusual pebble.
This was eventually passed on and found to be a diamond. A ‘rush’ started as more and more were found and word is that this helped move South Africa towards an industrial rather than a farming economy.
In the early days individual miners had their own claim and as finds eventually petered out due to the diamonds not initially being deeply buried, many miners left and sold their claims to one or two conglomerates.
But, it was discovered that a different layer of earth/rock that had been reached was actually the more load bearing layer. In effect, the individuals left too early.

From then on the whole enterprise became more and more controlled by big money, Cecil Rhodes (of dubious morality) became the driving force after buying out most claims and amalgamating them. The company formed was called De Beers – the De Beers being the original owners of the farmland the Kimberley mine became situated on.
At one time De Beers had a monopoly on the world diamond market, in fact 95% of production.
That’s about it in a nutshell.

In Kimberley is the ‘Big Hole’ – this is the remnants of the original mine.
To say it is big is an understatement and no photo really does it justice.
It started as an open cast mine, i.e. just digging and digging until the original hill became a hole, but then shafts were sunk, headstocks (the bit on a mine you often see with a big wheel on the top) were manufactured in the UK and shipped out and underground mining began in earnest.
Later you’ll see a photo of a cross section of the mine with some details of depths etc. The deepest it was dug was over a kilometer down.

Firstly though, time for some pretty pictures.
I have to say that most of the buildings you see did have original fittings inside and I’ve discovered my phone will take reasonable outside shots, but just pathetic images inside. So I’ve not shown any, but take my word for it, the insides had beds, kitchens and so on with period furniture.
The Big Hole is close to the centre of Kimberley, originally the town built up from there and a lot of these buildings were in their original locations, more or less, but some have been moved to the museum area.
There were other sites of interest in the city, from the Boer War and other times, but seeing as a town in the UK, also called Kimberley was just down the road from me, is also a mining area, and for a short while I worked at the coal mine there.........

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberley,_Northern_Cape

[onlyMark]

[onlyMark]

Joining the mining museum area was a long steel gantry that took you to look down in the Big Hole -










There was a small group of us given a guided tour. Initially we watched a 20 minute film about the history, were shown round some of the indoor exhibits, taken out to see the mine, then taken down in an elevator attached to the original headstocks to see what the mine underground would look like. That bit was fun because the lady guide told us we’d be 800m underground, when it was revealed later we’d just gone down one floor. The elevator we used was set up to take it’s time jolt around a bit to try and scare you and such like.
I knew immediately we were in a mock up of a mine because the walls were made of fibreglass, but to give them credit, did look like rock.
I’ve been down a few proper pit shafts at mining museums and had some experience you might say –








Around the hole are buildings, in fact only recently a large posh Protea hotel was built. The problem is the whole thing is falling in and those too near have to be abandoned.
By the way, mining stopped for World War I and when they came back to it, it was full of water. Apparently too expensive to pump it all out and try and start mining again, so it has been left as it is.






Famed, it is said, that it was the first place in the southern hemisphere and the second place in the world to get street lights. These are the original -




A cross section of the mine as mentioned earlier -




Attached to a bit of concrete on the viewing platform that nobody probably ever notices or noticed was a small plaque. This is something I have to investigate further -




The underground toilet, made out of a rock carrier, It is told that many hundreds if not thousands of men used these and disease was rampant -




Some mining equipment and a view of the winding gear – the winding house sat apart from the headstocks over the mine shaft and involved a large drum at this time steam driven, to raise and lower the man riding elevator car (holding in two levels 24 miners each time) and also the rock removal cars attached to the cable.
Another factoid – each man worked a twelve hour day, seven days a week, 6am to 6pm for what was then 17 cents an hour. I’ve not converted that and taken into account the inflation and things, but it was without a doubt a poorly paid job -






The exhibition inside, in a secure area we were given supervised access to, a place called ‘The Vault’ though it was nothing of the sort, had displays of diamonds in their various forms, cuts and colours.
If you held your phone up to the glass on the display you could take a bit of a close up -








That was it for me.
On the way back to my accommodation I spied a news announcement that could mean the end of civilisation as we know it -




More exciting wildlife. On the patio of my guesthouse.
Plus the outside of it where my room is. The wooden door you can just see to the left behind the pillar, the three windows in the bay to the right and the far right one, which is my bathroom with a claw foot bath, is my room -










Tomorrow is a drive and nothing much else. Just me looking at the countryside.

[kerouac2]

Kimberley looks absolutely and totally fascinating. For some reason "inferior" photos make it look even better.

I was quite struck by the white beggars in South Africa, as well as the "almost beggars" -- barefoot families selling watermelons on the roadside. It was a sight I was really not expecting.

[onlyMark]

Day 17 –

Had a breakfast of eggs on toast and set off for about a 450km drive to Upington.
Initially the road was quite standard for this part of the country in that it was reasonably flat and relatively uninteresting.
Later the surroundings changed to exhibit similarities to the sand and scrub of the Kalahari Desert. Not surprising really as I think the southern most part is around here somewhere.
I then began to approach the Orange River and started seeing strips of green near to it -




The other side of the road showed the orange sands -




A bridge crossed over the river -




Grape vines were now showing up with a regular occurrence -




As did the intricate and massive weaver bird nests. More and more butterflies as well, plus funnily enough, every time I stop there are more and more flies showing up -




Various water reservoirs had been filled from the river in low lying ground -






And Namibia was ever closer -




There is no reason to expect much change in the next day or two but I do have a pleasant anticipation about entering Namibia. At first the scenery will be roughly the same but it will get, for me at least, more interesting as it becomes more desert like.
In Kimberley the temperature was in the low thirties Celsius and now it is high thirties, 38.4 to be precise according to my car thermometer. I sort of like it as opposed to high twenties and then having a cold shade where after ten minutes or so you have to go back into the sun again.

I’ve had plenty of time to ponder things, nothing earth shattering, but things like why when I turn on the left side tap on the sink/shower, it is cold water that comes out invariably and not hot like I am used to. How did that become the norm here? Where else is it the norm?
Why are fridges in hotel rooms so loud?
I need someone to ride shotgun and take photos.


As the road trip passes I’m feeling a nerve in my back/leg more and more. I used to be able to drive for five or six hours until it came on – as happened at the beginning of the trip. Now after an hour or so I have to start shuffling about to get comfortable.
Eventually I can’t and I have a tennis ball I shove down the back of my shorts on the right hand side of my back, just above my hip. This seems to work for a while and it must be pressing on the nerve or something and alleviates it for a while. Sometimes I ball my fist up and do the same.
After so far around 7000km I’m not surprised really.

I expected to be doing maybe 8-9000km but I think I may well easily surpass that.
I know that I felt a lot better mid-morning, when the road had been flat, straight and featureless, my nerve was giving me some gip (irritation) and I stopped off at a filling station and had a coffee and a cheese and tomato toasted sandwich.
Life was better after that.

If only I’d have remembered to stock up on music CD’s instead of the one I have that is failing and another one that has given up the ghost completely...............
Radio, when it is remote, in non-existent. But in larger towns I can pick something up, though it just seems to be phone-ins where I have no idea what is being said as it is either in Afrikaans or something like Xhosa.

Tomorrow is another drive, not as far as today and I’m thinking my bed for the night might be somewhere a little bit remote. The plan is one more night in SA and then crossing the border.

[kerouac2]

You are lucky to still notice so many insects. In our developed world, 80% of the insects have been exterminated. When I was little, a road trip meant a windscreen totally covered with little cadavers. Now you can drive in Europe for a week and the windscreen is just as pristine at the end as when you started the trip.

[bjd]

The website mentioned for that Polish traveller doesn't work, but there is a Wikipedia article about him: Kazimierz Nowak

[mickthecactus]

Oct 16, 2019 18:38:31 GMT kerouac2 said:

You are lucky to still notice so many insects. In our developed world, 80% of the insects have been exterminated. When I was little, a road trip meant a windscreen totally covered with little cadavers. Now you can drive in Europe for a week and the windscreen is just as pristine at the end as when you started the trip.

Similarly, years ago, our outside light at night would be covered in moths. Now nothing.

[onlyMark]

A lot of Namibia now is only slightly German though there are patches. Did you see my report from a couple of years ago? Whist it was in its full glory and not butchered by Photobucket?

[tod2]

Hello Mark, Here I am. Whilst you were jaunting around hither and thither I was busy fending off lions in the Kruger National Park. We got back a week ago and as we have bookings flooding in for our BnB I have been hard at it getting all ready for guests coming to ride the Amashova bike race.
If you come back to Durban and feel like and hours drive up to Pietermaritzburg, I would love to see you. If you want to spend the night you can secure a booking through AirBnB under the following:
Pietermaritzburg - The Studio on 66, The Bungalow on 66, The Toolshed on 66, And Farm View on 66. In any event, have a look at what we offer guests.
You are certainly having a fantastic road trip!

[onlyMark]

Tod, I've had a look at those now and I'd sort that out if necessary and also let you know in plenty of time. No problem.
I am currently in Springbok and will carry on north tomorrow into Namibia.
Glad to know you've not been eaten for dinner.

[onlyMark]

Day 18 –

My hotel last night was close to a road in Upington, called The Oasis, an add-on to the Protea next door.
I thought it’d be noisy, but it wasn’t, so I slept well and set off early after a hearty breakfast.

A couple of hours later I was ready for a break. I had a look on the map and the Satnav thing and saw a town coming up. I can do a search on the Satnav for restaurants, coffee shops etc. None came up.
The whole point of telling you this is to mention a website called Tracks4Africa. Some may know it.

It has a map app you can download and it is constantly updated by the users and contains virtually everything of note, mostly in southern Africa, but also other countries here. It is extremely comprehensive. You have to pay for the app but all the info is available for free on their website.
If you ever decide to go on a road trip, it is just the thing.

The other point though, is, for some reason, my SatNav contains all their database. So I can just select an icon and loads of info pops up that is not there on the normal programme inside.
I found there was a petrol station with a cafe inside.
Just the thing.

Across from it was a patch of ground full of.... errr.... metal animal and figure things. No idea why –






Inside the cafe they’d managed to get this set up -




A few other items of interest dotted the walls -




I say it is a cafe, but it is more a truck stop type place at a town called Pofadder. You can easily tell because the menu contains just fried food and nothing healthy. Also if you want coffee, you ask for coffee, and you get a mug full with some hot milk at the side. No fancy vanilla latte flat white cappuccino stuff. Coffee, or tea.
Mind you, you get a choice of tea, Either Rooibos or Five Roses.
I had coffee and I couldn’t resist a sausage roll.

The journey had been fine as regards scenery for the first part as I was still following the Orange River. That turned away, or maybe the road turned away, no matter, but it all got flat again.
At one point I saw a car coming towards me, a long, long way away on a very straight road. It had its headlights on, that’s how I first saw it.

I then timed how long it took for us to cross. From that I worked out, using a rough average speed, that he must have been about 5km away when I first spotted him.
Isn’t it exciting? I often spend my time working out distances, speeds etc as I drive.
For example, I know that I’ve been covering 10km in 6 minutes 25 seconds, on average. So I mentally check the accuracy of my SatNav as to arrival times at different points.

What about how many times my wheels will turn over a journey? Can do that too.
Impressive, huh!

Arrived at the town nearest my destination at an early lunch time. My plan was to stop there and have some food. But after the sausage roll, I wasn’t in the mood for it. I also had to do a little food shopping and fill up with fuel.
I try always to fill up at the end of the day so I have a full tank for the next day, plus it negates the need to find some at usually some awkward time the next day or try and find an open fuel station if I set off early.
My place tonight is self-catering, that’s why I needed some food, so I bought a bit extra for lunch as well.

Lunch was a spinach and feta cheese pasty with a packet of tomato flavoured crisps, a Granny Smiths apple and a mixed berry yoghurt to follow.
Dinner tonight will be, sadly and because I fancied it, ramen noodle jazzed up with some chilli and soya sauce.
Followed by another yoghurt.

I am quite a way south of the town, Springbok, in the countryside where I hope tonight it will be pitch black so I can do some star gazing.
I’ve got one of these hut things – with aircon, a kitchen area and wifi – not bad at all. A view also of the surroundings and the nearest neighbour.
Note the couple of quiver trees, very special trees they are.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aloidendron_dichotomum














There is a pool here. A bit sad and quite cold, about 21 degrees I estimate -




I’ve seen three dogs here roaming around. Very friendly and Kevin likes to pop round for a chat regularly. He was waiting for me when I came back from a walk -




Later I noticed his mate, Douglas, had popped nearby as well -




I’m hoping for an early start to cross the border. We’ll see what happens.
My plan is to do three days driving to get to the coast. I’ve seen most of what I want to see in the south of Namibia so it’ll be a couple of stop-offs not far off the main roads and then a couple of days stationary.

[onlyMark]

The shortest distance to drive between London and Kathmandu is about 7500km.
(I drove that with extra places visited en route, making 11000km, twelve times)
Today I passed the 7500km mark.

Just looked at Google Maps.
I have 3430km to go taking the route I want.

[kerouac2]

Something tells me that you are planning to sell your trusty vehicle before moving on to your next country of residence.

[onlyMark]

Absolutely. No idea what I'd get for it though.

[onlyMark]

Day 19 –

The border crossing was fine enough apart from a Customs bloke on the SA side who must have gotten out the wrong side of bed.
I gave him the 'Temporary Import Permit' (needed to bring a foreign vehicle into the country and issued at the border post into the country) I got on the way in and he said, "Where did you get this?" as though either I shouldn't have it or he'd never seen one before.
Me - "On the way in from Botswana near Gaborone"
"There is no crossing at Gaborone."
I wasn't sure what to say to that seeing there was and I'd come through it. So I said, "Near Gaborone, not in Gaborone."
"Go," he said and waved me away.
I asked him if I needed the permit further.
"I will keep it. Go."
So I went.

An uneventful drive continued north to a place called Keetmanshoop where I stayed the night.
There are a few things, as you would expect, that I am aware of in South Africa and this region and I thought I’d bring them to your attention, mainly because I haven’t much to say for today. You probably have similar things wherever you are.
One is the use of the word, “now”.

If you ask when something will be done, you’ll get one of two answers depending on the urgency.
If someone says they’ll do it, “now”, that doesn’t mean now, it means soon, more or less and depends on other diversions.
But if they say, “now, now” it means straight away, that very minute.
Also, if someone says something for example that you agree with. You don’t answer, yes, or ok, or fine or any of the thousand other responses. You can say “one hundred percent”.

Just so you know.


Day 20 -

Continuing north -
Dawn broke as I left the town from last night. My usual time for setting off. Just as it is light enough to not need headlights and you can see clearly -




I passed it on the way down in Botswana and it’s nice to see they acknowledge it also in Namibia, so I passed through it again returning north -




I don’t think I realised my destination, Windhoek, was at 1800m above sea level.
I did seem to spend a lot of time today going steadily uphill.
The countryside had been initially quite rocky, them calmed down to long stretches of flat half-sand and bush, then a few hills appeared whilst entering the city.
I left the radio on ‘search’ this morning to see if it would pick something up.
It did.

First there was a channel where some person was being interviewed, fortunately in English, about how climate change is affecting the farms in Namibia and what can be done to negate the effects.
All was interesting for a short while, then he interjected the phrase, “going forward”. Damnation.
I couldn’t listen to his message or advice from then on and I was purely waiting for him to say it again, as I knew he would. And he did. I lost all respect for him and after the fifth or sixth time I switched him off.

A hundred kilometers or so later I tried again.
Only one channel was picked up, an Afrikaans channel (I knew from when the man introduced the records) and they were playing music.
Damnation again.
I listened on and off for about an hour and each time the station was playing what I can only describe as Munich Bierkeller music – in German. Plenty off oompah etc and apart from a couple of other genres, one I do hate a lot.

I arrived at a place in Windhoek I’d stayed in on my travels before when alone. Arrebusch Travel Lodge it’s called.
Big, plenty of facilities and handy being just off a main road to the south of the city, but no noise from the road can be heard.

I had a decent meal in the restaurant in the evening and something was said on the next table which raised a number of questions for me that probably I’ll have to wait to get answered when I’m back in Lusaka.
At the table were two well dressed black men. I’d overheard them talking a bit of business.
The waitress came and took their order, both wanted the steak.
As usual in our lives, the waitress will then ask how we want it cooked.
Their unanimous reply was - “Well done. We’re African.”

[onlyMark]

Day 21 –

There is a theory in psychology that once you notice something, that something always/often seems to pop up. It’s like buying a not well known car. Once you have it, you see them all the time.
It’s the same with me and the sun.
It seems I mostly end up driving with the sun on my side, no matter the time of day or the direction I’m going in. I know logically this isn’t true, but that’s how it seems.

In fact one day last week I felt cheated because I was to travel west with the sun behind me all morning.
Typical though it was a cloudy day so it made no odds which way I’d been driving.
This morning I originally headed north and then west again. By the time the sun had any heat in it, it was already behind me. This and other things made for a pretty good day.
I was mainly going downhill as I had to drop from 1800m to zero metres, plus the wind was behind me and I have an annoying whistle that comes through the edge of the windscreen where I’d had to have a new one put in one time and it wasn’t sealed properly. It only happens when the wind is directly from ahead or slightly to the left side.

Also, the scenery gradually turned to mainly sand but to top it off, the radio decided to play ball and the one channel I could receive was playing soul ballads and the occasional country ballad. Good to sing to.
One disaster could have been though, the speed trap. It wasn’t as it turns out.
I’ve become quite used to not seeing the mobile cameras set up on long stretches of fast road, as I see every 50km in Zambia. I’ve only seen one so far since I’ve been out of there.
The speed limit mostly is 120km/h in Botswana, SA and Namibia, outside the urban parts.
This doesn’t bother me one bit as I tend to cruise at 95-100km/h anyway.

Today, some way in the distance, I could see someone on the opposite side of the road in a fluorescent jacket. You see a few anyway. Workers moving around and so on.
What made this a bit different was he or she seemed very small. Bear in mind I’m seeing this from a couple of km away.
As I drove closer I saw someone facing away from me and sitting on a plastic picnic chair. I could then make out a tripod with a camera sitting on the top of it on the far side of him.
I automatically checked my speed and saw it was well below the limit. Hidden away well off the road I could also now see a Police car.

I drove closer and closer, the policeman completely ignoring me. In fact he’d not seen or heard me and I realised this when he suddenly turned in my direction, shot up off his chair, swung the camera around to face me, peered into it for a second, then slumped back down onto his chair in defeat.
I wasn’t his victim today.
As I passed him I saw the dejected individual pull out his phone and start stabbing away on it.
The odd thing is, this wasn’t such a busy road. I’d easily be driving for a quarter of an hour or more and not see another vehicle.

This time I thought about it and decided it must have been twenty minutes or so before I go to him that a car had come the other way. I then timed the next sixteen minutes until one more passed me heading towards him. No wonder he had a chair to sit on and I bet he must have done something wrong to be put there, out of the way, in the sun all his shift.


This is a sign you don’t see too often in sunny climes. It is here because I was approaching the coastal resort of Swakopmund. Well known, here at any rate, for having morning fogs because of the warm land and cold sea.
There is a beetle that lives in the sand dunes. It obtains water by coming out in the morning and letting the fog condense on its legs. That is enough for it for the day and it buries itself back again when it is too hot -




More and more sand -










This is my room for a few nights. I deserve a rest for a couple of days and I wanted something I could look out from and laze around. The area is called Langstrand and it is semi-famous for hosting Brad and Angelina just before she gave birth to Shiloh. It’s funny how I know these things -












The view from the balcony. It’ll do me for sure -









I’ve been sitting on the balcony watching a very small dog running around on the beach.
In fact, I couldn’t see it. There was just a plume of sand traversing across and back, then across again.
It came closer and I eventually made it out to be a sand coloured terrier.
When it stopped still I lost it all together.

[kerouac2]

They just didn't want to get worms.

I remain totally fascinated by Namibia because it seems to be one of the countries with the most wildly contradictory cultures. Mixing modern Africa with 19th century Germany is very odd. If I had control over you, I would have sent you to make a report about Luderitz and the Skeleton Coast, but I know it is far too late for that...

[kerouac2]

You know about Brad and Angelina because you loll around all day in Lusaka reading those magazines.

[bjd]

Very strange to see that patch of green grass in front of the hotel room after all the surrounding sand. Nice view of the sea though. You can count ships if no more dogs turn up.

[onlyMark]

K2, I considered Luderitz but there is one road there and one road back. I couldn't be bothered and even though I'm not averse to doing a lot of mileage, it would be a 700km diversion. Plus, the place has always been cold and unfriendly whenever I have been.
The skeleton coast, to get to the good bits, needs permits. Can't be bothered to do that either and I even think it now needs escorted tours. Not sure on that though.
There is a section that can be driven to the south of the Skeleton Coast, north of Henties Bay but is quite flat and boring.
As regards Brad and Angelina, that's what my daughters are for. They just inform me of the good bits.

bjd, already have done. There are ten of which one is a static oil rig ship plus there is one proper oil rig.

[mickthecactus]

There is a rare succulent that comes from Keetmanshoop - Trichocaulon keetmanshoopense. Shame you didn’t see one.

[questa]

Greetings, Mark. When I saw the title of this thread I decided to not read it until (a) you had covered most of it and (b) I could sit and read it properly, not a few minutes here and there. I'm so glad I did because I felt I was on the trip with you. I sank into the hum of the tyres on the road eating up the kilometers on the excellent fast roads and the fun of picking your way on the sand and rough stuff.

Over and over I would see how the terrain is like the Australian Outback. Swap your thorn trees for our scrubby acacias studded into the sand, the rounded hills, weathered and sand blasted. One difference was where the sand that you show is "orange" the sand here is burning red due to the iron oxide content.

Oct 3, 2019 18:54:39 GMT onlyMark said:

a group of male cheetahs is called a coalition.

How do you like a Galaxy of starfish?

Oct 4, 2019 7:01:04 GMT onlyMark said:

And if I am off road, that is where I’ll like to be, on sand in a desert -

Ahh...my brother from another mother! I wonder where that dirt road led?

Oct 5, 2019 15:00:51 GMT onlyMark said:

The check in time on their website says 14:00.

I really admire the way you handle officials and officious people who should be assisting you. Not being a bloke I have to rely on my dithery old lady persona until they lose patience and wave me on.

More later...

[onlyMark]

Mick, I probably did but wouldn't know it from a hole in my arse the ground.

Questa, the dirt road led a long way for sure.
I do enjoy coming across collective terms for stuff.
As regards officials, in reality I do refrain from saying anything unless I know I am right. If I'm in doubt, I keep quiet.

[lugg]

Just caught up - as ever such a great read. Really enjoy the "on the road" views. SA is just so stunning. And an extra treat for me is Namibia; a place I really would love to visit. Enjoy your down time at the beach and rest up.

[onlyMark]

Muchas Gracias, as Mick would say if he were still in Spain.