Tthere may be troubles ahead

2nd July 2013

There may be troubles ahead!

From 3^rd June……….Leaving Namibia

We said goodbye to Windhoek we set off north.

Before I get into the  recent events I thought I would say a bit about the blog itself.

It is often quite difficult to physically type it up as electricity  and a quiet opportunity is not always easy to find, as well getting a strong enough internet connection can be very difficult a lot of the time.  In fact to send this blog  we had to wait until we could find a source  of  quite expensive wifi time  in order to despatch it.

Although it is quite an undertaking we love doing it. It is possibly the most satisfying aspect of what we are doing. It is great to chronicle our adventure as well as a way of keeping in touch with our friends and supporters.

It may interest you to know that our readership is somewhere up near the 10,000 mark,  we get a map with the places in the world that we have readers. It is truly astonishing to find that we have readers as far apart as Latvia and Japan. Australia and China.  We get emails from people who we have never met, some planning similar journeys  and others are reading out of interest.

The night before we moved on from Windhoek, we were driving back to the Cardboard box Backpackers' Lodge  just as the 5pm traffic was getting underway. We came across a road accident where a motorcyclist had been sideswiped by a car 

I went to help and found a seriously ill motorcyclist with a great deal of blood coming from his helmet, he was unconscious.  An ambulance arrived surprisingly quickly and I helped the crew who appeared ill equipped to do this but did the best they could. I was really shocked to hear the crew ask a friend of his if he has any medical insurance.  I had known that this is something that gets raised in places where health care is not free but this was the first time I had encountered it for real. It was going to dictate which hospital he went to.

I have worried a lot about him since but I have to say very sadly that I would be surprised if he will make it.

Namibia is a prosperous country with its diamond mining, as well as other minerals and new found oil.  As we drove further towards Northern Namibia, it became plain that a large swathe of the country does not benefit from these rich deposits. We past rural townships and villages one after the other where it was plain that the residents here were very poor, living in tin shacks and something we had not seen since we left West Africa,  was people waiting at crossroads for a delivery of the water tanker. They had plastic 20 litre containers that they would walk back long distances to their home. It was a revelation that such a contrast exists in such a prosperous country. It is hard to see a positive aspect.

We stopped at a town called Rundu, where I realised that the engine sounded quite different.  Further investigation did not reveal anything obvious, but it was however clear that it was not up for the next 3000km. We were directed to the local fuel wholesaler  who has a  repair shop which although it is there for maintaining their fleet,  I was pleased to see that they were available to public punters.   We drove in and spoke to the man in charge, Sarel Vermak. 

What an interesting and helpful guy! He identified that our Turbo had made a bid for freedom. All four bolts were sheared off and the exhaust gasses were breathing fire and brimstone.  Not good!  Sarel agreed to fix it. It was an absolute stinker of a job, which actually took a day and a half to, in effect replace 4 bolts.

Sarel, Wilfred and that's me on the right

Sarel with the help of Wilfred, and his lovely team of guys set about the task. At the end of that day, we realised that it was not going to get finished. Sarel made it clear that we were not only welcome to camp in their yard but if we needed we could go to his home for a shower. It was cold that night and despite that ,we actually spent quite a comfortable night in the garage.

At this point, I realised to my surprise that I was able to take all this in my stride despite my previously feeling so worn down by various breakdowns. This was because Sarel and his team were incredibly generous and helpful.  Sarel,  please take our grateful thanks  and tell the guys they are alright!

Just before we left they even insisted on washing the van down before we could go.

Angola from across the water

That night, Sarel directed us to a great camp site by the Okavango River. In the morning, we saw that we were just across the water from Angola. As a consolation prize, we took some pictures as we couldn’t get the visa to visit that country.

Later in the day, we had to drive a long stretch and it emerged that we were again leaking exhaust fumes and heat.  We stopped at a kind of service station where we located Ismael, who does all the car repairs and holds court in the midst of an array of stripped out cars. Ismael agreed to fix the leak and whilst waiting for the engine to cool down, he went walkabout. Whilst he was gone a rather strange kid appeared with a loud radio and got into one of the old cars and started doing ‘vrooming’.  When Ismael returned he shooed the kid away. He told me that he likes to pretend he is driving and was abit of a nuisance. Ismael fixed the exhaust leak and told me to start it up. I pointed out that I had already given him the keys. Ismael stood up straight, his eyes bulging with realisation!

He exclaimed f***! That kid!  And ran off!

He returned about half an hour later with our keys. Ismael then severely overcharged us and off we went, talking about what a pain it would have been if the keys had not been recovered. I had decided that we should take the last opportunity to fill with diesel before we cross to Botswana where it is significantly more expensive.  There is one last diesel station shown on our map but as we arrived at the border there was not a trace of it.

The border crossing was disarmingly easy with helpful friendly officials with beautifully spoken English on both sides of the border. They helped us claim a decent amount of vat back from both South Africa as well as Namibia. The only reason it took more than 20 minute was because we were enjoying chatting with them.

Botswana

Arriving in Botswana, we started looking for a camp. We were a bit dismayed to find that most of the camps had the word 'swamp' in their name. Eventually, we found a sign directing us to a camp and we decided to go for it.  We then saw the bit that said 4x4 only.  On we forged, at first the track was sandy and then very sandy followed by awfully sandy. That was when we came to the river! I was reassured that clearly visible tracks led down the bank and then continued on the other side. Now, this should be clear guidance that this was the ford for us to cross.  Well, I can imagine as you sit in your living room reading this, you would say, ‘Go on ,cross, get on with it!’

We did and it was very deep, very fast and very scary!  Ping couldn't bear to look. After we had crossed over, we realised that our problems were just beginning.

On the other side, the track was deep and soft and very, very sandy. It was also getting late and we have 15km of this track to go, we decided to bail out. So it was back to fording the water a second time - deep, fast and scary!        It was a relieve to be back on dry land.

We were getting pretty short of fuel and did not have much idea how far the next fuel station was.  As we drove along we encountered an old pick-up truck with about 8 people in it. It was broken down and one of the occupants was waving a fuel can at us.  We stopped and were told that the nearest diesel was about 20 km. I wasn't sure that we had enough diesel to get there, but I decided that it was far better that we gave them a tow rather than ferry a can for them. 

This may be the blind leading the blind as we probably had a little less fuel than they did!

It was easy enough; the driver gave me clear direction that included taking the next left turn. About 15km down the road,  I turned left as instructed, he didn't and I ended up dragging him round a corner at about 20kmph  He didn't mind and did not seem to have a reason for missing the turn, though it was a heart stopping moment as I tore this pick-up with all its occupants round this bend.  Anyhow, now that we were pointing in the right direction, off we went. Eventually we arrived at the fuel station.  Our new friends were very grateful. They explained that they were on the way to collect the body of a child who had died the day before and that we had, helped them to get on their way.  I am glad to say that it really felt good to help someone else for a change.

Then we had to find somewhere to stay and there was no camp site nor was there a guest house in the town and the road was coming to an end. Eventually we called in to The Botswana Council of Churches Education Centre where Pastor Anna said we were welcome to stay in their compound. Ping offered a donation which was declined. She said, ‘We are all travellers, maybe you will help someone else sometime’. We felt rather pleased that in some small way we were already in credit on that one.

In the morning, we discovered a little of the work being done at this centre. There are a lot of refugee women who have come over the Okavanga River  at the time of the Angolan Civil War. Many were traumatised, wounded or raped; most were in some degree alone. The churches have been working hard to help them to find some measure of self-determination and to make a living.

This guy led the band with real style, skill and enthusiasm

As we left we were treated to the local school parading its marching band it was really quite heart-warming. As we watched the band marched past, we ran into an American who was working for the American Peace Corps promoting and organising various AIDS/HIV projects.  I don’t think we have mentioned this before but the spectre of AIDS is ubiquitous in Africa and the people who do what they can, seem tireless. It was enlightening to meet this chap, but what was really nice was that we spent one night in a small town far from anywhere in particular and it was such a positive experience.  Thank you Etsha!

After Etsha, we moved to Shakawe which brought to my mind the proud Fakawe tribe of Pigmies, but  enough of that!

We had to change a small amount of Namibian currency, which is something that must happen often so close to the border.  We went to Barclays and it took over an hour to change about £20.  The surprise was that this little branch of Barclays had all the trappings of a modern urban bank with flat screen computers, an electronic queuing system, bandit proof tellers booths and an ATM.  Yet they were apparently incapable of dealing with people presenting themselves at the door with normal banking business. Frustrated we carried on.

We got stopped at a ‘veterinary checkpoint’ where the cop pointed out that we did not have a front number plate.  Caught by surprise, it took a while for us to realised that, ‘That bloody kid’ had nicked the plate as well as our keys!. It is a trivial point but Botswana is the only country that I know where they have British style number plates  so we were able  to get another one made up at the next town.  

We came to notice that although we had been driving for a long time on fairly fast roads we noticed that the fuel gauge was showing that we had used very little fuel; very odd but I was careful to check the mileage and the amount we put in and we were really doing very well.  It is a little difficult to calculate as we have started to become accustomed to km/per litre but when we tell South Africans with their  Toyota Land cruisers, that we are doing about 7.5 km per litre we are suitably gratified, when they exclaim, 'Aish! we only get about 4.5km/litre.  Nice'!

We eventually arrived in the town of Maun where we planted ourselves in a camp where we met Henk and Marja from the Netherlands who we instantly struck up a rapport with. Although they were on their way home before we had a chance to do more than chat, we were sorry to see them go and I am sure we will keep in touch.  

Intending to go to the wildlife park at Moremi, we were rather put off as we heard that the roads are very sandy and difficult.  We met with Ian, a South African, who offered that we accompany him as he drove through the park.  We were happy to take him up on the generous offer as well as the off road driving master class he gave us. Once again we met another Dutch couple, Casper and Jolande who also wanted to drive into the park but were not so confident like we were. 

Jolande and Caspar

The drive out to the park was horrible, through 70 km of road with a vicious washboard surface on the way. 

About 45 minutes into the journey, my esteemed life partner said, ‘Can you smell burning?’

‘No’……….. Oh yes I can!!!!!

I stopped and brown smoke was pouring in through the heater vents,   I struggled to open the door, as you will remember from earlier, I had broken the door handle.  I had the window closed to keep the dust out so had to wind the window to reach the door handle outside but the window channel was clogged up with dust and the cab was filling with smoke! Eventually I got the door open and lifted the bonnet to find real bloody flames licking my fingers!   I am glad to say that I immediately saw what was happening.

Between the engine and the heater box should be a heat shield which is a kind of felt lined with aluminium.  This however was not in the greatest shape when we left England, it had taken a bit of a pounding as our Turbo had been fixed and subsequently Ishmael had done his bit.  The consequence of this was there was more felt than aluminium and it was effectively a rag draped over the hot exhaust manifold. Anyway it was well alight and something had to be done, immediately!

I was able to pull out some of the burning felt and Ping very promptly turned up with a fire extinguisher. I was quite surprised, that I had the presence of mind to realise that I wanted to use water to put the flames out rather than make a lot of mess with and extinguisher, so Ping spun around and like a good fairy presented me with a gallon of mineral water. I put out the flames and inspected the damage. The heater casing was melted badly and there was a big hole in it and the plastic engine cover is in a sorry state but other than that it is not too bad.

Fire damage

We should have sort of stood around for a while admiring our work but as experienced overlanders, we carried on to have a nice time touring the park. With our new found skills, we were driving in deep sand and fording rivers and all kinds.

As it turned out we really had a great couple of days with our friends and drove all round the park with such confidence. We did not see so much game, but we had a good time. We sincerely hope to meet up with these friends again.

The latest pneus !

We were just about to leave the park the next day and guess what, we had another puncture.  Bum!

We took our tyre to be fixed and a very thorough and we think, a knowledgeable guy there told us that the puncture was due to tubes that were too small being fitted. So once again we threw some cash at the problem and had new, larger tubes fitted all round.

Meeting up with old friends

In Maun, we were very happy to meet up once more with our friends Ben and Jen (we met them in Mozambique.  They left the UK in September last year and have driven down the Eastern side of Africa).We spent a very pleasant couple of days with them. We were able to arrange to have a trip over the beautiful Okavanga Delta in a light plane which left us all feeling a bit sick but was nevertheless very beautiful. 

Pre flight briefing

The next morning,  we had a good breakfast and set off to go and see the salt pans of Magadikgadi. A drive of about 200 km on nice roads and then I am not sure what we expected, but we then directed onto sandy dusty paths  We were sufficiently unsure despite our GPS that we checked with some South African travellers that we thought had just come from the direction they were travelling.  They gave us a bit of confidence and off we went. We were told that the worst part of the track was the first bit which entailed going out through the  villages’ deep sandy tracks with an entourage of small boys giving us directions and running after the van and hanging on the back for quite a long way.

As we cleared the villages there were trees and bushes everywhere.  The path was at times barely wide enough for the van and with low branches. One of the biggest enemies of the road traveler here is the acacia with sharp unbreakable thorns that can be a as long as 5 cm and can pass through a tyre without giving it a second thought. We spent an hour scraping past these bushes and have torn the paint on the sides of the van to shreds. We both had to duck out of the way as they sprang in through the windows. The track was quite passable but pretty unpleasant, on we went.

As the moon rose in the sunlit sky we continued knowing that we would be camping in the bush tonight.  Surprisingly since the boys we have only seen 2 people but there are cattle, horses and donkeys scattered grazing everywhere. We knew the sunset will stop us soon, so we decided to stop for the night when we reached the pan. As we came over the edge of the grassland, we saw the pans! It’s exactly like looking out to sea. It went on and on, far out into the distance, a 360 degree vista, nothing but different shades of white, grey and blue, just about differentiating the sky from the ground which gave way to a totally flat hard dry salty sandy crust; at least I hope it is a hard crust because we were driving across it in the morning.

We studied the maps which were quite confusing but we think we had our bearings, that little edge of doubt was really unnerving as there was nothing here!!!  As I was writing the sun was beginning to set and the shadows long and beautiful. In the horizon a small herd of donkeys with the sun behind them, we could see a distinct row of ears, nothing else, note even a blade of grass, quite surreal!

Ping studying her Lunar landscape.  Note that you can make out the curvature of the earth on the horizon

I took out our Silva compass away from the van as it should be more accurate than the one on the dashboard.  Again I was unnerved as I realised that the sun which, correct me if I am wrong should be setting in the west. The compass  showed west as a full 10 degree to the south! 

We were not brimming with confidence  but we would face that in the morning.  We had lovely dinner, a game of Scrabble, hot chocolate and early to bed. Not sure whether there were any wild life or alien beings out there, but it was very dark with an almost full moon and the stars were amazing! The temperature dropped to almost nothing. We both gazed up at the perfect moon and Ping stated firmly and rather sagely. “It’s a bit like being on the moon here, except we’re looking at the moon”. Ah........ you couldn't make that up could you? However, as the moon rose further in the sky the range of colours from land to sky was stunning.

The next day we still lacked confidence but it became apparent that other travellers passed this way so it should not be impossible. We set off and it was a great drive for the most part driving long distances over the salt pans and then over what in the wet season will be islands you can only tell as there are many russet brown desiccated trees and shrubs.

We pressed on  until we discovered that we had, oh yes! Another bloody puncture! Changed the wheel, 18 minutes this time.  I am sure I can improve on this with enough practice.

The drive started getting pretty tedious after this not  so beautiful  and once more plenty of thorn bushes and trees scraping the life out of our poor van and dust in buckets. Eventually we made it out to a road and went off to find someone to mend our tyre.  On the whole The Pans were a very interesting experience but we are in no hurry to repeat it. The puncture was a nail, god knows where it came from but I am satisfied on this occasion that no one is to blame.

Continuing on with four wheels on our wagon at least for the time being we had to stop for the night at a camp called ELEPHANT SANDS where they have an open area where people sit around quite casually while the local elephants turn up at an adjacent watering place  and generally socialise with each other.  When we arrived there were about 15 elephants just mooching around and they come and go all day and all night.  

Me writing this

As I am typing this there is a youngish bull watching me watching him it is all completely casual. Extraordinary!  The elephants roam past the camp very close and occasionally pass through the camp. There was one point when Ping said I am just going to the toilet. I was filling the tank with water and I distractedly acknowledged her departure. Moments later she was back. It was like one of those old cartoons, where the hero is chased into a tunnel and immediately comes out followed by a train.  In this case, Ping approached the toilet block to be met by a very large bull elephant! As she frantically back pedaled, he casually followed her, it was both funny and a little dramatic!

My sister has told me that elephants are her favourite animal so the following pictures are for Rachel!

We will press on to meet our friends Abi and Jerry near the Zimbabwean border. It was a nice coincidence that while we were preparing to leave England we became acquainted with them and it transpired that they were planning a similar trip in a similar vehicle  and they only lived almost round the corner from us in Barnet.

That's about it for now.

Just to say that my choir  had their annual concert  last Friday and I have heard  it was a great success.  Well done Chaps!

Do please drop us a line when you get a chance We always say it but we really do love to get all the news even the trivial stuff.  So keep in touch

Cheers all

Peace and love!

Noel and Ping

noelbow51@gmail.com

pingbow54@gmail.com

3rd June 2013

Namibia

Please not that We had both been under the impression that we had already posted a blog of the first half of our time in Namibia  however we have just found that it has not been posted at all so I have had to cobble together a second attempt. No idea how this happened  Sorry!

We are now in Namibia and have just past our worst day yet.  Up to now I have been able without too much difficulty to be quite upbeat in what I write here.  Even where we have had some difficult times I have still been able.

However  having spoken in my last blog, that I started to lose a lot of confidence following the dramatic blowout of two brand new tyres. Sorry to be a misery but I guess as we have a lot of intending overland travellers reading our blog there is a duty to convey the scene, especially the bad days! We got that sorted out  and off we went to Namibia.

We had a pleasant though long drive to the border. The South African side was easy and really no hassle at all. Then as we approached the Namibian side I saw a sign which told us that, ‘all our officials will be helpful and courteous ‘. My heart sank as I just knew that meant we were in for a hard time!

Warm welcome indeed!

Immigration was easy so I knew it was just softening us up for what was to come.  Then we went to the road tax office where we met ‘Miss Congeniality’.
She said simply, ‘You have to pay $200 tax’ I protested saying, 'I have a Carnet de passage!’ 
‘Fill the form in' and she threw the form at me.
I again tried to explain that I didn’t think it applied to us. 
She said ‘I don’t care but you don’t leave here till you pay'.
I went to customs and explained my plight and they told us that 'South Africans are damaging our roads so you have to pay the tax'. Knowing it would be futile  I said but I am not South African.
‘It makes no difference you still have to pay’.
We went back to see Miss Congeniality. She once again threw the form at us this time without speaking at all. Ping duly filled it in and gave it back to her and she took it and demanded $200. We paid and she gave us a receipt. I have to say that I half expected her to give me a customer satisfaction survey to fill in, but sadly even here I was to be disappointed 

As we drove out to the gate we were stopped by a particularly aggressive policeman, who without wasting words told me ,’You are not wearing your seat belt’.
I told him that I wasn’t because I thought I would have to get out again at his gate. He told me that he was thinking of getting one of his junior colleagues to come out and fine me. He was so rude that I was getting pretty narked with him. 
Then he barked ‘put it on Now’. So I did and as I did so he demanded to see my driving licence! 
So I faced him out and said 'look do you want the belt on or do you want the licence?' 
He considered this matter for a nano second and concluded that he would go for the licence option. I took off the belt and found my licence and handed it to him. To my astonishment, he then apologised to me as he had accidentally unstuck the card from the counterpart. I was caught completely by surprise by the apology. Then he let me go  without the seat belt.
I have no idea whatsoever what the purpose of that meeting was. It was bloody annoying!

I love these drives

We had read about Namibia and we knew that we were in for some long drives . The country is mostly desert. It really has only 4 or 5 towns of any size and a population of less than 2 million. The roads are long and straight and the desert is really lovely , it is not boring at all.  We were going to drive to the Fish River Canyon. But for now we had to go to find somewhere to spend the night. Our friend, Ken had told us that we should go to a place called the Roadhouse. He would not elaborate but he said it is really special.

About 150km of the journey was smooth tarmac road and I have to say that with the new tyres the van was happy hopping along at around 110km /hr where on the old tyres it was really only happy up to about 90. Smooth straight open road, lovely! I only stopped to look at an old abandoned American pick up truck that must have been there for many many years. It was completely stripped  and was also  full of bullet holes some of which were of an alarmingly large calibre.

Who knows what brought this bullet riddled truck to a halt !

Then we continued  until we turned off and it was a further 60 or so km to the Roadhouse .  What surprised me was that although this was a gravely sandy track I was still able to march on quite fast all the way.

Welcome to The Roadhouse! a truly extraordinary place.

Eventually we arrived at The Roadhouse.  I am so glad that it was still daylight,just and we could see that we were greeted by an old truck advertising the way in . Then a 1930s car with a tree growing through  where the engine was. Quite soon I realised that every where you looked there was old cars or motor related works of art scattered around all over the place.

A celebration of abandoned cars

It was beautiful as well as exciting. This was not just a trip down memory lane but a whole farm that had been decorated with junk through the eye of a true artist. I just loved the place. 

Their campsite was very nice and well appointed  the people that worked there  happy and funny and helpful. Once we had parked up for the night we went to register and found to our amazement that the reception, restaurant and bar were in a huge barn of a place. That was given over to a glorious celebration of the motor car. 

This was for many years the ambulance for the nearby town of Ai Ais what a beauty!

However this was no museum It was decorated with humour and inspiration in equal measure. Number plates and signs in their thousands from all over the world.  The reception desk was built into the back of a huge  truck that, I was proudly told had been driven in there but because it had been turned in to a desk it had no petrol tank so someone had to sit beside the engine dropping petrol into the carburetor.

A great reception

In the morning I stroll around and found that under every bush and round every corner was some car or piece of art celebrating the world of abandoned vehicles.

Add caption

One thing that I particularly liked was when we were speaking to one of the managers she told us that they were concerned that the staff showed no real understanding of what the travelling customers were doing there . So they arrange bus trips for them to the canyon and other noteworthy places and show them why people travel thousands of miles to visit their country. What is so nice is that it is always a revelation for them. What terrific place I would love to work there myself!

Even filling up was part of the show

We went to visit the Fish River canyon, which is stunning! We spent a good while there soaking up the view until I hit my head again on a roof beam!

While at the canyon we saw a display of a very interesting potted history   of Namibia and its culture.

Fish River Canyon What beauty!

A photographic record of my esteemed life partner. Lovely!

We stayed one more night at the Roadhouse while I once again tended my wounds. Then off to the town of Luderitz  we were tempted to take a route thtat required 4 wheel drive to Luderitz even though it  was not too challenging But our  confidence was tainted by our experience  with the tyres and we decided to whimp out on it. We took the easy road  another long smooth straight road. It was our third day driving of driving in Namibia  and we were about as far as you can imagine being from any other life.  The roads here are really long straight and empty. I guess we were about 60 km or so from any place when we had another blowout! Oh how my heart sank! 

However working well with my esteemed life partner we changed the wheel jumped back in and drove off, less than ten minutes  later the spare punctured. I had for a second time to remove the tyre and change the tube. This really is a very physical task. 

Completely knackered we carried on  to the town of Luderitz which is a truly delightful town But we were so dispirited that we were really unable to appreciate it until we had tyre sorted out.

Next day we went to the only tyre company in the region . They  removed the tyre and found that the tyre was  spoiled and the tube was again completely split all around.   They were prepared to order it but having picked up that we might be in dispute with the original suppliers, they insisted that we are clear that we are paying for everything. 

There was not a trace of human kindness or sympathy for our situation they just kept making sure that we would pay.  We had really difficult phone calls with the tyre suppliers in  Cape Town  Now being in a different country makes it hard  to negotiate effectively. We were again dealing with Gavin who despite getting a lot of flack has remained helpful and professional 

I'd believe that he is doing all he can  but will still have to travel about a 1000 km to Windhoek to meet the agent for the manufacturers it all remains to be seen But we simply cant afford the level of expenditure  for all these minor disasters. 

Now Namibia is a really interesting country it has a rich history beautiful deserts and Town that portray their German heritage in a thoroughly beautiful way.There is another ‘but’ and that is that too many people, officials and the like  have been rude and openly contemptuous  which leaves a bad taste. There appears to be a policy of squeezing as much money as possible out of tourists in all the government run places  it does not feel too pleasant.

So we got our tyre  handed over a very significant sum of money and off we went.

Just one of the many lovely churches of Luderitz

We did take time to enjoy the town of Luderitz which is often described as a small Bavarian town  with a fairly lareg number of churches , many of which are quite lovely architecture.

The town is quite small and situated on a rocky out crop on the Atlantic coast  and far from  another town.

The camp where we stayed is on a bleak bit of rock on the outer reaches of the Harbour and disturbingly was originally a concentration camp for the Namibian native tribes who had dared to mount an uprising against the German  colonial powers. There are a number of memorials to those who died in the camp, mostly from disease and starvation. Their bodies disposed of in the most gruesome manner. I will spare you the details. Many prisoners ,I believe were used for slave labour to build the railway which is so important to the local diamond mining industry. It is said that they had to stop using the Prisoners as they were too weak to work! Over 1000 died there.

Shark Island , now a campsite .  More than 1000 Nam rebels died here. so bleak!     Lest we forget.

We went to visit a well known place of interest, which is the abandoned mining town of Kolmanskop. Really fascinating and very well run contrary to some of my earlier remarks.  For a modest fee we given a conducted tour of the ‘Ghost town  and then left to just mooch around and take photos. 

This is a house abandoned in the desert for more than 50 years

Kolmanskop.  The one time home of  diamonds in Namibia

Ghost town!

This train carried a ration of 40 liters of water and a block of ice daily to every house in the town.

After we left Luderitz we traveled on,  on the way we visited Duwisib Castle.

A young German officer Baron captain Hans-Heinrich Von Wolf spent some time here, I think farming mostly and having fallen in love with Namibia (not hard to understand),

German South West Africa as it was then. He built his home in the style of a baronial castle, designed by a well known German architect of the time. He went to live in it with his American wife and  here they bred fine horses.  They lived there only for a short time as he was required to return to Europe to fight in the first world war. In 1917 he was killed.  His wife returned to America. and so neither ever returned to Namibia.  The castle had been left in the hands of a  ‘friend’ though it was abandoned not so long after Von Wolfs death.  Though little is written about the matter, but the castle, may or may not have played a part in history for modern Namibia. In this region there are a large established herd of wild horses. No one knows for sure where they come from but one credible idea is that when the castle was abandoned the horses somehow left and ran wild.

The castle is a fine and rather quirky house  and that is about all it is.

The government tourist organisation (bless their cotton socks!) has put a really random quantity of furniture some of which is genuinely antique, and some simply post dates  Poor old captain Von Wolf. There is for example a not very remarkable 1930s dressing table and a gramophone circa 1935 even though he died in 1917.  There are 20 rooms of which 4 are completely empty or have one or two bits of furniture. No less than 3 rooms are devoted to admin offices. There is no reference  in the museum to the Von Wolfs  instead as you enter you are handed a badly written and badly typed  sheet giving the most superficial account of Von Wolfs adventure.  For the privilege of looking round this depository  of seriously uninteresting items , they charge you about £8.

People travel across the desert for miles for this it is nothing less than a con! The government now owns the castle and has opened it as possibly the worst and most pointless museums in the world!

Castle in the desert......don't go there!

So we have then traveled down to a place called Sossusvlei which is where the famous and quite beautiful sand dunes are. It is quite an undertaking to get the best from them as it involves getting up at dawn  to travel 60 km through the dunes  and then a load of hiking in the desert, I was not inclined to do the hiking  had a bit of difficult 4 wheel drive stuff where the differential lock got stuck again!.

Sossusvlei Dunes.............Beautiful, nuff said!

Getting stuck .........Again!

But staying on here for 3 days as it is such a beautiful place to stop to sort out some minor bits and pieces on the van. We met up with  fellow travellers from earlier in our trip Oyvind and Sheila  as well as Alison and Toby who are cycling , yes cycling  from London to Cape Town!

Dinner with Sheelah, Oyvind, Alison and Toby

We found a really good camp, probably the best yet. Each camping place has its own toilet and bathroom , lots of hot water a shelter and mains power. Really well done  it has really turned our camper van into a normal home for a little while. Magnificent!!

The camp site is owned by The Oasis Lodge, a posh hotel across the road. This hotel is such a good place. Initially we went there to get the diff lock on the van , as they have a resident mechanic. He was so helpful. It was a Saturday morning and all the other people in the workshop evidently did not have enough to do as they were constantly clowning around. It  was a really nice atmosphere. Ping was made very welcome in the lobby even though she is not a guest. 

The Pilot was distressed to say goodbye to this wonderful craft. hardly surprising.

Such a thing of beauty

The next day I saw a very interesting old aeroplane flying over and around all day I was told that it belonged to the hotel and that it had been grounded for about a year with a seized engine. Being too expensive to repair  it was sold to a South African who has repaired it and is taking it away. It was so interesting that I wanted some photos and I went over to the hotel. I was told that they did not want me to drive into their private airfield on my own. ‘But hang around for half an hour and I will drive you over and bring you back’.  ‘But I am not a guest’ I protested. She told me that she was really happy to do that. Such is the atmosphere in what I guess is a very expensive hotel with no airs and graces. Almost certainly the best hotel that I have not stayed in.  One day when I can afford it I will return. By the way the plane a Beechcraft model 18 was just lovely! And the hotels pilot was openly distressed at parting with it.

Moving on from there we have driven to the capital Windhoek. Namibia is radically different from any other country I have known. Almost entirely desert and extraordinarily beautiful desert in the main. The few towns  are relatively small and are linked by long, long straight often gravel roads. I was speaking to a man In Luderitz  when I asked is Luderitz the kind of town where you know everyone ? His reply surprised me , ‘I suppose I know most people in Southern Namibia!’  

Don't fence me in!

I love these drives despite the discomfort of driving on unmade roads and the dreadful dust that we have to cope with.  However, Ping, I think finds these journeys more difficult and is genuinely distressed by the dust. The last stretch was something in the region of 500 km  and it was quite a haul.

We are now in Windhoek our main purpose at the moment is to see if we can get some kind of satisfaction from either the supplier or the manufacturer of the new tyres. We feel dreadfully let down by the failure of the tyres .Once we have sorted this out  we will go to the National park in Etosha which promises to be very good

Yesterday we had a nice dinner in a well known place here in Windhoek. It was an opportunity for me to sample the great array of Game meat as one of  the menus choices was a skewer of  pieces of meat from  crocodile, Zebra  - - - - - it was a vey interesting experience it seems that there is a small industry here farming game animals so we are not talking about any endangered species.

During the day we had what almost amounted to a chance meeting with a senior manager for Dunlop tyres who also has charge of both the supplier of our tyre as well as representing the manufacturers. He has spoken with the company in Cape Town  and has arranged to have the damaged tyre and the tubes examined . This was a real coincidence  and is the best chance we have of resolving the matter. This episode has been so frustrating and will take quite a lot for us to fully regain our confidence. When  should find out in the next day or so the result of the examination.

As I am writing Ping is having her feet licked by a 3 legged boxer dog! Just thought I would mention it.

We are in a backackers lodge with the unlikely name of The Cardboard Box it is a really lovely and not very expensive place which is also home to a number of disabled dogs.

While here we have been joined by some extra ordinary fellow travelers.

A group of English travelers who have come through Egypt and East Africa in an old and somewhat dilapidated Land Rover. They are extraordinary for a number of reasons .  They have daily problems with their truck and they don’t complain like I do.  They are three doctors and a dentist who  worked in a Ugandan Hospital for a month as they were  critically short of medical staff. Their truck is stuffed to the gunwales with all manner of gear and they seem to pick up large numbers of other travelers  so their numbers often swell to as many as 8 in this overloaded Land rover. 

3 doctors and a rather comely dentist

The Land Rover was so decrepit that several doors had to be replaced en route . The police sign has to be covered

We also met with Gareth and his partner Claire who have come to South Africa bought an ancient VW camper and have got as far as Windhoek and the engine has decided that it is now time to retire. They do not seem at all daunted by this and are busy enjoying the country while they try to raise the funds to buy a new engine. Now that in my view is overland travelling the adventurous way. 

The Vee dub of Gareth and Claire sdly in the garage without an engine  for now

As I am taking all this in, Tony Rocks up !  Tony is a New Yorker  who came to England to buy and prepare his Land Rover  which I have to say is a pretty nice rig! He has just driven alone!  All the way down the West Coast of Africa and succeeded in getting visas which we could not. And he had just emerged from Angola.  His truck is caked in mud and salt and he is exhausted and emotional. All this and he travels alone!  I thought we were pretty clever doing our trip but we both take our hats off to these guys.  On top of all this they are all such nice people. Rock on guys!!!

The whole gang of  special travelers we will be glad to keep up our acquaintance with these guys

Now we have moved on and are spending the night on a private game reserve where we are told there are a lot of game including  leopards and cheetahs. What is particularly interesting is that Ping calmly says, and with great authority, as we sit down in the night air for our dinner. ' I don’t really think any leopards will come here or they wouldn’t let us camp here'. 

Now what is surprising about this apparent calmness is, that I would only have to  mention anything to do with snakes and she will quite happily spend the night on the roof of the van! Life is funny like that isn’t it.

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Lots of love!

Noel and Ping