Namibia
We crossed into Namibia and headed to Ais Ais Hot Springs in the Fish River Canyon, the largest Canyon in Africa. Reaching Ais Ais required a few hours of dirt road, nothing extreme, pebbles and sand. We relaxed for two days by the spring, a break which was well deserved after the three previous grueling long days of riding from Lesotho across central South Africa, Bloemfontein via Uppington. Once fully recuperated we left the Hot Springs and began the long circuitous route to the coastal German town of Luderitz. Fifty miles before Luderitz my bike began to act oddly all off a sudden, when going over 60 mph she would suddenly start revving on her own. We stopped and re-adjusted the clutch cable. This appeared to work for 30 miles or so but then it started to happen again. Having already given the cable as much play as possible there was nothing more we could do and so we limped into town at 50 mph.
Luderitz was founded by Adolf Luderitz in 1883. The town today still has a German feel to it, architecture, street names and food. It could be Bavaria but with more black people… A few miles from Luderitz is the abandoned German diamond-mining town of Kolmanskop. It was here that in 1908 train worker Zacharias Lewalaa kicked over some shiny stones, which in turn led to a massive diamond rush. And so another German town, this time with no limits on money was constructed out in the sand dunes of the Namib. Today Kolmanskop is abandoned and has sat empty for decades; the desert is slowly reclaiming her. It is currently an eerie tourist attraction, you can stroll around abandoned Edwardian houses, a hospital, bar, casino, ice factory, restaurant and bowling alley where sand now bursts through the windows and doorways whilst consuming the once lavish interiors. But one thing you cannot do is pick anything up off the ground as this is restricted diamond land (or Sperregbiet in German) and Kolmanskop and all of the land around it is controlled jointly by De Beers and the Namibian Government to this day although most of the diamonds here have been mined already. At one point at the beginning of the boom there were so many diamonds at Kolmanskop you did not have to dig, guys would just crawl on their bellies and pick these valuable wonders of nature up off the sandy ground. There was such a splurge of diamonds at the beginning of the rush that the diamonds themselves became a form of currency, you could trade your diamonds for groceries. The two-hour ride through the Namib to get to the town is surrounded by Sperregbiet restricted land. You are not allowed to leave the road and walk into the land, this is illegal. But if I am riding my bike through here on my way out of Luderitz, is it my fault if I need to stop and march off the road to take a piss? And is it my fault if while pissing I unearth a small but exquisite uncut diamond? And is it my fault if I hide that uncut diamond in my gas tank, like Peter Fonda in Easy Rider? And is it my fault if I drive my bike to Antwerp and sell said uncut diamond to a shady Diamond dealer? And is it my fault if I take that money and buy a villa in Mexico?? Well of course not!! How could it be? And fuck De Beers anyway! Why do they get to keep all the diamonds?! You just got a slice of the shenanigans that go on inside my head... When you drive in a straight line for hours with only the humming of the bike to keep you company it certainly gives you time to fantasize...
Our next stop North was Sossusvlei, the beautiful red sand dunes of the Namib. This would involve a few hours of sand roads. Unfortunately my bike was ill, the signs were ominous. It looked like the clutch was fucked. That’s a mechanical term. And so we skipped the dirt turn off and decided to stick to the tar and postpone Soussvlei for now and get the bike to Windhoek where there is a BMW Motarrad dealer and a lovely mechanic called Dieter. Due to the clutch slipping I could not go to high revs and so we had to do the entire trip at 50 mph.. Twelve hours of riding. Luckily we had a sand storm to keep us company. Tough going. Once in Windhoek we took the bike to BMW Dieter and he said “yes, that clutch is fucked!”. That’s a mechanical term. And unfortunately as this is a new model neither they nor South Africa BMW had this clutch in stock. I most likely have the dubious honor of being this first person to break a clutch on an F850 GSA in Africa! Damn you Sani Pass!! And the bad news was that it would take 7-14 business days to have the part shipped from Germany. Slightly frustrating but these are the things that happen and are all part of the journey... man.. And so we rented a 4X4 Toyota Hilux for a week and set out to use the time to explore Namibia.
Windhoek is a nice city, very clean, very modern. One interesting thing I spotted was a street called Sean McBride. Apart from his time in the IRA and in the inter-party government as minister for external affairs McBride did a lot of work in Africa. He penned several national constitutions and also the constitution of the Organisation for African Unity. He also represented Namibia as High Commissioner to the United Nations. I’m proud to see the history of the Irish doing such positive work in Africa.
While in Windhoek we went to the Independence Memorial Museum which explains the story of Namibia’s struggle for independence. The Museum wasn’t great overall however they did have these wonderful giant colored murals that explained the history, sometimes quiet graphically. Perhaps not for children’s eyes.
We went back South West on dirt/sand for a few hours to the Sossusvlei to see what we had missed. To be honest the bike fixing was slightly a blessing in disguise as we would not have been able to get to the dunes on our bikes due to the sand or later Etosha Park due to the carnivorous cats. And speeding on the sand in a 4X4 is great Craic! Struggling on our bikes in the sand while sweating buckets is not. Apart from being staggeringly beautiful Sossusvlei is part of the oldest desert in the world the Namib and has the largest sand dunes. The colors of the dunes change depending on the hour from rich oranges to dark reds and pinks. But why bother trying to come up with my own words when I can let the master do it instead, here is what Sir Attenborough has to say about it.
After Sossusvlei we headed back to the tar road and North, a days drive to Etosha National Park. The park surrounds the Etosha pan, which is a massive white, dried out lake. Etosha was at one point the largest Nature reserve in the world but it then got reduced to its still quite large 22270 squared km. It has 114 mammal species. (Yes, I have the brochure in my hand) Within ten minutes of driving into the park we came upon a pride of 6 lions devouring a springbok. At least I think it was a Springbok, I’m not very good at recognizing animals from their insides out. I don’t have photos, iPhone zoom is crap. Great camera but shit zoom... The great thing about Etosha is its easy access to the water holes. You just drive to the waterhole and wait for the animals to come to you. Lots of Elephants, Rhino, Zebra, Giraffe, Oryx and all the deer ones... let’s just clump them all together and call them deer.. (boks, gazelle, antelopes, impala) And at our camp there was a walkway that took you to a night lit waterhole, so you could stroll down in the middle of the night and sit in silence for an hour or so with 20 other people and watch the rhinos, elephants and their buddies drink and potter about. They love to potter so they do.
After Etosha we went North to Epupa Falls. Again a few hours of fantastic dirt roads to get there, good fun times! This area is home to the semi nomadic Himba people. There are only 50,000 or so Himba. They still wear traditional tribal wear, the women more so then the men. The ladies are mostly topless but wear some calf skins. They smear themselves in Otjize, a mixture of butter fat and red ochre which keeps them clean, protects against mosquito bites and also gives off a red/orange glow which is considered the height of natural beauty. Epupa Falls is part of the Cunene River which acts as a border with Angola. We hiked around the falls for a few days and saw a few crocs. Unfortunately the waters were quiet low as its dry season, however they are still spectacular.
At least half of the Himba ladies we encountered were in traditional dress, and without tops. To me as a foreigner it always looked curious when they were doing normal errands such as waiting in line at the bank or getting petrol at the garage. I would feel uncomfortable being a white western tourist asking them for a photo, nor did I want to slyly take a shot, that would be even creepier. So instead I am once again going to steal a photo from the interweb…Here are some wonderful Himba ochre covered ladies..
Heading back on the long drive to Windhoek we picked up a young Japanese fella who was 5 years into his 10-year round the World hitch hiking trip. Impressive. Although he wasn’t the chattiest of fellas, we thought he would have a million stories but no, not an ounce of craic. We dropped him off on the side of the road to camp and returned again to Windhoek.
The part still hadn’t arrived so I rented a car and Iva drove her bike and we went to Swakopmund, another lovely German town on the coast. At this point we were just killing time. We did some walks and museums. The town was fairly dead as this is their winter off season. But it is usually a hotbed of Adventure sports.
Three days later we got word from good old Dieter that the part had arrived and so we hightailed it back to Windhoek to get the bike... Hooray!! Back on the road again... Thanks Dieter! I promised to try not breaking this clutch and off we went East into the Kalahari towards Botswana.
