Some more days

We had to drive from Swakopmund to Windhoek so set off early to make good distance before it got dark. The main road takes quite a long way round to get to Windhoek, so we decided to take the more direct gravel roads. Although we later found out why the main road goes the long way.

Everything was going fine until we started hitting the hills. Some rocks in the road forced Sean to veer off the side of the road just before a bend, causing the front wheel to smash into the rocks and general crap at the side which made the car jump quite violently. He quickly yanked the steering wheel back to the right and got us back onto the road, but we took a bit of time out to make sure everything was ok and empty our trousers.

So we carried on after checking out the wheel for excessive bearing play and came to a mountain pass. We cross these all the time, so it wasn’t a big deal, but this thing wasn’t like the other baby passes we’d done before. We first realised a problem when the road started getting steeper and steeper. It was getting to the critical stage where a good gear change has to be made, but Sean missed the gear and we slowly ground to a halt stuck up this steep road. It wasn’t too bad until we started rolling back down the hill because the brakes couldn’t hold the car. Me and Stu turned around to see the car veering into the side of the road and yelled “STEER” before Sean suddenly spun the wheel and caused the Landie to violently jerk into the other direction and it finally came to a stop at the bottom of the hill after a bit of handbrake usage too.

We managed to get across the incredibly scenic pass after stopping again to siphon fuel from the left tank into a jerry can, then into the right tank. The left fuel pipe had got blocked by what we later found out to be just general muck in the tap. We pulled into our campsite in Windhoek after another slightly hairy night drive on gravel roads with the Landie headlights (which sometimes seem to be less effective than what taping candles to the bonnet would be).

Windhoek feels like quite a modern place for an African city. There are lots of nice cars driving around and its buzzing with people and activity. Its built in quite a hilly location which gives it an interesting edge too. On thing to note is the taxis. These are generally rust buckets which wiz around the city crammed to the brim with passengers. They are a law unto themselves half the time and it seems that anybody can just stick a taxi sign on their car and start ferrying customers around, so that adds another element of ‘fun’ to the whole thing.
Our campsite / guest house was a sort of commune place where backpackers would just hang out in the bar and wander around aimlessly. It was the first backpackery place we’d been to so it was quite nice to meet other young travelers too and share stories. One lady who was older was sleeping in the back of some rusting old Land Rover which gave us a surprise when she popped her head out of a seemingly empty car window.
We met a guy from Barnsley who had been working in a wildlife sanctuary in Malawi. He had some great stories and he also drove Land Rover religiously back home so he offered us some tips for ours. What was also nice was to hear a Yorkshire accent after so long. All my “aye”s and “nowt”s were coming out again after a few beers.

After a couple of days in this place we got on the road again, heading north to get to Etosha (the world famous wild life place full of elephants and lions etc). It was a fairly uneventful journey, except for us seeing some traditional tribes women/girls who still walk around topless. That was quite cultural I guess.

We got to within about 30kms of the park and pulled into a lodge sort of place right out in the bush. We managed to bag a night in some pre-put up tents for 50 namib dollars each (which is very good!). We were about 2 km down a remote track camping on our own and it was the first time we had really camped somewhere that felt remote and wild. We watched the superb sunset which Africa is so famous for and then had marshmallows on the braai whilst looking at the stars which were amazing and so clear.

We got a relatively early night in order to get up at some stupid hour in order to get to Etosha early. However, this place was freezing. I woke up in the night shivering because my newly shaved head was loosing heat and I was just in boxers and my ‘slightly-more-useful-than-a-Tesco-carrier-bag’ sleeping bag. I wrapped a towel round my head and got back to sleep.