Larry and Sharon McGillewie's travels

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

1 July 2011

1 July 2011 – Keetsmanhoop, Namibia
After Swakopmund we rode 30km to Walvis Bay, this short ride was through the golden desert that we had been expecting. There was a view point and a nice climb up one of the steep dunes and a good view of the desert, all the time a cold wind was blowing off the Atlantic Ocean. Once in Walvis we encountered the same problem as in Swakopmund with the school reunion and sports events that were taking place over the weekend. One place which was full of school kids directed us to a place called Photo Safaris, this proved to be a bonus as it was some of the nicest accommodation that we have stayed in, they had a full kitchen and so we rushed off to the local Spar and bought a tiny piece of lamb leg and all the veggies and had a wonderful roast dinner for a change.
The following morning when we woke it looked like we had had a shower of rain, but this was just the heavy fog which comes in every evening, very pleased that we had chosen not to camp and have everything sopping wet! We packed and where ready to leave while the fog was still fairly thick. The first section of the drive was on a very nice piece of tar and then the gravel road started, very hard, and easy riding. The desert was changing all the time and for at least an hour on the road we never saw another vehicle and only one springbuck. As we got closer to the mountainous area of the national park there were lots of overland type vehicles all with roof top tents. Mainly SA vehicles and lots of friendly waves. Once we got out of the national park and through the second mountain pass the gravel road just got worse and worse until we were eventually riding at about 20km/ hour, the road was in a shocking condition, very corrugated and lots of loose gravel and sand. We arrived at the Tropic of Capricorn and stopped to take some photos, as we got off the bikes a 4x4 arrived with a South African family from Port Elizabeth (Navigator on the Wild Dogs Forum) and they told us that the road gets better as we get closer to Solitaire. It took us nearly 4 hours to ride the 80km to Solitaire. Once we got there we were told that there was no fuel but it was expected later that night. It had been hot the whole day so we decided to camp. Solitaire was an interesting place and Larry was salivating when we walked into the local bakery, they make about 150 large apple pies every day. We bought two slices and they were really good!! About 270 km, mostly on gravel, lots of it bad!
On Saturday, 1 July, we packed and left Solitaire midmorning, heading for Mariental, gravel road for the most past was good and we made good time to Mariental but once we arrived there the wind was blowing and there was nothing to keep us there so we decided to continue to Keetsmanhoop, all on tar road. This was the first time on the trip that we actually got cold we rode for about 2 hours really feeling the cold. We decided before even reached the town we were not going to camp and managed to find a reasonable BnB. That night it was extremely cold and we were both very glad to not be camping. 530 km, 170 on gravel
Our next destination was Ai Ais with about 170km on gravel road, and about 40 km on tar. Most of this road was good for the most of it but there were lots of ‘zink plaate’. A nice lunch spot was Canyon Roadhouse, with all sorts of old cars, and curiosities. We detoured off the road to Ai Ais to the main view point over the Fish River Canyon, really worth while going there. The camp site at Ai Ais has been very full with South African, lots have been interested in our bikes and our trip through Africa. Camping next to us tonight are a father and son both of BMW bikes touring Namibia. We also went for about a 2km hike up the gorge, this is the start of the Fish River Canyon hike which we would like to come back and do at some stage. The weather in the canyon has been fantastic and we used the hot baths which were very relaxing - it has been warm during the day and cool at night so the heat was welcome just before we jumped into the tent.
Internet is a problem, and we are finding it tough to update the blog. Will try in Springbok tomorrow, when we are back in SA!!! From there we should have a night in Lamberts Bay, or on the West Coast somewhere, then Cape Town, Garden Route, and hopefully home by mid July!!!

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Pics

More Pics

Sunset at Swakopmund

Pics

Winandi's house in Maun

Camp site at Island Safari Camp, Maun

Family reunion with Ralph and Winandi

Sunset on the Kavango River

Supper at a very nice restaurant outside Maun

Lots of water in the swamps and in northern Bots

Roan in Namibia

Kavango River - Ngepi Camp

Kavango River

Another picnic lunch, picnic spots along the road all over Namibia

Near Grootfontein

Camping at Lala Panzi, Grootfontein

North of Grootfontein

Heading towards Swakopmund

Entering the desert outside of Swakopmund

29 June, Swakopmund

27 June 2011 Grootfontein Namibia

We had a very sad farewell to Ralph and Winandi in Maun on Sunday morning and we headed to the border between Botswana and Namibia, fair tar roads and very very quite. Saw lots of elephant droppings but no elephants on this section of the road. Plenty of fuel so we were in the pound seats!!

We arrived at the border post and we had a very friendly greeting from the Botswanan officials and told us to fill in a small counter book for customs, passports stamped and we were on our way, Namibia just as friendly and efficient only thing they did differently was take R140 road tax for each bike, not bad at all!!

Straight out of the border post we got onto a gravel road, not bad, a little bit corrugated but nothing to worry about, this is also entrance to a national park called Mahango, about 24 000ha and we immediately saw a group of kudu and then one of impala, couldn’t tell if they were black faced or not as they were very skittish. And then Larry got really excited, he had spotted a group of roan antelope!! We were really lucky to see as much as we had as there was a fair amount of traffic on the road. We exited the park and a couple of km further we were back onto tar road.

We travelled for a further 5km and then had to turn off the nice tar road onto a track with lots of deep sand and this was for 4km!! We had been fairly cool up until then but now it was mid afternoon and we were getting hot. I had to paddle through the deep patches of sand and on more than one occasion cars going to the camp had to wait for me to get to a section to pull over so that they could pass.

Someone with a good sense of humour has done a large number of signs getting to and in the Ngepi Camp. The one that nearly gave me a heart attack read: Engage 4x4 now, Low range if you have, Lock your hubs. And then in small writing - you may as well use the 4x4, you bought or hired it, but you won’t need it!! Another one was - we like our kids and our grass please don’t park on either!

The camp was really great, lots of little touches had made it really special unfortunately this was spoilt by a group of people who woke us at midnight singing and shouting until camp management put them to bed. I heard him tell one chap to hold his hand like a lover, talking to the local guide, who had to lead him to bed!

The next morning we chatted to a SA couple that we had met in Kasane, then tackled the sand road again and it really does get better with practice!! I thought that we would take at least an hour to get back to the tar road but we did it in about20 minutes!! Once on the tar it was continuous villages for the next hour and so fairly slow riding. We refueled at Rundu and then headed towards Grootfontein. The countryside kept changing and by the time we got to Grootfontien there were a number of hills and koppies around. We did some shopping at the local Spar (everything available, all South African and prices not toobad) and then headed out of town heading south, past the bad gravel road leading to the meteorite area (we will be back to have a look at this in a 4x4) and found a camp site just outside of town called Lala Panzi. This is obviously a new development and the camp area was very bare but with very nice facilities. Unfortunately we had another bad night when the only other camper, someone working for the construction company arrived back at the camp at midnight and had a loud discussion with his girlfriend and then at 2am I think she must have wanted some more money because then they really started to fight. He then packed all his worldly goods, including the tent into his bakkie and disappeared. Just after that something made a noise just outside our tent but we thought it was someone walking past. Then at 4am Romeo came back and re-pitched the tent in the dark and by 6am he was up and away to work, must have had a very productive day!! We discovered that the noise that we had heard in between him dismantling his tent and re-pitching it was in fact our left over supper which was supposed to be lunch for the following day in our very nice camping pot had been stolen. Larry went to the management and asked them to help look for the pot, it did appear from the construction workers camp, apparently a dog had stolen it, luckily the dog did not have very sharp teeth to damage the bottom of the pot.

We left there, not sorry to see the back of the place and headed for Swakopmund, a ride of about 600km. We had decided that if there was any nice looking camp site en-route we would stop for the night. We did make one detour off the road to have a look at a camp site, but once we were told that the night time temperatures got down to -5 we decided to carry on. We are not really equipped to camp in the very cold as most of our trip has been in hot weather. The roads are very good, long straight stretches very few potholes and very little traffic. About 100km from Swakopmund we could feel a very distinct change in the weather as a cold wind started to blow from the west and by the time we arrived we were both cold. The desert as you get closer to the coast is not very pretty and reminded us of the desert in Sudan, ugly and lots of black rocks. The golden sand dunes that we had been expecting were visible in the distance, hopefully we will see more of the sand desert the further south we get. We arrived in Swakopmund at about 4pm local time with very sore backsides and went to the local tourism office and found that because of SA school holidays and a big re-union in Walvis Bay everything was very booked up here, the lady did tell us that the Municipal chalets were cheap and clean so we decided to have a look. The setting is not pretty but the accommodation is adequate and we decided to spend two nights here to have a good rest and have a look at the area.

Internet VERY slow, probably no pics now!!!

Saturday, June 25, 2011

25 June 2011 Maun

We arrived in Maun, after about 650 km, mainly on good tar, but one bad stretch under construction. Leaving Kasane, we rode past a herd of elephant feeding on the edge of the main road! What a privilege to game view from the bikes, on national roads! The rest of the ride was good, with a stop in Nata for lunch – Wimpy – we are getting closer to home. We passed through some well cultivated fields, with sunflower, sorghum and maize, then into bushveld, and eventually into Kalahari type open ares, near Makadigadi Pans. When we got to Maun, we went to Audi Camp where Ralph was waiting to meet us. It was wonderful to see him again. Winandi had done some homework and told us that Island Safari Lodge was much nicer as it was on the river so Ralph and I went to have a look. She was right but the only problem was the road leading to the camp, lots of nice soft sand. Well, I managed to get here without falling off the bike!! After setting up our camp Ralph went and fetched Winandi and once again it was great to see her. We have now spent four nights here and have seen Ralph on a regular basis, unfortunately Winandi has had to be at work all the time. She has just got a job as a pilot with one of the operators here in Maun and does not get any time off for the time that she is training. She has to do 50 hours of training into the delta before she is allowed to fly there herself.

We have spent a whole afternoon fixing and sorting our bikes, tyres and panniers. Hopefully our last few weeks of our trip will be incident free. Tomorrow we leave again, heading north, into the Caprivi Strip and Namibia, our second last country and border crossing.