Day 23 – Back to Swakopmund, Again! - about 150kms (weds. 20th June)
The morning was incredibly foggy. It was often the case; after all it was winter down there.
We decided to wait until 9am, hoping that the fog would lift a bit. We aimed to get to Palmwag, 430 kms away, so it would be a long day, up the skeleton coast mainly.
We stopped for some fuel. My bike was playing up. Too much water somewhere. I will need to replace the meter when I am back home.
On the road, I could barely see through the visor of my helmet. It was very cold. By the time we arrived at Henties Bay, 70kms later, along the salt road, I was shaking because of the freezing weather.
Riding was hard as visibility was extremely poor through the visor, while at the same time I feared that if I rode too slowly, I could end up being smashed by a car from behind.
After buying fuel in Henties Bay, we went to the nearby café for tea and to warm up a bit.
We decided to leave the muddy salt road that runs north and, instead, pick up a gravel road going inland toward Uis. This was the same itinerary that we rode few days earlier. It would be much warmer and fog free once we got away from the sea. I could not face another 150kms or more of this along the skeleton coast.
After another 65kms riding inland, we stopped to drink some water and to stretch our legs. We were finally clear from the fog and it was warmer.


As Alistair walked around the bikes and checked our oil levels, he noticed a pool of oil on the rim of his front wheel. His trousers were covered in oil too!
The brand new fork seals were a spectacular failure on the CRF. So much oil was pouring out that, surely, there couldn’t be any oil left in the forks.
We had no choice but to go back to Swakopmund and straight to the Yamaha workshop. We were not happy.
