Go west young man, across the Namib desert

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Dorsland

Bachelor Dog
Joined
Apr 15, 2012
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Location
Van Daar
Bike
Honda CRF-1000L Africa Twin
"Go West, young man, go West. There is health in the country, and room away from our crowds of idlers and imbeciles."

 Josiah Bushnell Grinnell



So yes, this is not a bike ride report. 

Hopefully it allows our minds to wander while our physical being is under lockdown. If it gets our minds off a world currently in turmoil, so much the better.

In the late '90s, early 2000s, in my late 30s, I wanted to make some major changes in my life. I had bought a small farm earlier that decade and worked my ass off with three income streams to pay for it, and was staring 40 in the eyes.  If I wanted to make major changes, now was the time.  One of those streams (more like trickles actually), was a horse trail business I ran off my farm and that did quite well.

So, one thing led to another, a proposal to do horse safaris in the Augrabies National Park got tangled up in red tape, a friendship with an English (pommie) woman running a very successful horse safari business in the Waterberg went south. With each setback, my feet got itchier.

So eventually I decided to go big and contacted Reit Safari in Namibia, one of the top horse safari operators in the world, with a proposal.  The saying that fortune favours the bold held true as the owners Waldi and Lumpi Frietsche were looking at getting out and concentrating on their cattle farming operation again after a killer drought.

Long story short, after about 18 months of backwards and forwards and lawyers and documents and draft agreements and whatnot, our best efforts to reach a deal also came to naught.

However, in the course of our relationship, I did get to do an unforgettable 10 day horse ride across the Namib desert.  A distance of around 600km from just west of Windhoek to Swakopmund.

I honestly wish I had kept better notes of my experiences.  I really only have some rough notes scribbled on the back of the photos I took.  It’s been just more than 20 years ago and my memory sometimes leaves me really trying to remember.  Please excuse me if the dates, distances, names and other details are not always 100% accurate.

What I do recall very vividly is the vast spaces, the landscapes, the absolute freedom and clear headedness I enjoyed, endurance of the horses that wore down a brand new set of shoes to cardboard thin during the trip and Waldi’s astounding endurance for a woman of over 50.

Then there was the blond from Switzerland. Damn, to be 39 again.

So here are some pix and my recollections of that trip.
 

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