But LIFE had other plans for Marc, Jan Lucas (
@Amsterdam) and I.
Jan Lucas's car had gone into the Toyoyta dealer to be fixed prior to the trip, but the Toyota dealer couldn't get the car ready in time. So I spent Thursday sitting at home waiting for Jan Lucas to call and say that the car was ready. Jan Lucas spent the day sitting in the Toyota dealership practicing his best "I'm not pleased" face.
The Toyota dealership never came through and Thursday night came and we were all still in Cape Town feeling dejected. We needed a PLAN B... and fast.
Jan Lucas came to the rescue again by annexing his wife's car, and lending his son's car to his wife. Phew...
Another sleepless night, but this time Jan Lucas showed up at my door at 4am. We loaded the car and headed for Durbanville to pick up Marc.
The banter in the car quickly grew more and more relaxed as we realilzed that the trip was actually happening and that we all liked each other. The biking stories started flowing and smiles appeared on our faces as we got to know each other.
Jan Lucas is a retired mechanical engineer. He's Dutch (I generally like the Dutch) and has a wise, calming demeanour. He decided to take his Husky 701 on the trip instead of his 500. Made no sense to me, but he claims it is more comfortable. He hadn't tried out the new seat on my 500 at that point.
Marc is, well, an enigma. Nobody really knows what he does for a living and how he can afford 3 KTMs. All we know is that he has warehouses that he rents out. Anyhow, he's an interesting cat. I discover that he's originally from Zim, fought in the war and has seen some pretty grim things in his time on this planet. He's also been to Kaokoland 13 times already and this time, packed his 690 on the trailer.
Jan Lucas and Marc ride together often.
And for those of you who haven't met me yet, I'm Bruce. Grew up in Cape Town, been riding since I got my 50cc licence at 16 and now live with my wife in the Dominican Republic (she's Dominican). During the day I help couples save their marriages (I'm a marriage counselor), and when I'm not doing that I'm an avid kitesurfer and traveller.
So that pretty much sets the scene for everything to come...
Our 2-day drive to Namibia started well, but soon turned into an adventure.
Becasue of our delayed departure, our COVID tests all expired within hours of reaching the Namibian border. In fact, one of our COVID tests had already expired by the time we reached Vioolsdrif. That was a problem...
Fortunately, being experienced travellers, we had prepared for this possibility and one of us (no names mentioned) had creatively edited his COVID test report to time travel one day forward. This was his backup COVID test. And it worked. The border official looked at the date, looked again, and then just stamped it.
Phew... The last thing we needed was to get arrested for forgery at the border. A few stamps later and we (and the bikes) were in Namibia!
YAY. Finally.
But our excitement was short lived.
The car was getting harder and harder to steer. We pulled over and discovered that steering fluid was pissing out of one of the pipes. Shit. What now?
We decided that we'd continue without power steering until we could find somone to fix it. I mean, all the roads to Windhoek are dead straight anyway, right? Who needs the ability to turn?
A few hundred kilos later, and the car started overheating. Seriously?

I felt my heart sink. I just wanted to get there without more delays. We pulled into Grunau, a small dorp a few hundred kilos from the border, to try to find help and a place to sleep for the night.
Unbelievably, there was a mechanic workshop in Grunau. We pulled in, explained our situation to the guy there and waited to see what he said. He appeared an hour later with the thermostat in his hand decaring it kaput! It had seized.
We'd have to wait until tomorrow to order a thermostat from Windhoek and get it delivered to Grunau. That would be another day lost.
But, our mechanic had a plan...