Day 6
Kokerboom forest to night camp
We get up early and go see the sun rise at the Giant’s Playground, and I get to take some nice photies while playing with the sun coming through various cracks and crevices in the rocks
On the way back from there to camp we pass the Cheetah enclosure and I see the cats walking next to the fence.
After stopping for a few photos I take off again, and as always keep my eyes on the road. Back at our possie CG is very excited. Apparently, the moment I took off on my bike, the one Cheetah gave chace, racing after me. So there you have it, I’ve been chased by a Cheetah!
After booking out we head into Keetmanshoop for petrol and some supplies. While watching the bikes outside the shop I befriend the local streetsweeper who surprises the hell out of me by not begging for money. We have a long chat, which he interrupts every time someone walks by to greet them, often by name. When I ask him where I can find some empty two litre coke bottles for extra fuel he quickly produces exactly what I’m looking for, and we have a great chat as he tells me a bit about Namibia.
We fill up our bikes and the fuel bottles and buy a take – away breakfast, then head out of town to eat the breakfast. Soon we are on the road again and at Seeheim we again fill the bikes, just to be on the safe side.
Just outside Seeheim, crossing the Fish River, a big thud hits me in the throat, immediately followed by a hot burning sensation. Man, don’t you just hate it when that happens! Grabbing at my buff to stop whatever it is from stinging me again I quickly get off the road and start pulling off kit with the usual ‘Damn there’s a wasp in here somewhere’ feeling.
The German tourists must have been very ammused when I stomped that little shit into the ground with my boot!
Some way further west we take the D463 South towards the Fish River Canyon. The plan is to ride to a spot in a dry riverbed and camp there for the night. The road is not too bad and we make good time, eventually stopping for an hour under the only shade tree for miles around to have a rest before continuing on our dusty way.
Close to the canyon the road becomes more and more sandy, with long gravel beds lurking every few hundred meters.
We get to a watercrossing, in the middle of the desert. I remembered seeing this on mapsource, but had never expected to find water in here.
CG grabs the cameras and walks across, leaving me to bring the bikes through. It’s quite deep, and when I put my feet down on a rocky part my boots are immediately filled with water. Usually I would have hated this, but in that hot desert my feet for once thanked me.
CG meanwhile is using my camera to take pictures of me coming through the water, which is a blessing because it’s at this water crossing that CG somehow manages to lose her camera.
We did ask some guys to go look for it, but they took a different route and did not find the camera. It’s a real shame about our photos, so if you hear about a camera found near to the watercrossing on the D463, we only want the photos on the card, the camera can be kept.
After the watercrossing we decide to go on for a while more as it’s a bit too early to set up camp yet. After another few kilos we start looking for a campsite. Bypassing a few likely looking spots, all the while riding the long sandy and rocky riverbeds, CG comes face to face with the sandmonster. This stuff is thick sand filled with large pebbles, not the easiest stuff to ride.
I rode this particularly bad gravel bed for about a hundred meters around two beds. The moment I got out of it I got off the bike and started walking back, wanting to make sure that CG was doing ok, only to find her trapped under the bike two turns back.
After lifting the bike off her I take the luggage off and get the bike upright again. CG had twisted her knee badly, and was in a lot of pain. No pics of the off, but when your GF has an off in the middle of nowhere you don’t think about cameras.
She can hobble along a bit, so I tell her to walk to the end of the graveltrap while I carry out her luggage. It’s freaky hot and I sweat like a pig in my gear while I carry the panniers out, then walk back for the bike. I tie the last bit of luggage back onto the bike and ride the bike out.
I know we wont be able to continue for the day, so I tell CG we’re camping right there in the riverbed. To make sure that I don’t make things too easy for myself I try to ride CG’s bike up the riverbed to hide it behind some trees. I’d barely left the graveltrap when the bike’s rear wheel sinks down to the axle in the soft riversand. I leave it standing there and we only dig it out after I’d put up our tent and set up camp. In the meantime I move my bike off the riding line in the road and park it where it will be safe in the graveltrap.
By this time CG had decided that she’d probably be able to ride the bike, so our situation is not too gloomy, and we spend a fantastic evening under the wild Namibian sky, where there are so many stars that you cannot see the nightsky for stars.
We even had a little sand snake come visit our campsite.
Topic: Rides, Reflections and Repairs – Year end bash via Namibia (Read 4753 times)
