Damaraland
Race Dog
So...it's been about two months since my epic (for me anyway) trip to Epupa. 60 days. 1440 hours. Much too long to go without a serious ride. Plus my mate Wimpie (BlinkStefaans on the forum) was also itching to go for a ride - would be his first "real" outing on his F800.
The plan initially was to ride from Swakop to and stay over at Rooiklip, but due to them being fully booked we decided to gooi to Rostock Ritz instead. Rostock is about 270km away from Swakop, with no fuel available on the road. Since this would be my first trip without a support vehicle, I didn't want to carry too much on the bike, so we decided to refuel at Solitaire before we head back home. Plan was to leave Saturday morning, sleep over at Rostock Ritz then shoot through to Solitaire for fuel then back home via Walvis Bay.
I really dislike riding back on my own tracks so we planned our route in as much of a circle as possible - this also gave us the advantage of going through the scenic Guab and Kuiseb passes twice.
For me the trip started Friday evening with packing the bike. As I said, this would be the first time I would go without the luxury of a car carrying everything for me. Thus the challenge was to fit a coolbox to my bike safely and securely. If there was space left over I would also take a tent, bedroll, sleeping bag, food, toolbox and change of underpants and socks.
Since I don't have panniers or anything I bungie-chorded the living daylights out of everything, the results were rather impressive I think. I put all my tools in the plastic tube my bungie-chords came in and cable-tied it to the front of my bike. ghetto-style but it worked.
Saturday morning 8am came, we had a quick coffee at my place, I said my goodbyes and off we were on our grand adventure!! Oh no we weren't, Wimpie had to fuel up his bike first, and now we were off!
First stretch was nice and easy gravel, 130km on the C28 (that is the road past Blutkoppe for you familiar with the area). Soft sand in patches but nothing hectic. We stopped for a drink and a wizz.
The handsomest bikers in the area. Note that we were also the only bikers in the area.
Again I'll point your attention to the ghetto-tooltube
I also want to mention that here I noticed for the first time the stickers South African bikers stick on our road signs. Why do the oaks do that? Net gekke en dwase...I mean if you want to put your sticker somewhere, put it on the back of the road sign. Don't deface stuff we pay for with our tax money.
Anyhow, we got cracking again, turning right on the D1985, 23 kays of awesome gravel road, then we went left on the D1998, carried on for 27km's which brought us to the main road to Solitaire (C14). From here we traversed the Kuiseb and the Gaub passes.
Notice the stunning Geological formations
Now it was getting pretty hot, in the mid to high 30's. Luckily we reached Rostock without mishap. Yeah right, it never works like that does it? Wimpie's bike decided that 1pm on a fricken hot day would be the appropriate time to shred a tube. Arrrggggghhhhhhh! Truth be told, he did an awesome job keeping it upright, losing your front at 120 on the gravel is....interesting. But this is part of what Adventure Riding is about, and we came prepared. Wimpie brought patch with, but unfortunately the valve got tore clean out of the tube. I had a 19" Kenda tube with me, so now the challenge was to get that over his 21" front wheel. Which in retrospect was quite easy. We inflated the tires with these CO2 jobbies (which are absolutely awesome b.t.w). All said we got his wheel sorted in about 45 mins. and we were off again.
Happy days!
The road got a bit crappy here, couldn't believe how badly maintained it was, especially considering that it's one of the main tourist routes in Namibia. More sand than gravel, with the odd large rock thrown in for comic relief. It kept us on our toes. Anyhow, we reached Rostock without incident and duly headed for the bar...
Neeeeeeedddd Beeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrr!!!!!
I would also smile if I got away with charging N$45 for a brandy and coke
Would you look happy if you had to settle for Savannah Light instead?
Wimpie modelling the CTM range of 2012 toilet seats.
Being men about town, we anticipated this and brought our own knertsies. Wimpie with a Jack Daniels, me KWV. We proceeded to the pool and spend the rest of the afternoon ogling Dutch tourists and getting gloriously and totally hammered. Life is good.
How's this for a view
Me staring into the distance and missing people I haven't even met yet
With the sun setting fast we had to get back to our camp site to pitch our tents and get ready for the evening. When we arrived we rode to the camp site. It's a rocky, almost technical little twee-spoor, so I know I was quite circumspect. Now, dressed in flip-flops and swimming trunks and filled up with brandy it was a different story. Stupid, I know, but boy did we gooi mielies on that rocky road!
This would be our home for the night
We were then treated to a spectacular sunset...there are few things in the world that can compare to a simple Namibian sunset. It's almost like it's nature's way of making up for a scorching hot, dry day.
Dinner was lekker skaaptjops, courtesy of Wimpie's parents who own a farm in the south....lucky bastard! With that we were off to bed for the night...well tired but looking forward to tomorrow
As it turns out we both didn't sleep to well. Between Wimpie's new-age yoga mat and my Midas bedroll we weren't exactly in the lap of luxury. We both woke up sore and stiff, but it didn't matter because we were off to Solitaire, for fuel, coffee and Apfel Strudel :drif:! (And do not for an instant believe ChrisL when he tells you it's nothing special. He's still cross because Moose shot at himeepwall
We got on the C14 again, dodging extensive roadworks. Rumour has it there are plans afoot to tar parts of it. I don't know if I should be happy or sad about it. For me this was serious slow going, 75 km/h in 5th gear, engine lugging like only a thumper can, was seriously worried about running out of fuel by now. When I arrived I had 330km's on the clock, not bad for my F650GS which only has a 17L tank.
Our trusty steeds, filled to the brim for the trip home
As for us, it was breakfast time - I was desperate for coffee!
Wimpie, being a bit of a health nut, had a bit of pie and a coffee, very measured
Me, on ve udder hand Darren, IMMA GO BACK AND GET ME SUM MORE PIE!!!!!!!
Hmmm, I noticed Wimpie was gone, found him after a brief search, he was acting all "special". I really didn't have the hart to tell him that that bike wasn't going anywhere. He told me he's a bit of a closet KLR fan - to each his own I guessot:
Now it was time to take our leave (although the next trip to Sossus is already brewing in my mind). We headed back out on the C14. This time of year it's very dry, and the expanses of yellow grass seems endless - it's a bit mesmerizing to ride in it.
On this pic you get a nice idea and feel of the "vlakte" and what seems like an endless stretch of white sand road.
Past the Kuiseb pass the road was an absolute breeze to ride, if a bit boring. We hit a massive Southwesterly wind about 30km's from Walvis Bay, first time in my life I had to ride my bike at an angle on the gravel road due to wind. Wimpie resorted to standing the whole way, to ensure his shiny new AGV A-X8 does not get sandblasted :imaposer:
Here we split up again, him heading home to Langstrand, me to Swakopmund. I got a flat on my front wheel about 50m from my home. Weird experience, feels like someone is tugging your handlebar left and right. Didn't matter to me, I was back home to my woman and my TV. Had an awesome trip, fell more in love with my country, can't wait for the next one!
Take care and be safe, always!
Ruan
The plan initially was to ride from Swakop to and stay over at Rooiklip, but due to them being fully booked we decided to gooi to Rostock Ritz instead. Rostock is about 270km away from Swakop, with no fuel available on the road. Since this would be my first trip without a support vehicle, I didn't want to carry too much on the bike, so we decided to refuel at Solitaire before we head back home. Plan was to leave Saturday morning, sleep over at Rostock Ritz then shoot through to Solitaire for fuel then back home via Walvis Bay.
I really dislike riding back on my own tracks so we planned our route in as much of a circle as possible - this also gave us the advantage of going through the scenic Guab and Kuiseb passes twice.
For me the trip started Friday evening with packing the bike. As I said, this would be the first time I would go without the luxury of a car carrying everything for me. Thus the challenge was to fit a coolbox to my bike safely and securely. If there was space left over I would also take a tent, bedroll, sleeping bag, food, toolbox and change of underpants and socks.
Since I don't have panniers or anything I bungie-chorded the living daylights out of everything, the results were rather impressive I think. I put all my tools in the plastic tube my bungie-chords came in and cable-tied it to the front of my bike. ghetto-style but it worked.
Saturday morning 8am came, we had a quick coffee at my place, I said my goodbyes and off we were on our grand adventure!! Oh no we weren't, Wimpie had to fuel up his bike first, and now we were off!
First stretch was nice and easy gravel, 130km on the C28 (that is the road past Blutkoppe for you familiar with the area). Soft sand in patches but nothing hectic. We stopped for a drink and a wizz.
The handsomest bikers in the area. Note that we were also the only bikers in the area.
Again I'll point your attention to the ghetto-tooltube
I also want to mention that here I noticed for the first time the stickers South African bikers stick on our road signs. Why do the oaks do that? Net gekke en dwase...I mean if you want to put your sticker somewhere, put it on the back of the road sign. Don't deface stuff we pay for with our tax money.
Anyhow, we got cracking again, turning right on the D1985, 23 kays of awesome gravel road, then we went left on the D1998, carried on for 27km's which brought us to the main road to Solitaire (C14). From here we traversed the Kuiseb and the Gaub passes.
Notice the stunning Geological formations
Now it was getting pretty hot, in the mid to high 30's. Luckily we reached Rostock without mishap. Yeah right, it never works like that does it? Wimpie's bike decided that 1pm on a fricken hot day would be the appropriate time to shred a tube. Arrrggggghhhhhhh! Truth be told, he did an awesome job keeping it upright, losing your front at 120 on the gravel is....interesting. But this is part of what Adventure Riding is about, and we came prepared. Wimpie brought patch with, but unfortunately the valve got tore clean out of the tube. I had a 19" Kenda tube with me, so now the challenge was to get that over his 21" front wheel. Which in retrospect was quite easy. We inflated the tires with these CO2 jobbies (which are absolutely awesome b.t.w). All said we got his wheel sorted in about 45 mins. and we were off again.
Happy days!
The road got a bit crappy here, couldn't believe how badly maintained it was, especially considering that it's one of the main tourist routes in Namibia. More sand than gravel, with the odd large rock thrown in for comic relief. It kept us on our toes. Anyhow, we reached Rostock without incident and duly headed for the bar...
Neeeeeeedddd Beeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrr!!!!!
I would also smile if I got away with charging N$45 for a brandy and coke
Would you look happy if you had to settle for Savannah Light instead?
Wimpie modelling the CTM range of 2012 toilet seats.
Being men about town, we anticipated this and brought our own knertsies. Wimpie with a Jack Daniels, me KWV. We proceeded to the pool and spend the rest of the afternoon ogling Dutch tourists and getting gloriously and totally hammered. Life is good.
How's this for a view
Me staring into the distance and missing people I haven't even met yet
With the sun setting fast we had to get back to our camp site to pitch our tents and get ready for the evening. When we arrived we rode to the camp site. It's a rocky, almost technical little twee-spoor, so I know I was quite circumspect. Now, dressed in flip-flops and swimming trunks and filled up with brandy it was a different story. Stupid, I know, but boy did we gooi mielies on that rocky road!
This would be our home for the night
We were then treated to a spectacular sunset...there are few things in the world that can compare to a simple Namibian sunset. It's almost like it's nature's way of making up for a scorching hot, dry day.
Dinner was lekker skaaptjops, courtesy of Wimpie's parents who own a farm in the south....lucky bastard! With that we were off to bed for the night...well tired but looking forward to tomorrow
As it turns out we both didn't sleep to well. Between Wimpie's new-age yoga mat and my Midas bedroll we weren't exactly in the lap of luxury. We both woke up sore and stiff, but it didn't matter because we were off to Solitaire, for fuel, coffee and Apfel Strudel :drif:! (And do not for an instant believe ChrisL when he tells you it's nothing special. He's still cross because Moose shot at him
eepwall
We got on the C14 again, dodging extensive roadworks. Rumour has it there are plans afoot to tar parts of it. I don't know if I should be happy or sad about it. For me this was serious slow going, 75 km/h in 5th gear, engine lugging like only a thumper can, was seriously worried about running out of fuel by now. When I arrived I had 330km's on the clock, not bad for my F650GS which only has a 17L tank.
Our trusty steeds, filled to the brim for the trip home
As for us, it was breakfast time - I was desperate for coffee!
Wimpie, being a bit of a health nut, had a bit of pie and a coffee, very measured
Me, on ve udder hand Darren, IMMA GO BACK AND GET ME SUM MORE PIE!!!!!!!
Hmmm, I noticed Wimpie was gone, found him after a brief search, he was acting all "special". I really didn't have the hart to tell him that that bike wasn't going anywhere. He told me he's a bit of a closet KLR fan - to each his own I guess
ot:
Now it was time to take our leave (although the next trip to Sossus is already brewing in my mind). We headed back out on the C14. This time of year it's very dry, and the expanses of yellow grass seems endless - it's a bit mesmerizing to ride in it.
On this pic you get a nice idea and feel of the "vlakte" and what seems like an endless stretch of white sand road.
Past the Kuiseb pass the road was an absolute breeze to ride, if a bit boring. We hit a massive Southwesterly wind about 30km's from Walvis Bay, first time in my life I had to ride my bike at an angle on the gravel road due to wind. Wimpie resorted to standing the whole way, to ensure his shiny new AGV A-X8 does not get sandblasted :imaposer:
Here we split up again, him heading home to Langstrand, me to Swakopmund. I got a flat on my front wheel about 50m from my home. Weird experience, feels like someone is tugging your handlebar left and right. Didn't matter to me, I was back home to my woman and my TV. Had an awesome trip, fell more in love with my country, can't wait for the next one!
Take care and be safe, always!
Ruan
