Day 11 Spitzkoppe – Windhoek 297kmWe woke up to an amazing view of the huge boulders at Spitzkoppe. It was spectacular! This was going to be our last day of riding, but the adventure was not over just yet. We were very low on fuel and made plans that whoever runs out of fuel, would have to sit next to road like an idiot and someone else will go and fetch more fuel from the nearest town, Usakos, which was about 50km away.
That morning I seriously nursed the Dakar and I’m sure that I would have won any economy run. I've been on reserve for a while since the previous day and as far as I know the Dakar has got a 3L reserve from when the fuel light goes on and that roughly gives me about 60-70 km range on mixed gravel roads. But this time I got 94km!!!!! And the Dakar still wasn’t completely empty! That’s about 31km/l – not bad!
We all made it to Usakos and filled up the bikes. Then it was time to celebrate with a proper breakfast and coffee and plan the last day’s route.
I think Gummi was missing his bokkie back home and was giving some of his love to this bokkie...
We decided to stick to the B2 tar road for another 80km and then turn off on the D1967. This dirt road becomes the D1958 that leads to the C28 that goes to Windhoek. We only had another 120km or so of gravel left on this whole trip. But that little gravel road had some amazing surprises for us! It was one of the best sections we did on the trip! The road started off as a good graded road, but soon became smaller and smaller and quickly turned into a two wheel track. We went up huge hills and down mountains, opening and closing farm gates and every now then stopping to admire the view. This road turned out to be simply amazing!
At the top of one hill we were met with this sign: Windhoek District. And this is where we probably realized and accepted the fact that the trip was almost over.
This is also where I lost my Camelback. We had taken off our jackets and Camelbacks and it must have fallen off the bike and I somehow didn’t see it. I only realized about 10 – 15min later that it wasn’t on my back and I decided to leave it rather as it was in bad shape anyway.
On top of this hill we decided to take “The Photo of the Trip” and this obviously gave way to silliness and time to piss off Liam.
Soon we were on the C28 that leads to Windhoek and I had mixed feelings because we had reached our final destination, but this was also the end of the trip. We didn’t want the trip to end yet. But at least we were all in one piece and the bikes were still running.
Arebusch Travel Lodge, where we left the car and trailer, had no more rooms that time and only had camping available. I wasn’t bothered and I booked and paid but when I broke the news to my buddies that they had to camp on their last night in Nam, they were less impressed. Gummi was shattered! He, especially, was looking forward to sleep in a bed. He couldn’t believe it and was very disappointed. “Ek slaan nie ‘n moer weer my tent op nie!” So Liam and I pitched our tents and ladyboy Gummi made himself a comfy bed in the back of his car.
We treated ourselves to a dip/shower in the pool (that we later realized we were not allowed to use because we are campers), and then we treated ourselves to a meal in the restaurant. This turned out to be everything but a treat! It was a “Eat as much as you like” sparerib special, but these were ribs with a difference. There were only 3 rib bones in the whole “thing” and a 2cm thick layer of fat covering the meat. “French Cut” ribs, is what they call it. “Vomit inducing blubber” is what I call it! It was horrible! But luckily beer and Irish coffee were there to save the evening. We went back to our tents (and car), and prepared ourselves for a cold night. Windhoek gets really cold in the nights and that night was no exception. It was moer cold!
Before the trip we stuck clear vinyl on all the plastic panels of the bikes to minimize scratches and damage to the plastic bits. It looked very kak, but it worked like a bomb! On the first day I noticed that my knee braces were scratching against the tank and damaging the vinyl, so I put loads of duct tape on these areas and this was what it looked like after the trip.
While doing that river road the trees took their toll on my helmet.
The bikes were in need of a wash!
This is the rear tyre of Gummi's 990 - moer toe!
My Dakar's rear tyre - still good for another trip!
Topic: 3 Idiots take on Nam! (Read 7147 times)
