Day 8 Epupa Camp - Rest DayAfter the three of us, and the bikes, took a serious beating the previous day, we were keen on taking a rest day, servicing the bikes and spending time at the pool nursing ourselves back to health with a few lagers (well, more than just a few…). We stayed at Epupa Campsite and the half built chalet we slept in was right on the river’s edge by the falls. We woke up to an amazing view of river and the falls.
Our view from the chalet. We paid the R120 per person camping fee for this view. I really felt it was worth it!
Our 5 star luxury accommodation. The loo seemed to be a bit out of place. Maybe it’s a Namibian thing…
Liam is a professional photographer and he has his way of taking photos. And he absolutely hates it when we look at the camera when he's trying to take a "natural photo". So, obviously we just
have to look at the camera - just to see the expression on his face!
Epupa Campsite
The previous night we just went to bed and left everything at the bikes, our boots, helmets, jackets and even the keys in the ignition. And nothing was taken. I just love Namibia.
As we’ve done quite a bit of riding the last couple of days, we decided to walk (yes, walk) to the other two campsites and check them out. Right next to Epupa Campsite is Omarunga camp. This place is beautiful. There’s a pool, bar, dining area, tented camps and lots of palm trees. Really nice place. From there it is about 800m to Epupa Camp. This is where we found the other riders that did the same route as us. Now this campsite is awesome! With the pool being right on the edge of the river, we were sold and decided to stay there for the night.
Epupa Camp reception area:
The tented camps. Very nice.
But then the thought, of walking back the 800m, packing up all our stuff, loading the bikes again, riding 800m back and unpack everything, just seemed to be one moer of a mission, so we asked the kind lady at the campsite if one of their drivers can take us with a bakkie to fetch our stuff. Within 5 minutes we were on the back of the Cruiser! The people in Namibia are just to good!
We quickly put all our stuff on the bakkie and went back to Epupa Camp. After putting up camp and settling in, we decided to service the bikes first, and then go for a beer. This was a wise decision!
Our camp site:
Now when I mean “service the bikes”, I mean starring at the bike from all angles, tightening a few screws and maybe lube the chain. Then stare at the bike again. We are the 3 Idiots and have no idea whatsoever on how to properly service these bikes!
Then we actually decided to clean the air filters. “Wa de moer is die air filter, tjomma?” “Nee, ek weet nie! Wa is myne?” I found mine on the Dakar and sort of cleaned it. Gummi found his on the 990, but we couldn’t get to it! We couldn’t figure out how to get to the filter without stripping half the bike, so we just looked at each other and said: “Eks seker hy’s fine, kom ons gaan drink bier”.
The bikes and the gear took a bit of punishment and we had a couple of things to fix.
One of Liam’s panniers melted against the exhaust and this left his spare rear tube all crusty with a moerse hole in it, his hand pump was slightly shorter and the multimeter was also oddly shaped. I told him to use cableties to fix it and he did a brilliant job! He must have had “naaldwerk” at school…
Liam’s fork seals were completely busted and the oil was pissing out all over. Obviously we couldn’t fix that.
I used superglue to put my indicator lens back and one of the springs on the side stand came lose which we just took off so that I don’t lose it completely.
My membership sign to an elite, secret organisation. I'm sure you guys haven't seen one before.
Gummi only had to put back his number plate. Besides some scratches on the crashbars, his bike didn’t have any damage. But his rear tyre was completely shot! Moer toe! It is true – 990’s have no mercy for tyres. We did about 1800km by then and this is what was left.
After attending to bikes we headed to the pool area to cool off, plan our route and patch the pinched tube – all while enjoying a few Lagers.
My two lady friends having a special moment by the pool.
Our original plan was to head off into Kaokoland, go down Van Zyl’s Pass, through Marienfluss, down to Purros and Sesfontein. But we had a problem. Actually a few problems. First of all was the fuel. Our last fuel stop would be Okangwati and then at Sesfontein again. This a 480 odd km stretch where there is no fuel. During our initial planning, we calculated that with each of us carrying 10L of extra fuel, we should have been able to make that stretch. But this was under normal riding conditions. While doing the river road, riding lots of rocks, sand and technical terrain, the bikes consumed way more fuel. The 990 gulped fuel like a beer downing world champion! The Beast got about 190km on a tank of fuel that day. Daai ding suip petrol!!!!! So clearly we were not going to make it with only 10L of extra fuel each.
The second problem was that we had no more spare 21” tubes. We did patch the one tube, but we learned earlier in the trip that patches sometimes come lose and then it’s unpatchable. Then there was the clutch lever issue. I’ve already used the spare lever for the Dakars and if we break another clutch lever in technical terrain, we are stuffed. Lastly was the 990’s rear tyre. It was moer toe. On normal gravel roads that isn’t a problem, but where we wanted to go and because of the distance we still had to travel to Windhoek, a good tyre was necessary. So, during our Tafel infused brainstorming session, we decided to head straight down through Opuwa, Sesfontein, down to Palmwag. We were going to skip Kaokoland completely. And this was rather disappointing.
Later that afternoon we jumped on the bikes and went to see Epupa Falls. Well, I did at least. My two lazy ass buddies didn’t want to walk that far and stayed at the cliffs of the main falls. I didn’t ride all the way to the most northern tip of Namibia, all the way to Epupa Falls, and not see the falls. Come on! I walked round to where you could properly see the falls and it was worth it!
Having a quick lunch and a beer before we go to the falls. They don't seem very excited though.
Only half of me went to lunch.
Epupa Falls:
My crazy brother on the edge of the cliff.
After we went back to the camp site it was time for another luxury dinner consisting of bullybeef and sweetcorn. Again. We didn’t have any firelighters with us, so the Bear Grills in all of us came out and we made plan. After lots of huffing and puffing and sending smoke signals to the people in Siberia, we finally had a fire going.
I had brought along 3 hip flasks filled with Chivas, and that night under the full moon, we sat around the fire, on the banks of the Kunene River, enjoying a good old whiskey. Life was good.
Topic: 3 Idiots take on Nam! (Read 11536 times)
