2011 April » 2Taylors

Spitzkoppe

Posted by Elizabeth at 11:53 am

Apr 252011

The owner at Sophia Dale let us use their internet connection before we left without charging us for it, which was really nice of him and allowed me to get some posts up to date.

We had an easy drive to Spitzkoppe where we camped last night and again tonight. The camp is community run and the sites are scattered throughout the area in between the huge rocks. We are staying at site 9 which is sheltered from the wind and has a reasonably level spot to park the car so we aren’t sliding out of bed.

Last night we had our first bush shower as there are no amenities unless you want to drive a couple of kilometres back to the gate. It was pretty luxurious really as we have a hot water unit with a shower handle attached to it, and whilst we have to be quick to save water, it definitely makes you feel much cleaner.

Last night whilst we were eating dinner we had a Spotted Genet walk about 3 metres from where we were sitting. It is only small like a cat, but neither of us had seen one before so it was pretty cool. There are also lots of colourful lizards running around on the rocks.

The rocks around the area are large and red and quite scenic. It is popular with climbers as there are some vertical rock faces for them.

Today we are having a rest day at Spitzkoppe, allowing us to catch up on some washing, clean out the car and let it dry out (I think the tap for the water tank got opened a little whilst we were driving over some really rough roads the other day and the carpet is now quite wet and makes the whole car stink).

We will head off to the Skeleton Coast tomorrow.

Wayne’s Words

Posted by Wayne at 12:20 pm

Apr 252011

Three weeks already !!

Thought it was about time I bored you all with some of my thoughts.

Firstly the drive – a 2010 model 70’s series (farmers version) Toyota Landcruiser 5 door station wagon, gold in colour or at least it was when we left, more dirt then paint now. No V8 twin turbo charged diesel engine though like it would be back home, it’s the old 4.2 litre non turbo 1HZ motor, lets just say hills are not its best friend.

We have driven approx 5399.34 kilometres so far and no major issues with the car (the car overheating is not a issue at all) though the second battery does appear to be too heavy for where it is mounted, as its supporting bracket has cracked in under the front guard, we will have to keep an eye on that.

I almost forgot we managed to pick up a chipped windscreen, not as you would expect a rock from a passing truck or by following the vehicle in front to closely, no it was from a bloody springbok running on the road in front of us, throwing up a stone.

Lesotho

Well worth the drive, very picturesque (Michael that means good to look at). The roads are as to be expected more like tracks but that makes it more fun to drive, Surprise Surprise, black people everywhere, I don’t think there are too many white Lesothian’s. We got stopped twice by the police in 200 metres, they were doing a licence check but I could have just kept driving as they were only on foot. The second policeman even admitted he did not know what he was looking at when I showed him my international licence, almost worth the effort.

The Sani pass was an interesting drive, it would have been more fun driving up rather than down, not sure the RAV4 would have made it though Larry.

South Africa

They call it the garden route and it is not much more exciting than gardening, Addo Elephant reserve aside, as it was quite good though a little too zoo like. Ok admittedly we did not go via the wine route which may have made it more interesting for some. The Cape of Good Hope was worth the visit, a nice view from the top, I would have walked up but Elizabeth did not want to do it (if you believe that you are sillier then I thought).

Cape Town itself seems a nice enough city with Table Mountain and all, though I don’t think it is good enough to be one of the New Seven Wonders of the World like they are hoping it to be.

Cedarberg was another picturesque place and we could have easily chilled here for a couple of days, but we were both keen to get away from the civilised life style we had been living so chose to push on. We had Pete from Pete’s B&B assure us that the easterly was not going to blow, then had the pleasure of trying to sleep while the wind tried to blow us and our car off the mountain we were on.

As for South Africa’s roads, I have never seen so many road works in all my life, and they just don’t work on 1 or 2 kms of road at a time, it is more like 10 or 20 kms. There are also a lot of hills, which the poor car was struggling to cope with. The white lines on the road mean nothing at all to anyone, including the police as they overtook me using the left turn lane of the traffic coming the other way. It does not take long though to get in the swing of driving like an African.

Namibia

How could I sum up Namibia in one word ? Barren or desolate would spring to mind, you should know me better than to think I would only say one word.

The dunes at Sesriem were really good and well worth the effort to climb, though the early start was a bit rude.

If you have read Elizabeth’s posts about Walvisbaii and Swakopmund, she is not exaggerating at all. Driving towards Walvisbaii at around 15:00 you would swear blind that the you were driving towards the windy end of the world. Interesting to visit but why anyone would consider living there is beyond me.

The roads are mainly gravel, but the Namibians make a better dirt road then the most of the Australian highways and definitely smoother to drive on than their own tarred roads. I think to make corners must be to expensive, I have never seen so many or such long straight roads anywhere.

As we are heading back to the coast tomorrow, and its called the Skeleton coast it will be interesting to see what that part of Namibia is like.

Skeleton Coast

Posted by Elizabeth at 4:16 pm

Apr 262011

We left Spitzkoppe reasonably early and headed back towards the coast. What a surprise, but 80km from the coast we hit the inevitable thick grey mist again! At least today we only got stuck in it whilst we were inland and our drive up the coast was not completely invisible. We thought the landscape could not get any more barren, desolate and inhospitable than what we had encountered near Swakopmund, yet most of today we travelled up the Skeleton Coast which was even worse.

We stopped off at the Cape Cross Seal Reserve. It is estimated there are 100,000 seals here (yes 100,000!) and it smells like it. (Girls, imagine the worst smelling market we have visited and multiply it by about 1000 and that is how bad it smelt). It was definitely mouth breathing only and even then I nearly threw up a couple of times it was that foul. The smell aside though, it was a pretty awesome sight seeing so many seals crammed together in the ocean and on the beach. There were also some pups around feeding from their mothers.

We drove along the Skeleton Coast, passing salt pans and a couple of shipwrecks and some abandoned mining gear. There were no animals or grass to be seen and the only humans were the few tourists. Early on we came across a bogged vehicle but they managed to get out just as we walked up, and we managed to get through just fine.

About 40km from the coast we exited the Skeleton Coast Park and suddenly the landscape changed. There was grass and trees and hills and animals again! We saw more Springbok as we headed towards Twyfelfontein where we stayed the night at Mowani Mountain Camp. They cater mainly for lodge guests, but have 3 campsites, each with their own long drop toilet and cold outside shower (we opted to use our own so it was hot!), washing up facilities, water and are quite separate from each other. It was great value at only $N100 ($14).

Twyfelfontein

Posted by Elizabeth at 4:36 pm

Apr 272011

Today we visited the rock engravings at Twyfelfontein, the Petrified Forest, Burnt Mountain and the Organ Pipes. The rock engravings were really interesting. They believe they are between 2000 and 6000 years old and were done by the San Bushmen as a means of communicating to other tribes. The engravings are all of animals and their footprints rather than people. There engravings of seals and penguins which means the San people must have travelled inland from the coast which is over 100km away.

Burnt Mountain looks to me just like a heap of gravel rubbish dumped beside the road from roadworks, but I guess everyone sees things differently.

The Organ Pipes are a bit of an oddity. They are rocks that have formed into tall, split pieces of rocks that resemble organ pipes.

The Petrified Forest was simple, but to see the trees was pretty cool. They still look like fallen trees, bark and all, yet they have turned into stone. They apparently travelled here from central Africa during floods. The guide here was pretty unenthusiastic, unlike our guide at the rock engravings unfortunately as I am sure we could have learnt a bit more about the place, but it was worth a look.

We left the area and headed towards Palmwag where we got our first puncture about 20 minutes from where we were staying. No big deal and easily fixed, but annoying to have to get the jack off the roof and change the tyre. We were lucky though that it happened on a nice flat piece of road and that we realised earlier that we didn’t have a wheel brace with us and bought one. The hi-lift jack though decided that it didn’t want to go down so we had to kick it out of place (not so good).

We stayed the night at the Palmwag Lodge camp. The camp is quite expensive compared to other places, although we did get a site to ourselves with our own shower and toilet. I do not think though it is worth the money unless you need somewhere where you can eat in the restaurant.

To Opuwo

Posted by Elizabeth at 5:14 pm

Apr 282011

We left Palmwag this morning and headed north to Opuwo, our last chance to fuel up and stock up on food and water for our trip north over the next 5 or so days. On the way we saw our first giraffes of the trip (my favourite animals), some squirrels and some zebras in the distance. We crossed heaps of riverbeds, both with and without water in them, but none had more than 20-30cm of water in them.

Opuwo is a strange place. Walking through town you have people who have adopted western dress walking down the street with people in traditional Herero dress, which is like stepping back to Victorian times in their long full gowns and headwear. There are also traditional Himbas in their animal skirts and bare breasted.