Blogs from Keetmanshoop, Namibia, Africa

Hi All, went out for the day to Fish river canion yesterday,trully impressive, the story goes that the Bushman hunters came across a huge snake and atacked the snake, as the snake escaped it left the canion behind in its bid to get away, well thats what the locals say anyway. Today is maintenance day, checking and repairing, tightening bolts and nuts and soforth. Most of the roads in Nam. are gravel and very dusty and poor old buksietjie is every thing but airtight, we have to travel with the windows open to blow the dust out, need to clean our specs every 3 min. or else cant see a thing, but we are enjoying it any way, planning on leaving monday to Hardup dam near marians dal but will keep you informed. some pics. Cheers ... read more

Heading south in Namibia turns out to be another bewilderingly difficult southern African journey. I want to hit Keetmanshoop in order to then head west to Luderitz, an uber-German town on the Atlantic coast, but the bus leaves Windhoek in the evening hence will arrive in Keetmanshoop just after midnight, and the train arrives there at a more reasonable 5AM but takes twice as long. I opt for the bus. The company is Intercape Mainliner, whose name always puts me in mind of drugs. The bus is a double-decker and pulls a trailer, similar to Intercape vehicles I've seen as afar afield from here as Maputo. The comfort level is decent, aided by the fact that it's only half-full. However it turns out that Intercape has a sinister side that I've never seen mentioned before. The ... read more