Into the Namib Desert (Luderiz to Walvis Bay)

After some 1300kms drive from Cape Town we arrived at the Border between South Africa and Namibia (Noordoewer). A short interlude and we are through the Border controls. Namibian soil, we drive the B1 until the turnoff to the campsites on the Orange River (Gariep River). A goodnights rest and we start off early the next morning. The road is like a switch Back but we follow the D212. This lovely dirt road follows the Fish River through the Ai-Ais national Park eventually bring us to Rosh Pinah famous for its zinc deposits and mines. From Rosh Pinah a tarmac road C13 takes to Aus and then to Luderitz where we refuelled and meet the rest of the travellers and slept in a comfortable bed. The garage supplying Diesel does not accept credit cards! we have just enough spare cash. At this point I should point out that the desert trip is about 750Kms but we will need 250litres of diesel for the Land Rover, deep sand driving!!!! We set off in a convey passing Kolmanskop a faded German Settlement now a national monument. We enter the first part of the desert the gravel road corrugations nearly shake us to bits. Time to let the tire pressure down 0.8 bar from here on in it will be five days of nothing but sand,dunes, shipwreaks, and ruins of long forgotten diamond settlements. The desert is magnificent and we are beginging to get experience of dune driving.Little one at first,no indication of what was to come. Camping in the Namib is a whole experince in itself. We pass places with names like Daggere Rocks, Danger Point,Skeleton Bay, Black Cliffs. We see superberb beaches at Sylvia Hill and Saint Francis Bay, Meob Bay. All this time driving through the Namib Naukluft National Park. After two days we arrive at Conception Bay. The Sahara might be bigger and the Gobi more desolate but the Namib is the oldest. The mother of all deserts and this old lady knows how to make you sweat. The experience Up,up,up over the top,down down, down through the dip, over, get stuck, around, give it stick! through, oopss! @#$%, reverse, try another angle. The abscence of tracks in the sand is quite nerve racking at times. Camp day 3 just ouside Charlottenfelder on the edge of wetlands. Next morning we follow the normal routine rise before sunrise stretch out, coffee and rusks, chat about the stares at night, wash your face in half a cup of water pack your things securely away in the Land Rover and check your two way radio. Lunch is a quick sandwich. Late afternoon you stop at a camp site among the dunes. Later on when the communal fire provides the only light and heat in a 300km radius you migrate there to eat,chat or just think. However at Charlottenfelder and Holsazia we have a chance to walk around the ghost towns that were once mining towns, as women were not allowed there the only form of rectreation was drinking as the weathered bottles on the windswept rubbish dump prove. We are still heading north and we pass what is probable the most photgraphed ship in Namibia the Eduard Bohlen a wreck of 1909 that is now almost a kilometre from the sea. Heading north we past Lange Baken driving along a rather nerve wracking section of beach with the sea on one side and impassable dunes on the right. If you get the tide timetable wrong .............! Our last leg of the Journey takes us past Sandwich Bay saltpans and into the last section of dunes The BIGGEST some of these dunes are so legendry the have been named Lond Drop, Land Rover's Graveyard. The explictives forcoming at the sight of these dunes are something to behold. All to soon we arrive at Walvis Bay. After on overnight stop our return journey takes us past Solitare near Sassusvlei and Dune 45 and onto Keetmanshoop with its quiver tree forest and the Devils Playground. Back to civilizastion!!
As "Drive Out Magazine" states the summary of your experences would be:
The desert is alive, beautiful and dangerous
Its a place where men become Children again (and the playground is big)
Its a matchless adventure among the worlds tallest dunes
The extent of what awaits you is hard to describe
It will change something about your humanity
Even is you only do one 4x4 adventure in your life, make sure this is the one

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