Car disasters


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Africa » Namibia
September 14th 2006
Published: October 4th 2006
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It took me about 4 hours to reach Swakopmund. When I arrived I headed straight to the backpackers and put up my tent. It was pretty chilly. I then went for a stroll around the town. I'd been planning on leaving the next day but to be honest I just couldn't be bothered. Swakopmund was pretty pleasant and there was good food to be had - good enough reasons for me to stay another day. When I did leave, I headed for Spitzkoppe. The drive was not anywhere near as bad as I'd thought it would be, despite the fact that none of the roads were surfaced. I got to Spitzkoppe earlier than expected and had plenty of time to explore the interesting rock formations and the bushman paintings. It was all going a bit too well and something had to go wrong. I was looking for a suitable campsite when I got stuck in the sand. Not having much experience of cars I had absolutely no idea about what to do. I vaguely remembered having heard that you had to put something firm under the wheel. While there were no planks of wood or anything around there was a bin with an empty cardboard box in it. I flattened the box and put it under the front wheel, which was deepest in the sand and I started the engine. Needless to say this was a complete waste of time. The cardboard box was chewed up by the wheel, there was an awful smell, and it was even deeper in the sand than I had been before my disastrous attempt to get out. I then tried to dig myself out, but this too was a complete waste of time. I decided to go and get help. I had been sitting by the main gate until a helper would come from 2 kilometers far from the nearest village when a French guy in an absolutely tiny car pulled up and offered to help. It soon became clear that he wasn't going to be much help at all and I politely informed him that help was on it's way, despite the fact that I wasn't at all sure that that was actually the case. I eventually returned with a German guy who had a four wheel drive. He pulled me out and also told me where the best German bakeries in Namibia were. He was a keen traveller while he was in Sri Lanka. I was so happy to meet someone has been to my country. The next morning I left early. I was driving to the Brandberg. I had driven almost the entire way when I came upon a very wide, sandy river bed. Having already been stuck in the sand once I didn't want to repeat the experience. I spent a while looking for some harder ground but there wasn't any so I drove back to the last junction I had passed ( about an hour before) and took another road north. Unfortunately I still ended up having to cross the sandy river bed, just at a different place. This time there was no alternative route, so I closed my eyes as I sped across the sand. I could feel the car going out of control but despite this I made it safely to the other side all the same. The area around the Brandberg was beautiful and the bushman paintings were very impressive, especially the famous 'White Lady'. The next morning I left the Brandberg at sunrise and headed west towards the Skeleton Coast Park. At the entrance to the park, the official on duty asked me whether I could give his wife and their baby a lift to their village on the other side of the park. I couldn't really say no, so I agreed to give them a lift. I ended up transporting his wife, her two children and their numerous pieces of luggage. Thankfully the children were relatively well behaved. As I drove through the vast emptiness of the park I saw shipwrecks and saltpans. I'd never been anywhere so gloomy before. About 75 kms before Springbokwater (the other gate) I got a puncture. I'd never had to deal with one of these either so it took me about two hours to change the wheel. The most of the time I was actually looking for the spare wheel which was underneath the car. It was not funny at all. The most irritating thing was that two elderly South Africans just drove past me grinning, while I was struggling with the spare tyre. You can imagine how overjoyed Iwas when I drove past them just 5kms up the road - they were trying to change their wheel. I grinned and waved at them as I drove by - I just couldn't help it. I dropped my passengers off at their village and then continued along the road to Twyfelfontein. By the time I got there it was too late to see the rock paintings so I just put up my tent and chilled out instead. I headed to the rock paintings the next morning, completely oblivious to the fact that the clocks had gone forward. When I realised that it was an hour later than I had thought, I had to rush as I had to get to my camp inside Etosha National Park before sunset. After briefly looking at the rock paintings and engravings I headed for Etosha. I had no spare and as it was a Sunday no hope of getting one so I had to drive fairly cautiously on the gravel roads. Thankfully the last 200kms were tarred and I made it to Etosha without incident. I were then able to get the guy at the petrol station at the camp to repair the punctured tyre. I had been in the park for less than an hour when I saw a herd of elephants and several giraffes drinking at one of the waterholes. It was amazing. I spent two days in the park and during that time Isaw zebras, giraffes, elephants, rhinos, wildebeest, hyenas, impala, kudu, ostriches, jackals, hartebeest, lions and a leopard. What a place! It was probably the highlight of my trip. After Etosha I spent a night in Windhoek before heading to Sossusvlei. The sand dunes there were absolutely huge and pretty exhausting to climb up as I soon found out. Having visited the dunes I headed back to Windhoek as I had to hand the car back. I'd grown quite attached to it and I wasn't looking forward to having to use public transport again. I wanted to visit Kaokoland, where the Himba people live, but I had been told that it was absolutely impossible unless you had a 4WD. I discussed it with a local guy for a while and decided that as I had time I might as well try and get there. If I failed I wouldn't have lost anything. I ended up taking a minibus to a place called Oshikate from where, I was told, I would be able to get some form of transport to Opuwo ( the capital of Kaokoland). Unfortunately it was late by the time I got to Oshikate and the only hotel cost £80 per night - a bit out of my price range. A local guy said he'd help me out, and took me to a place that was a lot cheaper. It wasn't great - in fact it was almost certainly a house of ill repute (a brothel), but I only had to stay there for a night and I survived. In the morning I headed to the Spar and was surrounded by people offering me lifts to Opuwo. I got into a 4WD that claimed to be leaving soon and made myself comfortable. Of course soon turned out to be 3 hours and an extra 7 passengers later. When I arrived in Opuwo the first thing that I noticed was the Himba people wandering around dressed in nothing but goat skins. In contrast there were also Herero women wandering around wearing the Victorian style dresses that they have worn, since the first German missionaries came to the area. I found somewhere to stay after traipsing around the town in the scorching heat for about half an hour. The Epupa Falls Guesthouse was locally run and I was the only guests. The young guys who were running the place told me that they didn't get many foreign guests. I pitched my tent and then headed out to explore the town. I soon stumbled upon the Kaoko Info Centre, a privately run enterprise, which organised trips to the Himba villages in the area. I asked the two guys who owned the place how often they had clients. They told me that someone had passed through a couple of weeks before. I told them that I didn't have a vehicle but that I would like to see a Himba village. Fpr a very reasonable sum they organised a vehicle for me and the next day I visited a Himba village. Because there are relatively view tourists and many Himba villages the same villages are not visited over and over again. This makes the experience much more interesting. I spent most of the day in the village chatting to the Himba via my translator. They were particularly interested in me as they had never seen anyone who looked like me before. They loved the fact that my hair is both straight and black. The Himba told me about their customs - they never wash, they just cover their skin in ochre mixed with butter to create the reddish colour. They also practice polygamy and one of the old men was trying to get me to take his wife. The women all found this highly amusing. The next day I got a lift to Oshikate with the owner of the guesthouse. I then took a minibus to Rundu. On the way I saw a horrific accident. A minibus was lying turned over by the side of the road and there were a number of dead people. It was very disturbing. I reached Rundu late and so I didn't do much exploring. The next morning I got into a vehicle that was heading to Katima Mulilo. 7 hours later I left Rundu. There was a French guy in the front of the 4WD who kept telling me how wonderful Somalia and Sudan are to travel around. I was only going as far as Divundu. From there I planned to go to Mohembo, where I would cross into Botswana. As it turned out there was no public transport on this route. I got a lift in a pick up that was being driven by a Namibian soldier. It wasn't long before I got stuck in the sand. This time however, there were some local women in the back of the pick up. They got me out in a couple of minutes. I spent the night at Ngepi camp, on the banks of the Okovango river. I was sleepless and vigilant during the chilly nights because I could hear the sounds of Hippos. I left there early the next morning and got a lift to the border with one of the guys working at the camp.


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18th April 2007

WOW
Pictures are really good!!

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