We left Ai-Ais at 09:15 yesterday morning 01 July. The day before we did 176km on gravel roads and yesterday we did 196km on gravel roads. A record set for me of one continuous day on gravel roads on a motorbike. And not all of it flat gravel roads. We hit areas where it was like riding on corrugated iron with sand thrown in to boot. They were scraping some sections of the road but the last 13km’s to Seeheim was particularly bad. Corrugated iron like they made it in the good old days with “dongas” dotted in between. It was a case of grit your teeth and ken throttle to glide across that. We stopped for breakfast at the Canŷon Road house again where the rest of the group caught up and joined us for coffee. I think the caravan got slightly twisted on the last piece of gravel road before we hit the tar.

The fact that we ride bikes seem to attract attention. Everywhere we go someone has to ask something and tells us a story. I love the cameraderie that is created. At Ai-Ais our neighbours were a South African German family and we keep on running into each other. 

At Aus the NG Nerk had a braai bazaar next to the road where I had the best Eland sosaties ever. The brothers thought I needed convincing to decide between the stoep of the one horse hotel or the road side braai with “skaap tjops, skaap wors; eland sosaties and roosterkoek”. However the braai won the day. 

   The road between Aus and Lüderitz constantly disappears in the distance. It is straight and boring apart from the wild horses about 10km after Aus. After that the bikes just have to eat kilometre after kilometre. At Aus the temperature was 25°C and when we arrived in Lüderitz it was 13°C. With the wind chill it got cold on the bike.

We’re camping on Shark Island and found a spot that is relatively protected from the wind. The first night we had dinner at Ritzies. The next morning it was misty and cold but we had a great camp breakfast before we headed out to Kollmanskuppe. The famous diamond ghost town. We took a guided tour which gave us interesting facts and stories about the German town in the desert. After that we rode to Dias Cross where we had a light lunch.  

   The rest of the afternoon was spent at the campsite. Had a luke warm shower, but to be clean feels great so we grin and bear it. Ockert made a great chicken potjie after which all headed to bed early. The three of us attempted to watch a series on the notebook but we all faded quite fast. I got up during the night to find thick mist had rolled in.

We are hitting the road towards Aus, Helmeringhausen and to camp at A Little Sossus campsite. I will blog again when there is WiFi

Bis Bald