Merry Christmas to all and I hope you are having a great time with your loved ones. Christmas Eve was spent with friends from three countries. 

On Christmas morning I decided to take my motorbike and go on a road trip. All I knew was that I wanted to go towards the Garden route. Two years ago I did a similar trip with my friend Moritz but we did it with the car. I saw how many gravel roads there were and wanted to do it again with my bike. 

I wanted to go over the Breede River at Malgas using the pont. The Malgas ‘pont’ is famous for being the last hand-drawn pont of its kind in the country. Because the Breede is navigable for around 50km inland to Malgas, this was once an important trading port that served the whole area. At Swellendam I hit the gravel road. It’s the first time since Namibia that I’ve been off road again. For most of the trip so far I only saw one other biker. It stayed that way for the rest of the trip with me, occasional sheep and birds being the only beings on the road. 

Last time when we were at Malgas the queue to cross was a bout an hour long. This time I was the only vehicle there for about ten minutes. The pont was halfway across to the other side. I could stretch my legs and take some photos. 

   
Nothing felt hurried on this day. Kids were swimming in the river and the two guys pulling the pontoon seemed to take a leisurely pace as well. There were two cars with me when we crossed. It’s R46 for a car to cross and even less for a bike. 

While I was waiting a farmer that lives on the other side of the Breede River pulled up and we spoke about bikes. He has a BMW1200GS and he gave me tips about the roads to take. Then it was just me and the open road with a great sense of calm. I didn’t even know where I was going to sleep. Probably not that clever seeing it is Christmas weekend and summer holidays in South Africa. But I knew it would work out just fine.  

 Every now and again I would get to a junction with no directions or one of the roads just says private road. With the mountains to my left and the ocean somewhere to the right I just kept on going straight. Somewhere I would cross the N2 again. When I did it was a quick half an hour into Mosselbay. 

I headed towards Diaz Beach and saw the Oceans Hotel. As luck would have it they had a budget room available. After unpacking it was time for a cold beer in the bar. The very friendly proprietors  Leon and Elize offered me a plate of “Boere kos” that was left over from Christmas lunch. That was exactly what I needed. After sunset I went for a walk to Diaz Strand where the full moon rose over the ocean. What a beautiful sight on Christmas Day. 

 
Returning to the bar for a glass of red wine I had the pleasure to listen to stories of the people around me. Not all of them 100% sober by this time, but nonetheless entertaining. For an evening I’m anonymous in a different city. Heading to bed I was very content and as soon as my head hit the pillow I was asleep. 

Let’s see what the rest of the weekend has in store.

We left Lüderitz early enough as we had a lot of kilometres to cover and most of it on gravel roads. About 5km before Aus Christoff pulled off the road saying it was time for coffee. We had nothing with us that morning to make coffee and I suggested we head into Aus, but they said the wanted to wait for the caravan. When the caravan and trailer eventually arrived, I found out Stoof ran out of petrol again. They thought the look on my face was worth not telling me.   

  Apparently Aus was slightly further away than he calculated Stoof could run without a refill. 

At the turn off to Helmeringhausen the scrambler came off the trailer and Hannes was all smiles again. Even Kobus took it for a slight spin up the road and back. The rest of the party left us whilst we got ready. About 5km’s down the road we hit sand which is not my favourite surface to ride. We were travelling at about 90km p/h when my bike started snaking across the sand and I could not pull it straight again. The end result was that I bought a piece of Namibian gravel road, cosmetic damage to my bike, a blue butt and a bruised ego. Thank goodness nothing serious happened. But for a while after that I took it easy and the adrenaline was pumping.  Yet another piece of thick sand where I somewhat ungratefully duck walked the bike through and then the road became better and we could maintain a nice speed.

At some point in the afternoon the scrambler got a flat front wheel and had to be loaded on the trailer. Hannes again rode pillion  with Christoff. We decided to skip Duwiseb castle as it was getting late and took the road to A Little Sossus which was about 90km away. By then it started getting dark and dark in the dessert before the moon rises is dark. (Full moon was a couple of days ago). I asked Christoff to ride my bike and I rode pillion. I never think riding at night is a good idea, but seeing road signs warning of wild antelopes, giraffes, wind and sand in the desert is in my opinion never a good combination. We saw Eland at the side of the road at some point.

We got to A Little Sossus all in one piece and were allocated site 8. What an amazing campsite. It’s like a massive barn with two bathrooms on either side and a kitchen in the middle and open to the front and the veld. We pitched the three tents against both walls and the caravan on the outside. About 100m from the site was a salt licking spot and we had Springbok the first night and small Buffaloes the second night. Living in a city we tend to forget how beautiful the night sky is and the Milky Way was breathtaking. The silence and wide open spaces is what sticks in my head when I think of this country. We had two “donkeys” that are used to heat the water and a warm shower was well deserved.

Kobus had to do another round of vacuuming of the caravan due to the one window not sealing properly and the Namibian dust seeps into every opening. The caravan was covered in a thin layer of dust. This  was the second time he had to do this after Ais Ais. After a great dinner the camp settled down.

The next day we headed to Sossus vlei. As we were not allowed to enter the park with our bikes the three bikers took Kobus’s bakkie whilst the rest went with Ockert in his Landrover Discovery. The 65km’s in the park to Sossus vlei is the only piece of tarred road we’ve seen since leaving Aus. A cold beer and a slow drive made the trip seem shorter. From the end of the tarred road it’s another 5km’s to Sossus vlei and one can only attempt it with a 4×4 vehicle. The sand is thick powder and I was glad I did not have to ride that on my bike. Ockert took the other six first and then returned to fetch us. We walked about 100m down the sandy road and decided it’s a bad idea to walk the 5km’s. Two German girls started walking down the road with two bottles of 350ml water, short sleeves and no hats. On our outward bound trip we found them about 1,5km’s down the road and gave them a lift. It turns out both of them are interns in South Africa doing a trip at the end of their internship through Namibia. I seem to have a knack running into German interns.

     The pictures I’ve seen of Sossus vlei does not do nature justice. Dead trees surrounded by massive dunes on three sides is an amazing sight to behold. Off course the brothers convinced me to climb the highest dune from the most difficult angle. Climbing in loose sand up a massive dunes at midday on a winters day is tougher than one of the WOD’s I’ve had to perform. Dry desert air, 25°C and a dune to conquer. We had enough water and the view from the top was worth it.  

 We met the two German girls on top of the dune and still no hats and a little bit of water. We ran into them at Sesriem later and it was good to see they were ok. On the way back to the parking area we passed at least three vehicle stuck in the sand. A Unimorg was busy doing the rescue so we drive on. At the parking area the gas braai with Christoff as chef served a very late brunch. Somehow the mossies in the tree above us kept on finding Hannes and made their deposits first on his plate and then on his shirt. Somehow the road back to the entrance gate seemed much longer than on the way in. We stopped at Sesriem and walked a bit down the canyon. If one didn’t know about it one would drive right past this little canyon with all the beautiful round river stones.

Back at the camp we did chain maintenance on the bikes and checked that all nuts and bolts were still tight. Then it was another awesome braai and a nice chat round the campfire. The next day we had to hit the road towards Hentiesbaai via Walvisbaai. Another long day lay head of us with a minimum of 200km’s of gravel road. Little did we know what the next day would bring us.

Bis Bald