Day 4 – Namibia

Well, we’re into our ummm… fourth day. Seems a LOT longer! It’s been busy: breakfast, pack, shower, drive far, do, unpack, dinner, sleep, repeat. That may sounds a bit tiresome but we are having a really good time. We’ve covered only about 1400 kms but the last couple of days have been on really pretty bad gravel and sand roads. It requires a lot of attention to keep the car on the road and we’ve seen a lot of evidence of some drivers that didn’t do so well. The car is in its element on the rubbish roads, probably more so than on the highways, but the roads are a challenge.

Only two punctures today. The first was a bit of a disaster as the hi-lift jack put a substantial dent into the side of the car and Southern Namibia was regaled with various expletives celebrating my stupidity. The second was a slow one that gave me time to get to a garage and pay N$50 ($8) for someone else to repair it. Given the choice of changing tires in 44C heat or paying someone else to do it, there’s really no choice. On today’s performance, we’ll be buying a good many more tires than we had figured upon… the roads are well-dodgy.

We spent yesterday morning at Kolmanskop, an old diamond mining town that was deserted in the 1950s. Now the dunes are drifting over the buildings and into open windows and doors. Amazing place… We overnighted at Duwisib Castle, this bizarre little Bavarian castle built by Baron Von Something in the 1910s. The poor sod imported artisans from all over the world to build this thing in the middle of nowhere, finished it and then was killed in the battle of the Somme in 1914, two weeks into the First World War. Clearly the whole thing was his idea as his wife immediately high-tailed it back to Germany upon his death never to return, leaving her imported thoroughbred horses to roam wild – their descendants still inhabit the areas around. So now the Nambian government own it – we stayed in the camp adjoining the castle.

Namibia is stunningly beautiful so far. I haven’t met many actual Namibians – they appear to be pretty spread out – but the few I have met have been nice folk. I’m not convinced that they actually meet each other very much. I’m pretty sure our photos won’t begin to do the place justice – just gorgeous mountains, plains and endless deep blue sky. Every mountain pass leads to a totally different environment. There’s lots of wildlife. We’ve had drag races with springbok and close calls with gemsbok. There are plenty of brown hyena around but fortunately we have yet to meet any.

The camping types seem to be pretty tolerant of us. The first few nights were mayhem with the kids fighting over sporks, roof tent positions and pretty much anything. Then Fiona and I told them that noise attracted hyenas – et voila – blissful silence at bedtime. This hyena-scaremongering backfired a bit when Fiona tried to convince Oliver to take a pee in the bushes before bed: “No mummy, I won’t pull my willy out. Hyenas eat meat.”

We’ve got into a bit of a frantic camping routine (as we’re doing lots of one-night camping stops) which has us operating like a finely-tuned militia getting everything into and onto the car in the mornings and then into place when we arrive in the evenings. We’re all really looking forward to Etosha (a five night stay over Christmas) and then the freedom of no plans… one night stops with 3 kids are hectic, especially when you try to maintain some level of standards (like pyjamas and brushing teeth). I suspect that our standards will eventually drop a little…

We’re still a long way off the standard of those we have come to term the “A-Team”: the Afrikaaner camping crowd. They are usually out of bed 10 minutes after us and all packed up 2 hours before us. They roll into camps in large groups like a menacing Mad Max posse with their spotlights on. They seem to employ telekinesis to erect their tents, use some kind of mind-control to keep their kids under control, the wives are (generally) gorgeous, and they drive terribly organized 4x4s/kits and drink until they drop. We look on in amazement. Awe even. We look like the Beverly Hillbillies. Good on them though, they’re a really good bunch of people and always up for a chat and a laugh.

The kids are adapting to their parents’ undivided 24 hours-a-day attention. The good: attention. The bad: attention. The home schooling idea is not progressing particularly well – we don’t have any time and the podcasts put the driver to sleep. So we’re relying on osmotic forms of education until the South African school holidays are over. Und zen zere vill be some discipline.

Today we arrived at Sossusvlei/Sesriem – famous for its enormous dunes. It was 44C (110F) when we arrived and pretty much everyone told us not to go into the dunes (“you won’t survive it bru, wait for the morning”). So we headed into the massive canyons for a short bit (50C and a blistering sun). We’ll go to the dunes at 6 am tomorrow when the heat is bearable.

I’m still wearing the same shirt. Remarkable. But I’ve been showering every day and washing said shirt… and passing inspection. I still don’t have any underwear which is proving, well, liberating. Maybe I’ll find some in Swakopmund. I’ve lost track of what the kids are wearing. They look passably cleanish.

Look for photos on Facebook. Ciao!