Windhoek - Otjiwarongo

Saturday 25 april: The group is gathered, the gear is loaded and off they went on their "bikes" this morning on the 250 km stretch between Windhoek to Otjiwarongo. Good hard road to ride over the savann. Beautiful! Bram sent a text upon arrival in Otjiwarongo after settling in at their campsite, fully enjoying good company and a barbecue! Sounds terrible, doesn't it?
Otjiwarongo is a small prosperous and green town with approx 12000 inhabitants, living mainly out of cattle breeding enterprising. The soil in this area is rich due to heavy rainfall and therefore suitable for farming business. The town offers a few attractions such as:

An old steam engine No. 41, built in 1912 by the Henschel company in Kassel, Germany. It used to run on the railway line from Swakopmund to Otavi;
A crocodile farm where you can study and photograph them at close range and learn about their breeding; and a..... beer garden! (wonder if they visited ???)

But after all, the motorbike drive is not about towns and beer, but to experience the nature and wildlife of this beautiful country. And outside Otjowarongo you find some of Namibia's most reputable private game farms and reserves, the Okonjati wildlife sanctuary at Mount Etjo. Here, you can watch elephants, rhinos, giraffes, lions and others animals. You will also find one of Namibia's national monuments: 160 million year old footprints from a three-toed dinosour, left in the red sandstone at a time it was soft clay. A short bike ride will take them to Etjo tomorrow, where they're on for a game ride!

At home, things were busy busy until the very last minute yesterday when the guests arrived in their houses. But me and the kids worked hard all day, oiling the last garden furniture, making up the beds in one of the houses, cleaned out and sorted everything in the garage, finished the cleaning of and around the pool, putting out the last tables and chairs etc. The place looks picco bello! The sun shined, the birds sang and three happy dutch families settled into their new homes for the coming week. The kids are all in the range of 10-14 years old, so it wasn't for long and they were all out having a badminton tournament, including Alex, Gab and Ben. Happy days are here to stay.... Stay tuned!

Windy corner

Hi - A safe and smooth drive through France and Belgium and Bram finally arrived in a crowded and traffic jammed Holland. The last few kilometers through Naarden took him an hour to get through! They've turned the whole place upside down... so that MORE traffic can come through. We're too used to the quiet life of southern France... Holland's just crazy! Anyhow, Bram drove straight home to Hella and Pim, since little Guusje was celebrating her birthday and having a party. Tons of kiddos, tons of snacks, tons of chatter.. it was fun, but enough is enough and Pim was very kind to drive Bram to Arno's apartment in A'dam. A long day finally came to an end and Bram tucked himself in early.

Next morning the boys packed up and off the went to Schiphol and their departure to Johannesburg with a direct KLM flight. Around midnight last night Bram sent a text they'd arrived safe and sound. Another SMS dropped in around midday today, confirming that all is well and that they've now arrived at their final destination, Windhoek in Namibia. Johannesburg/south africa has the same time zone as Paris but Windhoek is an hour behind, like London. Nice to be able to travel so far and not suffer from any jetlag!

Hopefully i'll have some more news in the coming days. I guess it all depends on how often and how far out they camp in the bush! We'll find out...

I had a long long day today, getting everything in place for our official season start tomorrow of our rental houses. I still have quite a few items on my list for tomorrow, but I feel confident now that I'll be able to meet the deadline. Yesterday though, I did not feel so confident... Shitting in my pants from stress (not literally though!), feeling absolutely shit by pollen allergy and being on my own with the kiddos for the coming 5 weeks, I ended up having a bit of a blues :-(

But good news today from Seb in Sweden with Bo and Anette visiting Uppsala and its University, checking out student accomodation, cheered me up, plus got heaps of stuff done and also had a good night of sleep. So good old Jen is back in business, so stay tuned for more news! Jacky di Jack, don't look back..

Love you all,

xx Jen

And for Pim who today celebrates his 40th birthday we say: HAPPY BIRTHDAY !! Sorry I had to stay home looking after the kids instead of partying with you... Let's just say I'll be there on your 50th!

On his way

It's 3:45 in the morning and I've just kissed Bram goodbye. He drives north to Holland with his car and will spend the afternoon and evening with family, celebrating Guusje's birthday today, before flying off to Windhoek in Namibië thursday morning.

Everything is packed, that is the stuff we could put together from home. The missing parts, such as the motorbike clothing, helmet, boots etc... are provided for by Arno.

Here's a description of the trip, provided by Arno in his own words:

"Er gaat een wensje in vervulling. Twee weken geleden nog 3 afleveringen van mijn vorige motorreis ingeleverd bij de redactie van Motor Magazine. En nu, na een toevallige ontmoeting op de motorbeurs in Utrecht mag ik mee naar Namibië om een nieuwe reisroute uit te zetten en een artikel te schrijven. En daarmee kan ik weer een land wegstrepen van mijn reiswenslijst. Deze keer geen solorit maar met een groep ervaren rijders. Bram Mul, een vriend die ik afgelopen zomer nog op de motor heb opgezocht in Zuid Frankrijk gaat ook mee."

"A wish comes true. Two weeks ago I delivered another three parts of the story from my last motor trip, to the Motor Magazine redaction. And now, after a coincidently running into some people on the Motorbike exhibition in Utrecht, I've been invited to go to Namibia, staking out a new travel route and writing a new article. With this trip I can remove another country from my travel wishlist. This time no solo-ride, but with a group of experienced riders. Bram Mul, a friend that I visited on my last motorbike trip in southern France, is also joining me."

The Itinerary:

23 april Flight Amsterdam – Johannesburg 10:30 – 21:25 KLM nonstop
24 april Flight Johannesburg – Windhoek 09:40 – 10:40
25 april Windhoek – Otjiwarongo
26 april Otjiwarongo – Okaukuejo early arrival gamedrive Etosha
27 april Okaukuejo – Kamanjab
28 april Kamanjab – Swartbooisdrift
29 april Swartbooisdrift – Epupa Himbatour, waterfall, hike
30 april Stay Epupa
1 mei Epupa – Sesfontein
2 mei Sesfontein – Twijfelfontein
3 mei Twijfelfontein – Uis
4 mei Uis – Swakopmund
5 mei Stay Swakopmund
6 mei Swakopmund – Windhoek
7 mei reserve
8 mei Flight Windhoek – Johannesburg 19:15 – 22:15

8 mei Flight Johannesburg – Amsterdam 23:30 – 10:40 (9 mei) KLM nonstop

Have a safe trip! We'll miss you. Love you.

xx Jenny

Easter surprise!

Two days ago the phone rang. Arno, our dear friend from Holland, calling. On a new mission.. More freelance work for a motorbike magazine writing an article about stipping out a new route in a very exciting country. With live coverage from a motorbiker's point of view... 2 weeks on dusty tracks in one of Africas most beautiful countries. Namibia. And he could use a partner too. Ok... you see where this is heading?? Verrrrrrrry tempting. Very very VERY tempting. For Bram, not me... hahaha. My sister already does the family job on that continent.

Timing of the trip is perfect, leaving on 23 april coming back on May 9. Enough time to get stuff ready at home, reasonably quiet with not so many guests at this time of the year, Bram's parents due to come down in that period... that is all ideal. But.... moneywise it stinks. We have just enough to meet the ends until the season heats up later in May, but not enough to cover the trip, even if it's extremely low budget (only flight ticket and motorbike rental/gazolin). Rest is just some pocket money.

So we've gave it a lot of thought, on one hand an opportunity you just don't want to miss. Bram's mentality is to grab them as they come!! On the other hand, it doesn't feel good to spend money you actually don't have. That's also his mentality! So we, or rather he... ended up deciding not to go this morning. Just didn't feel right.

Then another phonecall. Rob, our dear friend from Spain (however he's dutch, he's also Bram's nephew and he's also a plasterer. A very good one. Like Bram ;-) And he had a top job offer to make. Had been offered two seriously big plaster jobs in Holland with serious deadlines and money and needs a good team to make it. Would Bram be interested??? Isn't it strange that this phonecall takes place today? And that the job is scheduled for May, just as Bram would get off a certain return flight from Namibia?

So we, or rather he... ended up changing the decision from a no to a yes. But of course after consulting with me, if I'd be OK with this, after all he'd be off to Namibia first for two weeks and then for sure another 2+ weeks staying in Holland for the big job. But I'm OK with it. I think it is such a fantastic adventure and opportunity. And there's a good job paying for it, plus it brings in some extra money too at home, which we can use. So it made sense. I'm excited!

And I just might get another extra hand by my friend Ulla, who's lost her job in Sweden, for a week after Bram's parents have returned to Holland too. That would be great and so much fun!

So time will fly... so will Bram. Everyones happy. And more adventures to post on this blog, however not mountains this time. At least not to be climbed by foot, but perhaps by motorbike. Amsterdam - Johannesburg - Windhoek... here they come. Stay tuned....