Out of Africa

May 4 - After a relaxing stay in Swakopmund with runs on the beach more good food (lot's of meat on the barbie) and cold beers, it's time for another long stretch on the motor of approx 230 kms to Solitaire. The name says it all... it's a lonely place! But the landscape is amazing... and the the apple pie served in the local general store is world famous... haha , funny the things you pick up when doing your research! Anyhow, you better stop here, cause it has the one and only gasoline pump on the way down to Windhoek... It's a common tourist stop-over, with a some main road junctions coming together; there's also a gravel airstrip for tourist flight and self flyers. Werner who's been their local guide and organiser of the trip offered the boys a "flight on the house", since they've been helping out all along the trip with cooking and cleaning. An amazing 1 hr flight over the local landscape and the moving red sand dunes.. absolutely stunning!

Werner Schulz, is a veteran motorbike trip organiser and has his own business in Namibia http://www.africamotiontours.com/ Hans, who's organising and selling motorbike trips all over the world from Holland, is adding Namibia to their list of destinations and this was the stipping out of this trip. Werner will be his local contact for renting of motorbikes, guiding etc. They're both pretty cool dudes... Werner looks like Indiana Jones and his lifestyle is kind of similar ;-)

May 5 - From Solitaire to Sossusvlei , the sand dunes often referred to as the highest in the world. Various arguments are laid out to support this claim, but all miss the point, which is that Sossusvlei is surely one of the most spectacular sights in Namibia. Located in the Namib Naukluft park, the largest conservation area in Africa, and fourth largest in the world - the sand dunes are just one excellent reason to visit beautiful country. The best time to view Sossusvlei is close to sunrise and sunset; the colours are strong and constantly changing, allowing for wonderful photographs. The sand is amazing and feels and forms just like snow! Reason enough for climbing a high dune and to take 5m long jumps all the way down. Fantastic and fun!

May 6 - Last stretch, and quite a long one too, the last + 200 kms down to Windhoek. The trip is coming closer to the end and it's been just amazing. Every day a new adventure, new sights and new landscapes. A land so full of variety, so beautiful and friendly. Full of opportunities. Land is cheap but the already existing tourism industry quite expensive. Lodging, park fees and sightseeing is quite costly but food and gasoline quite cheap.

Upon arrival in Windhoek we return our well served motorbikes and gear and check into the hotel. We spend the last day by relaxing at the pool but Werner takes the boys for a ride in his truck - on the roof and on the front of his car through town, with the local population cheering at the roadside. Dangerous... but fun. In the pool Arno realises he might have made a serious mistake... the return trip scheduled for 8th of May turns out to be the 7th on his flight ticket. Trouble indeed. The first flight from Windhoek to Johannesburg was not too bad, for a 125 dollars he could get a new one way ticket. But in Johannesburg... short transfer time, not enough for Arno who had to pick up his luggage and check in again. Plus the flight was full. What a hazzle and expensive too. I believe he finally got on some Egypt air flight via Cairo (long stop-over...) to Amsterdam for another 500 dollars. Poor Arno. The other guys, Bram, Peter, Hans and a 4th name I cannot remember got on their KLM flight and landed this morning safe and sound at Schiphol. So I had a very happy Bram on the phone already at lunch!!!! It was, impression wise, his best trip ever. Stay tuned...

Beachboys

Today is restday, beach and relax in Swapkopmund. Swapkopmund is a town along the atlantique Namibian coast, with approx 35000 habitants and was constructed in the end of the 19th century by german colonists for their shipping. It's the most german spoken (and also afrikaans) town, has a considerable german population (still) and is said to be the "whitest town" in whole Africa! Amazing architecture with wooden houses in pastelle colours, situated at the sea with a beautiful coastline with the famous red sand dunes... looks very inviting for swimming but is actually not a friendly place at all! The place has particularly cold water and... seriously shark infested!! Swapkopmund is quite rich, especially since the find of Uranium which now is being mined, but also from its beautiful tourist resorts. For you who reads the gossip lines probably know that Brad and Angelinas daughter was born here... That was totally irrelevant and I couldn't care less... but it made big headlines at the time!

Arno has read the blog, and there are some changes to the names of the places visited since the route has changed as they've been going, but all for the better though! I believe they're kind of ahead of schedule and travelled from Epupa to Uis, leaving one or two places behind. I'll fill in the details when I get more information!

Uis is a small town, in the middle of nowhere, next to the highest mountain ridge of Namibia, the Brandberg, standing 2573m high, hosting "the white lady" rock painting, believed to be 20000 years old. It's kind of a "Ayers rock" standing by itself, burning red in the sunset... I wonder if Bram climbed it?

Anyhow, time to enjoy our own place, great weather today, it's sunday and last day of the springbreak, think I'm going to get my book and hit a sunchair at the poolside! Sounds like a good plan to me... stay tuned!

Himbas and zimbas

Happy 1st may - a vacation day for many of us. But yesterday's memories of the crazy guy driving his car into a Dutch queen's day crowd overshadows the celebration. Horrible images, so many dead and wounded. What goes on in a man's mind, you might wonder... Well, we might never find out, the driver died this morning. A day that should have been full of happiness turned out very sad. Queen's day 'koninginnedag" has already a special place in my heart.. it's been 23 years since I met Bram on that special day. Can you imagine 2 3 Y E A R S !!! Time flies... it really does. This year I celebrated on my own but accompanied by great guests in our 3 houses who had dinner here last night. Good fun, good talk! And good food and drink too.. And much too late!

Bram's leaving Epupa this morning if they're still on track. I have a few days to catch up on, let's start byt telling you I was wrong about the place they were going to, it was not to Etjo but to Etosha they were leaving from Otjiwarongo. Etosha is a huge nature reserve (+22,000 km2) 400 km north of Windhoek. Only a third of it is open for the public, all around the dry salt lake Etosha Pan, that fills up with water in the rainy season. Due to the water, it accomodates an enourmous variety of wild life, among them thousands of birds, especially the pink flamingos, but also more than 100 different species of mammipheres and another 100 species of reptiles.

The gamedrive scheduled in Etosha was spectacular, so beautiful, so much wild life. Unfortunately no elephant and lion to be seen this day among the big 5... Hopefully they'll run into them (not with their bikes though!) another day! From Etosha they drove on to Epupa at the Kunene river, land of the ethnic and nomadic group "Himbas". It's one of the few still living tribes who's maintained their traditional way of living, due to the desert and harsh land surrounding them, which has protected them from the outside world until the 20th century. The himba females are famous for their "reddish skin" which is created by a mix of red clay, to protect them from the sun and insectes. They also braid their hair in beautiful creations adding in the red clay. Such an intriguing population, of course in danger from the growing tourism and the modern lifestyle on their doorstep. Read more about them on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himba Bram said it was so humbling to meet them, they're so kind, great hospitality. Fantastic.

In Epupa, the next visit on the agenda went to the Epupa falls which lie on the Kunene river, on the border of Angola and Namibia. The river is 0.5 km wide and drops in a series of wateralls spread over 1.5 km, with the greatest single drop being 37 m. Stunning!! And as an extra bonus.... finally the elephants! Awesome. I can just only imagine what they're experinceing by trying to convey the short messages I get on my phone once (sometimes twice) a day on my mobile phone. Luckily you have internet... so that I can do my own research and add more meet to the story. I really enjoy doing it, you learn so much!!

Time to take Gabriella to horseriding, she does an afternoon course everyday this week, to prepare for her exam to go up one level to diploma Galop 4. She does just great... Stay tuned, love you all, xx Jen