The Journey North

*STOP PRESS* The link to the Namibia pictures now works

Our next port of call in Namibia would be the long track through the mountains to the furthest point North that we were to get to in Namibia. We left Etendeka after saying our goodbyes to Denis and Bonnie and took the 90 minute trip back in the landrover (about 18kms) to get our car and hope that the new tyre was on the wheel at the local lodge in Palmwag. The service was perfect, our wheel and tyre waiting already for us, so a quick sort out of the car, stow the wheel, repack the car and away we went on the 220 mile north on tracks we were told were really only suitable for good 4x4s and we had a Kia Sportage, high clearance but only 2 wheel drive. The roads were just dusty tracks with huge greast dips where the roads cross river beds almost all completely dry and the two that had water were only just trickles. It took us 2 hours to do the first 100kms to Sesfontein where we were told there was a filling station we must fill up as petrol was not easy to get hold of in that part of Namibia. The journey continued through the mountains with one steep pass to negotiate. Just before the pass we came to the worst road we had driven on up to that point. The road narrowed at a bend and dropped into a rocky river bed crossing with large boulders and very little of track through. We could not see round the bend so had no idea how far this went on for. It was a case of just engage 1st gear and crawl along bouncing from rock to rock. As it happened it was only about 100metres but it still took probably 10 minutes to get through thinking we would be stuck any moment.
Once through this and up over the steep pass the road got a lot better including lorries and scrapers working on a long section into Opuwo.

Opuwo town has not a lot going for it, just a dusty collection of concrete shacks but outside were many Himba Villages. Jan and I had an afternoon visiting these people. The culture is very different to our own. The women are obvious as 1st of all they dress in a certain way and all look very reddish-brown. The men seem to have lost their culture as most go around in shorts or jeans and tee shirts. Some still were the traditional loin cloth and stick but very few were seen. The colour of the women comes from the red ochre and butter they smear on the whole body twice a day instead of washing or using water at all. It is a very hard life but one which they choose.

The next day we took the trip back south. For the only time on out Namibia trip we would be using the same “road” as which we had travelled up to Opuwo. We knew what we were in for so after an early start the journey went well and we seemed to remember almost all of the really bad sections so it seemed a lot quicker. This time we carried on past Palmwag towards our next place at Twyfelfontein (meaning doubtfull spring).

Here we had two nights and managed to get in to see the Petrified Forest, an interesting (OK not that interesting really but we were here) area where some 260 million years ago in a flood a large number of trees were washed some 3000 miles from central Africa and were left high and dry in Namibia. They were then buried and due to erosion have now come to the surface all petrified. Some are still with bark and branches but are all stone. Even the tree rings are obvious.
Also in the area are prehistoric rock engravings of animals in the area. OK not quite as good as the flashing lights on the pier at Southend but something to while away the month we are here.

Once again we move on, this time to the sea and about the only “resort” in Namibia, Swakopmund, where we are in a hotel for 3 days and definitely (well as far as definitely goes in Africa) will be able to catch up on the world and post blogs and pictures as we have internet

Keep looking in

Mike & Jan
(where are your comments?)