Almost in Cape Town, I got the first sign once I crossed over the border into South Africa. Only 679Km a short run down the home straight.



Over the past month I have however traversed the continent to the Atlantic Ocean in Namibia. Crossing through Botswana with its limited roads and vast flat open desert this makes for a very dull country to ride across. The only entertainment is to avoid the many Ostriches that occupy the side of the roads. I did take in the impressive sight of the Okavango Delta. Having been in areas of Africa where water is like a liquid gold commodity it is absurd to see such an abundance of water in this desert, which are effectively the rains from Angola .







Moving onto Namibia was with much anticipation with its natural beauty and gravel roads. This country is ideal for motorcycling with some of the most spectacular landscapes that I have witnessed in Africa, the gravel roads are well maintained so can be fast if you wish. This is probably why I see so many other motorcycle groups on these tracks. The only concern you have is that you can ride all day and only see a handful of people hence you don’t want to be breaking down. Then there are the high temperatures and strong crosswinds that are relentless.





A reference to your position of latitude in the middle of the desert on the way to Sesriem; useful?



Took to doing some sandboarding in the Namib Desert, this may be on a snowboard however this is nothing like riding on snow. The idea being to go as fast as you can and keeping the board as flat as possible.

The highlight being an 80kph run down the dunes on a high tech sheet of ply wood.

In the middle of the ephemeral pan at Sossuvlei amongst the high red sand dunes getting hot and it was still only half past seven in the morning. An incredible dry and intimidating place.





On the road to the Fish River Canyon with the Schwarzrand mountain range in the background.



The Fish River canyon, not as grand as what North America might have to offer but in it's own way more beautiful from the vast array of different colours from the flora. The Fish River (bizzarely enough) has gouged out an impressive canyon as it has twisted its way down to the Orange River. Living up to the san people's believe of the work of an escaping snake being chased by hunters.





Cape Town, only days away…………

Andrew
http://www.justgiving.com/aaay2k7