Then the rains came. Left the Bundu Lodge with light rain and traveled up in the mountains looking for a place we had passed that had hides for sale. Not sure if we just missed it or because of the rain they had not put out the hides but we never found it. Went out to the Elephant Sanctuary where we got to play with the Elephants in the rain. Then we headed to where we had seen “The Old Mill Pub” before we went into Kurgar. And thought it looked like a good place to stay. We arrived soaked to the bone and got us a cabin for the night. I can recommend this place as it was a nice friendly place even gave us a mop to take care of the water running out of ever thing we had on.

The next morning it was sill raining and we should have just stayed put but with hopes of riding out of the rain we headed south west through some beautiful country with nice farms. After riding for several hour in the hard rain it finally started to break up some as we got to Marble Hall and found a place at the Buffalo Hotel, kind of a strange place that had been added onto so many times you could easily get lost trying to find your room. We got some news and seems we left Kurgar Park at the right time as they were having major flooding from the rains with one bridge washed out and seven people drown.

No pictures these last few days as my camera that I had taped together in Mexico finally gave up the ghost. We did take some with the phone but I have not determined how to download them to the computer.

From Marble Hall we headed to Schlowy Custom Motorcycles and had an accelerators module put on the moto then into Kempton Park where Richy and Serridan’s house was (met them in Namibia. They had given us an address and GPS coordinates but the coordinates were not right, (2500k off) and the address would not input to the GPS. So we wandered around Kempton Park for about an hour till I decided I needed a city map and headed to a mall. Checked a couple of places then passed a pizza place that delivered, thought they would now where it was. They were very helpful and gave us a map then two came out as we got to the bike with more directions. No more stopping at service stations for directions for me, I am heading to a pizza place. Found their house and called Ricky who said he would be home in about an hour so we went of to look at cameras and I got a hair cut.

One other couple we had met in Namibia and then Victory Falls came over with a plan for a ride Sunday. Went hunting for a Zebra hide Saturday and found a lot of “stuff” but no hide Martha wanted. Ricky went on line to a spot like our “Craig’s List” and found some Zebra hides, then after a few calls made arrangements to look at one on our Sunday ride.

Local natives cooking animal flesh over an open fire and consuming brewed liquid, native ritual I think they called it a Barri.

Sunday we had a good ride and Martha got her a Zebra hide. Then we made our way over to Ivan and Debbie’s house where we started this adventure two months ago. Pulling in just as a couple of drop began to fall, then it rain so hard it was flooding the street. It can really rain here when it wants to. It seems much longer than two months, kind of sensory overload. The best part of the trip has got to be the people we have met along the way, we will never forget people and their generosity that we found on this trip. If you are looking for a place to travel to for a fun adventure South Africa is the place.

Taxidermy place we visited on our ride

Leaving Ricky and Sherridan's place (black plastic bag is Martha's Zebra.

Monday we went back over to Schlowy Custom Motorcycles and had a new rear tire put on and the kickstand pad enlarged. Bike is now ready for next year. For lunch we met up with Chris and Erin Ratay from Colorado who are just finishing their travels and will had home tomorrow also. Chris and Erin did a 56 month round the world trip a few years ago and have been taking two months a year for travel the last few years. I was a couple of weeks behind them when I road South America. Was fun to finally catch up to them and got some good advice for our trip north next year.

Spent the rest of the day sorting out our stuff and packing up for our 6:30 flight.
Debbie took us shopping then to airport, was kind of hard to say good buy to South Africa and friends. Got to the airport three hours early because Martha was worried that there might be problems with the Zebra hide, but all went smooth and we got to sit and wait for a while. It was a long flight home and then my phone would not work so we had to wait till we got to Seattle to call for a ride and then wait some more. Seems strange to be back in the cool wet climate.

Now the planning begins for next year. So far the plan is to ride up the east coast of Africa to Europe and find a place there to store the bike.

Back to South Africa, what a difference crossing a border can make. On this side things work, like phone, internet and services. It was hot coming in though at or just under 40C, so we got a cabin with air-conditioning for a good nights sleep.

We headed South on N1 toll road for a way then cut off 200 meters before the next toll booth on R37. This turned out to be a good choice as not only did we not have to pay the toll but it is a very scenic route. Traveled through beautiful farm ground and then up into the hills and pine and eucalyptus plantations. Turned off of R37 and went over Robbers Pass then finally down to Nelspruit. We took the bike into the local BMW dealer for service and a couple of warranty items, rented a little red car and were ready for Kruger National Park.

Kruger National Park is huge covering 20,000 sq. K. and would take at least a week to just drive it all, we are going in on a Friday and will come out on Monday. After paying park fees and driving through the gate we were not 500 meters before we came upon a rhino. The first we has seen in Africa and it was big. Pictures don’t do these critters justice, you need someone to walk up side of them for a size comparison but Martha was not willing.

Wart hog

Elly

Kudu

Giraff

The first night we spent at Skukuza and pitched the tent. It was hot and miserable all night, even worse when the mosquitoes found where a zipper had got left open a little. They must have took me for a pint of blood. The next two nights we got a cabin with air and now mosquitoes.

For anyone coming to Africa this is the park to come to, the following is a list of critters we saw in our time here:
all the big 5
Lions African Wild Cat Common Duiker Kudus Warthogs
Leopard Black backed Jackal Giraffes Nyala Waterbucks
Elephants Blue Wildebeest Hippopotamus Zebras Wild Dog
Buffalos Baboons Impalas Spotted Hyaena Crocodile
Rhinoceros Cheetah Klipspringer Velvet Monkeys Leopard tortoises

Croc

Egyption geese

Road Closed

Baby elephant

Dinner in a former train station at the park. We had Crocodile.

Lions taking an afternoon nap

Zebra

Lions and cubs, this may be why they don't let you ride in on a motorcycle.

Buffalo

Sunset

We got back to the Nelspruit picked up the moto and turned in the little red car, (which had a smaller engine than the moto). They did a great job of cleaning up Elly and fixed minor issues.
We found a great lodge to stay at called the Bundu, with Zebras, ponies, an ostrich, peacocks and bunnies running around the grounds. From Bundu we headed to Sabie, in the rain, where we stopped at the Old Mill Pub where we had seen a sign that said “bikers welcome” when we came through before. Got a nice cabin and would recommend the place. We did make a stop on the way at the Elephant Sanctuary and got to play with the elephants. The camera refused to work so we got pictures on the cell phone, now if I only knew how to down load to PC.

The next morning the rain continued and we headed out for a very wet day. Was told that Nelspruit had 150 mm of rain and parts of Krugar got 500mm. It was starting get a break in the weather as we got to Marble Hall and got a room at the Buffalo Hotel, kind of a strange place but it worked.

Thursdays we went to Schlowy Custom Motorcycle to get an accelerator module put on the bike. Unit makes it run better and improves fuel mileage. Also ordered a tire for the rear which I will get put on Monday. The rear tire (Heidenau K60) got me about 12000 k, which is not bad for a traction tire. Putting a new one on now and we should be good to go for the next leg of the journey.

We are down to the last few days then we fly home.

We are way late in getting a post to the blog, want to insure all that we have not been eat by lions or crocodiles. The last posting was Christmas at Etosha National Park in Namibia, since then we have been through Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, and now in Zimbabwe. Internet has been found to check emails but we never had good service at where we stayed so that we could do the update. Twice we stayed at places that normally had wifi but the servers were down. Infrastructure failures seem to be common here as we have had the power go out on us at least four times.

After saying goodby to friends at Etosha we our separate way, hoping to meet up with them again at Victoria Falls. We turned south through a national park on our way to Botswana and the road turned to dirt/gravel. About 50k we came to the border crossing. Checked out of Namibia and into Botswana with no problems, an easy crossing. As we came out of the Botswana customs it started to rain, hard. We must have waited for about 45 min. then headed out, was not looking forward to riding on we dirt road but as we left customs it turned to tar. The thunder shower had traveled in the direction we were headed so it was not long and we were back in it, rain and getting wet is not much of a problem here as with this heat you dry quickly.

Road through park

every country should have the biggest something, here is the biggest meteorite ever found. 85% iorn.

Botswana

Botswana

Rundu Botswana

Botswana

Stayed that night at Swamp Camp, (how can you pass up a place with a name like that) road in was sandy and got worse as we went in. Then came to an area that was deep sand and torn up bad. The bike squirmed back and forth but was able to power through it, that is till the cow walk out in the road and I had to try to slow down.

Another unscheduled get off

plowing with oxen

sign you won't see back home

From there we went south to Maun, seeing Ostrich, donkeys, cows, horses, and that sort of stuff. Lots of small villages but not too dense. Stayed in a nice lodge and had dinner at Boni restraint at lodge. Had what I would call “Mongolian Barbeque. You selected meat and vegetables then they cooked it on a grill. We went on a boat ride to see what the Okavango Delta/swamp looked like. This whole area is an inland delta, the water runs in but not out and covers a great area.

Boating around the delta

Tried to get to a crocodile farm but the road was washed out and the way around did not look inviting.

no bridge

Road Construction, Botswana, was a sign that they were doing ok and investing in infrastructure, went on for many K.

We then headed down some long straight roads to Naca. Spent the night the headed north. The reason we came this way was because we were told we would see elephants and we saw lots of elephants. The first was not to sure about the motorcycle and turned toward us and flapped his ears. I have seen many elephants but they were in parks, zoos or other such. These were wild and free.

Elly

They have some really nice looking farm ground but it did not last too long, very dry most places.

Cattle herd by gas station

Elephant butts

We went on up an a little west crossing back into Namibia at Ngoma with a thunder shower to match the one when we came into Botswana. Stayed at Eagles Nest guesthouse for a good nights sleep.

From there we headed to Katima Mulilo border crossing into Zambia. This was a complicated crossing and costly. First the visa cost $50 USD then there were four stops for the motorcycle and each on got some money. This was a back woods crossing but it was shocking to see, old cars that were most likely impounded slowly sinking in the ground, offices in shipping containers, and one office inside had filled log books staked as high as they could around the room to where they had to step on them to get behind the desk. She did like my suggestion that they have a bond fire and clean them out. And the office where we got third party insurance was in an old travel trailer with wheels off and all the windows busted out for ventilation.

leaving Namibia for Zambia

Zambia is a very interesting country which could develop a great deal of land into commercial agriculture. The problem seems to be that the local tribal chiefs control the land and don’t want anyone to set up commercial farming enterprise as they could then go to the government and seek a title to the land. It is in the local chiefs self interest to keep his subjects poor and uneducated. Not sure how the country is going to get around this but some are working on it.

Zambia border post

Zambia border post, road worthiness office, cost $10 USD

insurance office

Zambia

Zambia

Zambia

Baboons

Victoria Falls, found friends we had met at Etosha and set up camp at Waterfront Lodge. Had bbq dinner at a function where we welcomed in the new year. The next morning we all rode down to the bridge over the canyon below the falls. Bridge was over a hundred years old and had been manufactured in England, brought here and assembled. They were bungee jumping from the bridge but I could not talk anyone into going for a bounce with me (post script: just saw on CNN that an Australian girl had the bungee cord break jumping at the falls, she plunged into the water dragging part of the bungee cord, was able to get out down stream with bumps and scraps, new rule only bungee jump in countries that replace cord more often such as New Zealand or South Africa).

On the bridge over the Zimbabwe River

Bridge from back away, If your eyes are good you can see the bungee jumper

Falls from the bridge

South African Crew

Falls

New Years Eve

Then we went in to the falls viewing area (Zambian side) to have a look at the falls. The falls are a mile long with water falling into a canyon. Then along the top side for a view from there. The management of this area seems poor, they should go visit Igwasu (sic)falls in Argentina/Brazil for ideas of what they could do.

Falls

From the top of the falls looking over

The South African crew headed south the next morning but we stayed for another easy day before heading east. We went up town and looked at carvings, found some we liked then found DHL and found that the shipping was three times the cost of the carvings so we passed. Went out to a crocodile farm and saw lots of crocs and snakes. They even had an albino crocodile which would not survive in the wild.

Crocodile farm

Hippos, lots of um, but they would not come out of the water for a picture

Hippo

The cruse boat/barge

Hippo

Elephants on the rivers edge

Sunset on the Zimbabwe River

Somewhere along the why we decided we had time to make a quick run into Malawi and cross Mozambique to Zimbabwe. Malawi is a small country with 13 million people and little petrol. Seems they have a problem with foreign exchange due to wanting to hold their currency value up no one wants it. 85% of the population is rural living off the land. Legislation was passed to provide free education through the eighth grade but there is a major teacher shortage.

The full employment program I think, mowing the road side with machete

We came in to Malawi with a full tank of fuel, (+600k range) in the bike and wanted to go to Monkey Bay but was unable to find a filling station with fuel so we headed for Mozambique with just enough fuel to get us out of Malawi to somewhere we could get fuel. At the border we found a filling station that had just gotten fuel, (been out for two weeks) and filled up (when we came by the next day they were out again). The only two places in town that Martha was willing to stay were closed for remodeling so we had to back track to Blantyare where we met a torrential down pour coming into town. Found the Paradise Motel with water running down the side street washing rock and brick into the road, we were very wet but made it in.

We seen a lot of these in many places, they are from having a termite mound at the same location for a long time, hundreds of years, some mound were 20 foot tall and when they had an active hive it would have been on top.

riding through a small town

Then back to the Mozambique border where we spent considerable time getting a visa for $68 USD each, with picture and finger prints. On our way and finally to Tete where we found motel full, hotel tore down and ended up at a campground on the Zambeze River. Was 36C when we pulled in, (m/l 95F) and did not cool off much making it hard to sleep in the tent.

There seems to be lots of economic activity in Mozambique with lots of small motorcycles that we had not seen in other countries. They are coming out of many years of civil war but seem to be doing all right for themselfs.

Crossed into Zimbabwe at Nyamapanda, bought third party insurance for $30 and road tax, carbon tax and something else that came to $36. Zimbabwe has had it problems with inflation that went wild, I now have a ten trillion dollar bill ($10,000,000,000) when printed would buy you a coke. Now they are using the US dollar but these are in short supply and they have no change. If you do get change it will be South African. This means that most things are in dollar units, beer, coke, and water are all $1.

Zimbabwe government has not been friendly to whites with most moving out of the country. Seems the dictatorial government needed someone to blame for problems. Harare is a big city but we did not see any white people as we drove through the city. This is not to say the people are not friendly because they have been. In 1999 the government decided the white farmers had stole the land from the blacks and had them evicted from their farms, some that had been in the family for generations. The only thing they were able to take with them was personal effects. Now many of these farms sit unused or under used. Other than a couple of small Chinese tractors all the tractors that we have seen pre-date 1985.

What commercial farms we did see east of Harare and some south were nice places. But there is a great deal of land suitable for agricultural production here that is not being used. Over all they seem to be “living off of deprecation” with little new investment in farming.

We stayed in Chivhu Hotel where the power went out so they built a fire in pit and cooked us dinner. Hotel looks like the farms in that little has changed in 25 years and is slowly decaying.

Then south to the Great Zimbabwe National Monument. Camera battery went dead so got no pictures as we climbed around the ruins of an ancient city. A circular stone wall 250 meters across and as high as 11 meters and as thick as 6 meters of stones fitted together without mortar. The royal family lived within the walls, while the King lived up high on a rock hill overlooking the valley below where his 25,000 people lived 12th century to 17th century. Oral history says 7 kings are buried in a tunnel. But 3 archeologists disappeared into a tunnel in 1937 never to return looking for evidence of the kings, so the tunnel was rocked over to keep people out.

Stayed in a real nice lodge next to the ruins so we could get wifi, once again the system is down so it looks like this will not get uploaded till we get back to South Africa.

We have made it to South Africa where things general work. Current plan is to head south and get motorcycle serviced and warranty work done while we rent a car and head for Kruger National Park, (they won’t let us in on the moto).

I should add some pictures to this, but it is late and I want to get something on line before the internet crashes again.

Luderitz was founded by the Germans and built on diamond mining money. Most of the older buildings were built from 1900 to 1918, after world war one South African’s took over control of Namibia. The German style architecture is present in many of the towns buildings.

Luderitz from top of hill

German house and church

Old mining town (Ghost Town) just out side of Luderitz

Sand covering the road

We decided to spend a slow day here and update the blog and soak up some of the cooler air before heading back inland. We hiked up a rock and took some pictures, wind blowing here seems to be the norm but not as bad as a few k out of town where keeping the sand moved off the road is a full time job.

Monday we set off for the inland, battled the winds and sand for about 25k then they slowed some. Not much else noteworthy today other than the temperature got up to 40 C (104 F). Martha was worried about insulin getting warm so when we got to Mariental we got a Chalet with kitchen. Nice place for 450 ($53 US).

For those considering a visit to Namibia a few notes on accommodations. If you see self catoring it means units have a kitchen, B&B are often more like a small motel than what we call B&B in US. Campgrounds are very nice, better than what you would normally get in USA, also will pay more. Every campground we have stopped at had power to each site, (needed to charge up everything). Cost of Hotels and B&B seem to be about 70% of what we would pay at home. There are also some very expensive places such as game lodges which will run 2000 to 3000 N$ per person per night’ (1 US$ = 8.5 N$). Some of the game lodges will have camping available, We are now at Onguma Bush Camp next to Estosha National Park where camp ground was $N150 per person. We have power, tent pad and our private bathroom unit with shower. Swimming pool a short hike away.

We had breakfast and headed out early to beat the heat (7:30). A farmer was already baling nice green little square bales, then there was a field of corn, and then there was a big dairy. And that was about it. It was a long day through semi desert. Saw several donkeys pulling two wheeled carts. The area doesn’t look too prosperous. We stopped in the little town of Karibib and found a nice cabin. We had all the windows open and by morning I was eaten alive. Bob found an internet café so we checked emails.

Crossed the Tropic of Capricorn

This is what most of the "rivers" in Namibia look like, very dry country

Country side

Met some wild life on the way into a game farm restraunt

Warthogs entertained us during lunch


Back on the road

The next morning it was only two hours to Swakopmund. We drove around town, full of people and lots of places to stay. We sat down at the beach and watched the waves roll in for a while. The Marine Museum was closed for renovation and wouldn’t be open until February. We found a nice room and went down town looking for a half dozen items and lunch. We had been wanting to get a small battery charger, 12V, that we could keep the cooler running at night. We were back by 4 pm and called Peter. Peter and his son Simon came over and we chatted and went to dinner. The next day Peter and Simon picked us up, we went to breakfast and headed out to see an area they call moon scape (interesting), then a drive through the desert and huge dunes and on to Walvis Bay where we had lunch at a restaurant on the beach and watched the para gliders and wind surfers(the wind was strong). We went back to Swakopmund the back way because there was a sand storm and still couldn’t see more than 150 feet. We were glad we weren’t on the motorcycle. Back in town we walked back downtown to exchange the battery charger we had bought the day before because it could tell that it was not hooked to a battery, needed a less intelligent charger but it will take up more room. Once back at the motel we were finally able to set up a unit to run the cooler when we weren’t on the motorcycle! That night we had “Fish Cordon Blue”( a big fish ball stuffed with salmon and cheese).

Park by the beach

Downtown

German style buildings

The lunar landscape

Martha, Peter and Simon (Peter providing a geology lesson). At this spot there was water and farming.

Sea salt operation

Sea salt operation

Sand storm

The next morning we started trying to book a rental car for Etosha National Park. The computer said all booked, so we tried the car rental in Swakopmund and see sent us on a wild goose chase. When we finally got to Tsumed we found the EuroCar rental place but they would not rent us a car to go into the park because it had rained, (what we saw it would not have had a problem). They were less than helpful, telling us we needed to back track 250k and rent a 4X4 but would not check to see it there was one available. Then I ask them if there were places near the gate we could stay and get a tour into the park, which is what we did but they said there were no places like that. So Etosha was a little disappointing but we did have a great Christmas at the Bush Camp.

neat signs

Farm ground, not common in Namibia

Corn field next to a large dairy

The hot ride north

Maori Camp Ground 5k north of Grootfontein, I recommend this place for travelers.

Camp site at Etosha

We were up at 5:30 Christmas day to set out on our tour at 6:30.

Impala

Zebra

Male Lion only 40 feet from the road

female lion (crouched) that had come across the road in front of us.

Zebra with small foal at side, this is what the lions were watching

As we watched the female lion lunged at the Zebra foal, bringing it down.

the squeling zebra foal brought out the rest of the pack, another female and 8 cubs. the male also came in to finish the kill.

Here the male lion drags the Caracas with one of the cubs attached

Wildebeest

Giraffes at the watering hole

Christmas dinner with three other couples traveling by motorcycle, they are also headed to Victoria Falls but by a different route. If it works out we will meet up again there.

Well we are out of Etosha and headed north east. Will stay in Rundu tonight, got a room as I seem to be coming down with a cold.

Brian lead us into Cape Town to the Harley dealer where we intended to pickup a couple of shirts to document where we have been. But it was not to be as they were sold out of everything except small and XX large, seems there has been a run on them for Christmas. From there we headed to Table Mountain for a cable car ride to the top, 1160 M. From the top we could see across Cape Town. Then down the mountain and ride along the coast roads and back to Brian and Marganne’s. Cape Town is a beautiful city and would be fun to explore if one had the time.

From the bottom looking up at Table Mountain

From near the top, in cable car, looking down

Cape Town from top of Table Mountain

Ride along the coast, road is cut under cliff

Beach, looked like a good place to swim

Ready to ride off from good friends, Maybe somewhere we meet again

All good things must come to an end and we pulled away from the generous hospitality and friends. Headed north to Loeriefotein, where Christoffel and Elzan’s house is. Chris worked in the USA for a custom harvester a few years ago and had contacted me wanting to talk to Americans again. They have a beautiful house, (Elzan had studied interior design) but it is small so we planned on setting up the tent on the lawn but Chris’s Mother was sure that it would be too cold so we slept at their house next door. Chris raises sheep on two farms, one for the winter and one in the summer. They then live about in the middle. We were kind of getting use to being spoiled but left their house the next morning in a drizzel of rain, not normal for here I am told. Back over a real neat pass, (see pictures) and to N7. There was a shorter way on dirt roads but we were told the corrugations (aka washborads) were bad.

Grapes north of Cape Town

Harvested grain fields

Cattle

Straw bales in the field

You find some neat signs as you travel the world, this one kind of says it all in picture form

We have seen many of these wild Ostrich

Worlds largest collection of windmills, see it in Loeriesfontein

They have these Braai grills built in we could use one of these at home

Beginning motorcycle training at the proper age

We traveled north on N7 and made the Namibia boarder by 4:30. We needed to do some bill paying and stuff on internet so stayed in a classy place near the boarder rather than going west 12k to a campground. It was “self catering” means you cook your own food. So with a run to a small store we set up the stove and had good meal. Not as good as we had become accustom to but met the need. Cooked up eggs, potatoes and ham for breakfast the next morning and headed into Namibia.

The steep climb at m/l 10%

Along the way

Another along the way

no shortage of rock

Breakfast by chef Robert

Both South Africa and Namibia were very efficient and quick in getting us through and the Carnet stamped out and in. Only a short way north we turned off on a gravel road heading for Fish River Canyon. After a 145k on gravel/sand road I was exhausted as we reached the Canon Road House. A little about the road, it looked good but had from one half inch to two inches of sand and was very “squirrely”. This is my first experience with this type of road. The rule is when you hit sand to “look up, speed up and stand up”. Two riders on an overloaded GS 1200 make the stand up part not doable but the look up and speed up carried us through with out mishap. The trick was to slow down on the good spots so that if you hit sand you had power to speed up and pull the front tire up out of the sand while you picked a path out about 100 to 200 yard.

Entering the park

Martha fixing lunch on the road

the sandy road, up to two inches of sand in spots

more road

and more road

lots of rock and not much growing

Back to the Road House, after 145k on a gravel/sand/dirt road, some rather brutal corrugations, I did not expect to find a place like this. I had a great time in the old road houses of Australia and expected much the same here. What we found was a class place decorated with old cars and signs. We camped out back with excellent facilities except still no picnic table. For dinner we had escargot and chicken schnitzel. The next evening Martha had ostrich and I had oryx steak.

At Roadhouse

Vegetation management

I think we need one of these on the farm

I think this is a Whezzer, anyone know for sure

Our campsite at the roadhose

Springbox next to the camp site

The next day we rode to the Fish River Canyon about 30 k from the Road house. It is the second largest canyon (after Grand Canyon, US) in the world. Glad we were early as it soon got quite hot. We walked along the rim to a small lookout point where there was a rock outhouse that could withstand anything. Day hikes down into the canyon are not allowed but they do offer 80 k guided hikes that take several days.

Fish River Canyon,

Just so you all don't think we had it to easy, for dinner we had to eat in the garage next to this Chevy

From the Roadhouse we headed north for 137 k to N7 then east to Luderitz. There was an area of cattle ranches (stations) and fairly good range pasture, (our cows would just lay down and die if we asked them to eat the dry grass). As we descended to Luderitz the cross wind was at least 100k and blowing sand across the road. The Patagonia has nothing on the wind here which twisted around the hills and could hit from either side.

Made it out and stopped here to air tires back up for tar roads

After all that gravel/sand/dirt this looked good

Eland standing on the railroad tracks

Sand blowing across the road

Just as we came into Luderitz we passed motorcycle stopped so we asked if he knew a good place to stay. We ended up at “Kratzplatz” a small place run by a biker, we have a frige, stove and wifi, looked like a good spot to stay a couple of days and update the blog.

Luderitz was founded by the Germans (they controlled the area till the end of WW1). The German influence is seen in the buildings and people. It is a town that shuts down for the weekend, stores were already closed at 3:45 on Sat. They did open up for a bit on Sunday but I could not buy beer, another dry day. Plan to head back to N1 and north from here or may take some of the dirt roads north if I can get an idea as to there condition.