Keetmanshoop to Springbok

It was still dark at 6:30am while loading the bikes but starting to get light at 7am as we rode out of town. All very quiet as it was a Sunday. Great roads but much colder than expected at 5'c. We kept thinking it would warm up as the sun came up but it stayed pretty cold. That made for an uncomfortable ride as I'd lost my cold weather kit with the panniers. It was a straight forward ride to the border.

The border post was the most organised we've seen in Africa. One way through, all the buildings are laid out in sequence. All the offices are labelled and had entry and exit doors. Simply park up, go and get the carnet stamped, go to immigration for passport stamp and that was Namibia done. Ride through and down the road to the SA side. First stop was at a friendly police line. We were given a piece of paper and directed to some parking. From there, again, all the buildings in a row and sign posted to show what each building contained. Go to immigration for passport stamp, next window for carnet stamp, next building for police to stamp the piece of paper. Ride to the exit post and hand the stamped piece of paper to a friendly policeman and that was it. We were in South Africa. The whole process from arrival to exit took 45 minutes. A new personal best for African border crossings!

Then a ride to the town of Springbok. Good roads but cold again and it started raining. I already had rain gear on to try and retain some warmth and stop the wind chill.

Springbok is a small town and everything except the fuel station was closed on Sunday afternoon. We tried a few hotels. All had rooms but the first was expensive, the second had no Wi-Fi and we didn't reach the third as we spotted a suitable place on the way there. R900 per room with Wi-Fi.

Only thing left to do was to find insurance and buy a SIM card but that would have to wait until the Monday morning.

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