You can't believe the scenery unless you are in it....

Namibia Part 3

Exaggeration is a trait to which we in the UK have heightened sensitivity. We are permanently on guard against “BS”. Perhaps because of this I had moderate expectations of the Namibia which had been universally praised by everybody we have met so far.

This gives me a problem when trying to describe what we have seen. I suspect you will all think that I have bought into the hype. I have not. It’s simply that I have never seen such a landscape before nor experienced such an emotional reaction to being in the middle of it.

Let me try to explain.

We left Keetmanshoop with a simple plan of riding to Aus about 210Km down the B4 tarmac road. We had been told about a place just past Aus where wild horses gathered. It sounded intriguing and well worth a visit. We were then going to take stock and decide what to do next. Luderitz, a Germanic seaside fishing port at the end of a 120Km cul-de-sac on the B4, was a possibility as was heading North to Helmering Hausen maybe taking in the Commonwealth war graves along the way.

Riding a motorcycle puts you right in the middle of the picture in a way which can never be replicated from inside an air conditioned car. There are no distractions. No music, no phones, no twiddling with temperature controls, no having to try to make conversation with others in the car. On roads as empty as these you just look at the scenery. With the back of your mind you listen to the machine and almost sub-consciously alter the throttle setting to maintain a steady speed. But mostly you are just aware of being right there….it’s what I think meditation would be like.

Imagine being in that state of mind having completed about 150Km through the top end of Fish River Canyon, then up into the heights along a dead straight road before dropping down into a large  plain. Laid out before you is what looks like multi coloured sea mist covering tens of kilometres to the horizon. Breaking through this mist are large jagged mountains. This picture then resolves itself into something more solid. It’s not mist, it is desert with large green and pink swathes distinctly painted across the surface. The scale is beyond my imagination.

It is almost surreal. I am reminded of a famous science fiction novel from the 70’s, Dune, set on a desert planet. It wouldn’t surprise me if the author got some of his inspiration from being here.

As we descend further into the desert the colour is explained by some scrubby vegetation growing inexplicably in straight lines, the denser areas showing green and less concentrated softening the red sand to a pink.    

 All this time we have been riding down an absolutely dead straight strip of jet black tarmac which disappears to a pinprick on the horizon like one of roads in the Roadrunner cartoons (really showing my age here – Dune and Roadrunner!)

By the time we get to Aus, the wild horses have become just something we have to do instead of the main reason for the journey. Personally, I found it rather plain and, well, ordinary. But that’s only because I was still gobsmacked by the ride to get there. I am sure the horses were disappointed by my lack of reaction to their wildness but they will get over it ;-)

James contemplating his backside after a 230km ride...oh and some horses  

We pop back to Aus where we made another excellent decision. This one to stay the night in the Banhof Hotel. As Andrew said, everything they provided was done with the best quality. The food was absolutely exceptional, the staff very well trained and with excellent spoken English, no doubt necessary to better serve their mainly German customers, it being much more practical for them to improve existing English than learn German. The evenings here get quite cold so I can hardly tell you how pleased I was to get into the turned-down bed, after removing the chocolate from the pillow, to find a hot water bottle nestling under the clean white duvet. Fandabidosi! This travelling through Africa is a real hardship! However, we did pay for it. For absolutely everything including evening meal, drinks and breakfast it was £55 each.

The next day we trundled down the cul-de-sac to Luderitz which we thought had delusions of grandeur as they have put a “Hollywood” style of sign upon the hillside for all to see as you drive in. This impression is wrong though. It is a functional wee town with a pretty anchorage in which there lay a variety of shipping from working boats to leisure craft. We were left with a very positive impression through the honesty of one of the citizens who came to try to find us when we had left a helmet on a bench in the main road. It had been there for over 10 minutes before we realised. With a sinking heart we hurried back only to be pleasantly surprised by this honest chap. At times like this one can’t help drawing unfavourable comparisons with home where no doubt a temporarily forgotten personal item would have been viewed as fair game by most.

On the way back we stopped at the now famous ghost town of Kolmanskop. This has appeared in several television documentaries fairly recently. I have to confess that we were all a bit cynical about it. We had to pay £4 each to go and look at empty ruined buildings – something you can do for free in France as Andrew was keen to point out. It had been a thriving community based on German culture whose sole purpose was to collect as many diamonds as possible from the surrounding lands. Once it had been squeezed dry, everybody left. Not too surprising really but full marks to whoever thought of setting it up as a tourist attraction. It was mad busy with at least one coach disgorging a load of tourists into the café and Curio shop. You can get a great Tuna Mayo sandwich there…..just so’s you know….

First in an exciting new development of Namibian time share

Not much use for its original purpose but still handles the sand better than the Red Peril

This one is just for Ian...it's not "green screen"...honest

We are going to be heading further North soon. Lots more to see in Namibia before we move on.