9 July 2011 - Swakopmund to Namib Desert

We got on the road out of Swakopmund soon after 8 am. Clinton suggested we take the route to Walvis via Dune 7, which is a salt road which runs to the East of the dune field between Swakop and Walvis. It was a nice drive, with some photo opportunities, and it ends with a really beautiful view of Dune 7 - much better than the view that most people have from the other side. Dune 7 is supposed to be the tallest dune (as far as we know) so it is an impressive sight indeed.


Then we turned South East into the desert. And desert it is. And the further we went the more deserted it became. Over 200 km passed before we got to Solitaire (yes - that's the name of a town in the Namib desert). Somewhere in those 200 km we passed through two impressive river gorges - the Kuiseb pass and another one which shall remain nameless due to our collective amnesia. Both are beautiful, barren, rugged, and featured water, but not much of it. The rest of the distance was among vast plains of grass (usually just sand, but due to the high rainfall this year they are covered with a soft but tufty grass that is about knee-height, and looks good when the wind blows over it in waves), and between mountains of rugged sand-stone.


Occasionally a dried-up river is shown by the presence of trees which follow the river's course, and these isolated trees make in interesting view against the inhospitable looking environment.

We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, headed south. We stopped in Solitaire to 'freshen up', and for drinks and snacks.


Solitaire consists of a camping site, a very old service station, a 'general dealer' (yes - that's what is written on the building) and a bakery. That's about it. If you blinked you missed it.


Then we pressed on to Sossus Vlei. We paid the permits and were about 10 km along the tarred road toward the vlei when I picked up something very sharp and hard which sliced right through my left rear tire. I've never seen that happen to a tire - a gash more than 5 cm wide sliced clean through the steel belt in the tread of the tire. Whatever object it was, it was thrown up against the rear bodywork and smashed a piece out of the bumper too. Never to have their spirits dampened, the kids celebrated our "5,000 km milestone" on the side of the road while I was crawling round in the dirt replacing the tire. How ironic that we clocked our 5000km as we entered Sossus Vlei, with probably more than half that distance on dirt roads, and then on this neat piece of tar road we experienced our first tire problems!


We put on the spare and turned back, as with this delay we would not have time to get to the vlei, have a decent view, and still get back out before the gates close at 17:15. We pleaded our case with the gate officials, and they kindly issued us a permit to re-enter on the 10th since our visit today had come to naught.

Right outside the entrance to Sossus Vlei is an Engen service station, and they keep tires. I was surprised, but in hindsight, in country with so many dirt roads, it is not surprising that the people are prepared for this sort of thing.

The guys there wanted to rush me nearly N$5,000 for a new tire, but I cried and begged and pleaded, and eventually we got a new spare fitted for N$2,800. Note - when we arrived I saw another customer having a puncture repaired, and while we were there another woman was paying for a repair completed earlier in the day. If you are wanting to move to Namibia, and you don't know what work you'll find - here's a hint: Tires!

Then off to the Namib desert lodge, hot-dogs for supper and an early night so we can do Sossus Vlei early in the morning.