Wind & The Animal Kingdom

Days 5 & 6

Distance travelled: about 850km

 

I woke up after the EPIC night at Joe’s feeling like I’d been run over a bus. Packing up a roof-top tent when you’re fragile is possibly worse than labour (I would imagine). It was so bad that I had to abscond from driving duty for the day. After packing up camp (with MANY rest-breaks) we headed off towards Swakopmund.

My goodness what a BEAUTIFUL city (unfortunately my babalus prevented me from taking any good photos). We were lucky that we were there on the off-season – I believe at Christmas the terrorists flock there and it becomes not so pleasant, but I found it enchanting. Definitely on our list of places-to-go-back-to.

 

 

 

We also stayed at one of the best camp sites that night – Tiger Reef Camp site was about 200m from the beach, and only 100m from the amazing Tiger Reef Bar.

 

it's impossible not to relax here

 

We splurged on a fancy meal that night, and enjoyed the warm sea breeze. Apparently Swakopmund didn’t get the memo that it was winter – we were rocking shorts and tshirts (and horribly pale legs). It was MAGIC to wake up to the sound of waves.

From Swakopmund we were bound for Toshari Lodge in Etosha, and our first Check Point Party! Wanting to savour being by the sea as much as possible we decided to drive along the coast to Henties Bay before heading inland to Etosha.

Remember that wind I told you about in Sossus Vlei? This was that wind’s older, over-protective brother on steroids. I fought a battle against the wind coming at us from the side with the steering wheel to keep the car on the road for kilometre after kilometre! I daresay these puny Granville arms developed some muscle! And of course someone hadn’t tied down their rooftop tent properly, and I was thoroughly sandblasted while fixing it, while the other two reclined in the windless car. But it got worse as we turned inland into the wind. The Erwinator did not enjoy the experience AT all, and guzzled a hefty 60 litres of diesel over just 300km.

We arrived at Toshari Lodge on the outskirts of Etosha National Park in the early afternoon and made the VERY difficult decision of upgrading to a room pretty quickly.

 

 

 

Toshari is a gem of a place! It was soon bursting at the seams with Crews letting loose in their animal kingdom costumes.

 

Missing in Africa set the bar HIGH with their incredible get-ups

Missing In Africa photo (c) Che Overmeyer

 

QAR & Torque of the Town rocked their onesies

photo (c) Che Overmeyer

 

Torque of the Town photo (c) Che Overmeyer

 

Generally everyone got into the spirit of the animal kingdom!

 

 

photo (c) Che Overmeyer

 

Polar Bear Express photo (c) Che Overmeyer

 

photo (c) Che Overmeyer

 

Robert & relevant-George photo (c) Che Overmeyer

 

We were fed an incredible meal

photo (c) Che Overmeyer

 

Then Bruce the fine-master made his first appearance. I can’t remember who got fined for what (did Bookmark Africa get a fine for getting stuck?) but I do remember Simba in the boat race! What a sight J

QAR being fined and punishing a boat race photo (c) Che Overmeyer

 

Me & Mr Brown took the stage, and it was all systems go til the early morning.

Me & Mr Brown photo (c) Che Overmeyer

 

this photo is EPIC! photo (c) Che Overmeyer

 

 Our second SHOE DROP, and DJ Lion-Spotter Poppie…… next

HUGE THANK YOU to Saadia and Impex Fasteners & Tools for the amazing sponsorship of this leg of the trip. Your generosity is appreciated beyond words.

 

Yours in adventure

Rox

Don't mix spirits with a metre of beer!

Day 4
Distance Travelled: about 370km

At A Little Sossus Lodge we found the Cool Squad pumping up Dixie’s tyre – legend has it that the Dixie boys managed 5 flat tyres/blowouts in one day!

A Little Sossus Camp Site

 

We were greeted by the manager, a lovely strapping young man called Jan (what else would he be called?) who warned us of giant crickets and hungry hyenas that wouldn’t hesitate to pay us a visit if we left food out during the night.

 

The camp site is in the middle of a flat plain that the wind loves to race around in. They have very kindly constructed hollow structures that can fit your car and tent inside to protect you from the wind.

We were expecting windy, but you’ve never experienced anything like this before! Even in our shelter I felt like we’d fly off the car and wake up in the middle of nowhere. The hyena warning didn’t help either – with every strange noise or rush of wind we were convinced the hyenas were ransacking our belongings. It was a VERY long night!

 

 

Eventually the sun came up and we ventured outside to a scene as calm as a lap pool in a MacDonald's.

We tiredly packed up and wearily plugged  ‘Engen’ into the GPS, said a small prayer and set off. Luckily this Engen did exist and we found coffeeee, food and loads of terrorists. We had heard about the legendary red sand dunes in the area, and decided to go have a look. The guard at the gate basically told us to go away, that we wouldn’t see anything because of the wind and that we were wasting our time there. I wish we hadn’t taken his advice – SlowZu decided to chance it anyway and have some amazing photos!

 

photo (c) Che Overmeyer

 

Moral of the story – don’t take the advice of someone who clearly would rather be asleep and warm and not at work.

Windhoek to!

We pulled into the big city early, splurged on a Mug & Bean lunch and did some costume shopping for the Checkpoint parties. I was fairly alarmed that items we were jokingly buying were being seriously bought by Windhoek citizens!

GPS failed us miserably again in the search for Urban Camp, but luckily we knew it was in walking distance of Joe’s Beerhouse, so we eventually found it. What a cool place! We pulled in to find HQ & Triton settled in as if they’d never lived anywhere else, unpacked and headed for Joe’s.

photo (c) Che Overmeyer

photo (c) Che Overmeyer

The legend of Joe’s Beerhouse spreads far and wide, and not for no reason.

This visit to Windhoek, and Joe’s in particular was especially emotional for me – the last time we’d been here was for Erwin’s funeral. The last time I’d been to Joe’s we’d sat in the bar listening to all his friends tell amazing stories about him, crying and laughing and crying some more. Obviously as I am a Granville I am not good at dealing with my feelings, and so I may have indulged a little too much.

Or a lot too much. Depends who you talk to. And it would seem I talked to EVERYONE. For someone who is normally quiet and shy I made A LOT of friends that night, and somehow, Foxy Roxy was born. Marissa had a pack of locals eating out of her hands, Chadre was scoring free drinks and Zo was gaining admirers left, right and centre.
We had a WONDERFUL time. I believe Erwin would have been proud of our effort that night.

Lord Hamish made an appearance even.

Lord Hamish! photo (c) Che Overmeyer

Mowgli and Zo walked me home around midnight, after a meter of beer (after a shot of every kind of alcohol) had decided it was my bedtime.

Polar Bear Express enjoying a metre of beer!  photo (c) Che Overmeyer

Seems we were all luckier than the Norwegians, who were mugged on their way home. Maybe their team name “Idiots Abroad” was too visible?

 I hear that Joe’s was an EPIC night for everyone – if you’re ever in Windhoek make sure you visit this place – where their house-wine is Jagermeister!

 

A serious babalus and Swakopmund…. NEXT

Yours in adventure

Rox

 

Don't Always Trust Your GPS

Day 3

Distance travelled: about 600km

photo (c) Che Overmeyer

 

Canon Road House. What a magnificent place! The grounds are littered with vintage cars (which, if in working condition would be the stuff of my dreams) with plants of all descriptions growing in and around them.

The bar / restaurant is also finely decorated with incredible vintage cars, a vintage ambulance, and a vintage fire-engine (not pictured here)

The bar has number plates from all over - except Botswana, and for some reason Ashley wasn’t that keen for us to steal theirs off their car?

This was to be a momentous occasion for the Bundu Bashers – our first night camping! I am very proud of our effort that night – for 2 girls who don’t camp (Marissa is an old-hand) we did superbly. I cannot recommend a roof-top tent enough for those like me who are not so keen on camping (even if I did almost lose a finger and half a litre of blood to the ladder the first time – LESSON LEARNT!).

 

We treated ourselves to a restaurant meal and explored the amazing relics.

Every so often a huge siren would go off somewhere, and I thought it might be their unique way of telling the kitchen staff that food is ready.

We later were enlightened to the actual origin of those sirens.
 

located in the men's toilet

located in the ladies' toilet

   

Basically if you’re nosey as soon as that box opens the siren goes off in the bar, so when you come out of the loo everyone knows what you just did!
 

I retreated to bed early (all that excitement of overtaking the Landie!) while Zo and Marissa bonded with their sippy bottles and some of the other teams into the early hours.

 

We were up early after a freezing night, packed up (again, excellent job ladies) and headed off with SlowZu, dressed like snowmen to see the incredible Fish River Canyon.

photo (c) Che Overmyer

 

Words really cannot describe the Canyon sufficiently. It is HUGE – as in so big that it makes you feel more than a little insignificant. We learnt how long an echo can carry for – thanks to Brendan’s impressive lung capacity. If you ever get the chance, go see it! It will blow you away.

 

On our way out we found HQ and a soggy Bruce – the mad creature had gone for a SWIM! 

We hit the open road with SlowZu, heading for our pit stop for the night – A Little Sossus Lodge. The road was magnificent! At a point I decided we needed fuel (the level was at a panic-inspiring ¾) and plugged ‘nearest fuel = Engen’ into the GPS. This is where he took us. (I say he because he obviously doesn’t like asking for directions). 

Maybe it was once an Engen? I hope some poor Terrorist isn’t on fumes and heading for this Engen! They will be sorely disappointed.

We pushed ahead of SlowZu after a stop at a real petrol station, driving really slow so that they could catch up.

After a long while, when they still hadn’t caught up I got a bit worried and we pulled over to wait. The following are the result of boredom.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two teams (who I won’t name and shame) drove straight past us without stopping to check if we were ok (we were ok, but that’s not the point) and I was highly disappointed. What happened to ‘never leave a Team behind’?

Luckily SlowZu were just being slow and there weren’t any major troubles.

I really loved that stretch of road – you push up clouds of dust behind you as you glide along the surface. In the far distance you can see clouds of moving dust, and you know there’s someone up ahead. I wish I had a photo to share with you!

photo courtesy of Marissa

 

We did a solid day’s drive and arrived at A Little Sossus Campsite just before dark.

HUGE THANK YOU to NALEDI MOTORS for sponsoring this leg of the trip!

Wind & Joe’s…… NEXT

Yours in adventure,

Rox