November 22, 2024 to November 24, 2024
Day 51-54: Orange river to Aus
There are a few options for tackling southern Namibia. The quickest would be to take the highway from the border, straight to Windhoek. The most touristic would be to go via the Fish River Canyon on the reportedly great dirt road. This had some attraction, but after thinking about it for a while, we thought that following a dirt road for a few days to go to a look out (where the tourists in their cars would also be) would be anti-climactic. We ended up with the slightly longer dirt road along the border. Someone else on their blog has called the road along the Orange river the best of Namibia.
It also helped that there was a hot weather spell around Keetmanshoop (on the highway) and it is supposed to be cooler slightly closer to the coast.
We battled our way along the (pretty good) dirt road that follows the Orange river. We haven’t seen anything of Namibia to compare it to, but it is a pretty good route. And hot. Hopefully photos will do it justice.
The flat tyres seem to come when there is no shade. If we stopped at any random time and looked around, there would likely be no shade. This time an acacia thorn had gone completely though - I thought it was a nail when I first saw it. Schwalbe tyres are as good as we’ve found, but nothing will keep out these thorns.
We’d heard about a campground that might be there, might have been abandoned. At Bo Plaats (someone later referred to it as a Banana farm). There must have been a lease gone wrong as we saw no sign of bananas, or any plantation, and the caretaker of the campsite said the farmer had been moved on as he wasn't caring for the land or the camp. This worked well for us, the facilities (toilets, fireplaces, tables, lounge chairs) were all new, and the grass was greening up. Running water and WiFi, and cheap (N$110 / person). Reading the register when we signed in indicated that there was a customer every 4-5 days. Far from exceeding its capacity at about 10 allotments. And it can’t be covering the cost of the caretaker and night watchman.
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Possibly the desert toktokkie.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physosterna_cribripes
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/524017-Adesmia-cribripes/browse_photos
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The gravel road continued mostly flat along the river. It was interesting to see paw prints on the road...had there been a leopard headed in our direction last night? Or someone travelling with their doggo. We didn't find out. But we did spot the cause for all the little handprints: baboons on the river. Fortunately, they weren't interested in us rattling and squeaking past!
There was quite a climb from the river to the tar road. One of those moments where we were reminded to look back at the view from time to time. It was a spectacular desert landscape that we had ridden through that looked quite dramatic from the top.
Rosh Pinah is a mining town. You can see it. There is money, the town looks planned. Not just the housing, but there was a smart cafe, shady walking areas and everyone looked well presented. We never felt unsafe in South Africa, but this felt safe and welcoming. It’s probably in our expectations, but the vibe has been getting better as we go north.
We killed some time until it got cooler by setting up the chairs in the main shopping way. We must look completely odd, but everyone was friendly, and a few asked about our trip. We relocated to the cafe early afternoon for a burger. Reviews had said the portions were large and they weren't making it up. A perfect fix for Cath’s mid-day lethargy (the coffee must have worn off).
Rosh Pinar to the next water source at Aus is 168km with a bit of a climb. A bit further than one day for us. We had to find a way to do this without being in the direct sun for too long. Since we had a southerly wind, we started in the evening, heading toward some known ‘wild’ campsites along the road. We have been using iOverlander a bit and found a few places others have reported. The first was at 30km. When we found the culvert, we still felt there was more to get out of the evening, so climbed a little longer then sailed downhill to find an almost perfect spot to camp out of sight of the almost deserted road.
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The ride to Aus went swimmingly until we had about 40km to go. How things can turn with a puff of wind. On stopping at about 10am (before it got properly hot) and realising we had made good time, rather than wait for the sun to go away in the roadside shelter as planned, we both decided that at this pace, we would be in Aus in about 2 hours. Let's do it! 3 hours after the rest stop and almost 7 in the saddle with some small rests along the way, we dragged ourselves into Aus and collapsed into the shop. Delighted (and ridiculously lucky) that it was open on a Sunday afternoon so we could rehydrate with a 2 L bottle of sugar water.
A good burger at the Bahnhof Hotel followed by iced water at the campsite. That was a good end to the day, but it got better when a Botswanan traveller told us some facts about the route we had planned for Botswana and redesigned our trip for the section out of Windhoek. I think we would have discovered this eventually but good to know where to avoid in Botswana.
Today's ride: 314 km (195 miles)
Total: 2,455 km (1,525 miles)
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