Day 54 – 59: Aus to Sesriem - Bike Bimble

November 25, 2024 to November 30, 2024

Day 54 – 59: Aus to Sesriem

Type II Fun

Of the major attractions in Nambia, Sosusvlei is probably the most visited. We’d already gone around Fish River Canyon (too hot!) so had to see this one. Between us and the clay pan (with a dead tree) was approximately 350 km of dirt road. Dirt road that is through a desert and the hot season is rapidly approaching. This sounds like fun. We had a few moments (about a day) of thinking we should take the tar road around the whole mess. Cath bravely suggested we should give it a go. Only after fortifying ourselves with more burger and beer from the Bahnhof Hotel.

The little villages shown on the map are spaced about 100 km apart on the road – villages that get smaller and smaller, until they’re basically a petrol pump outside of a farmhouse (at Betta). To get a jump on the first 100 km stretch to Helmeringhausen, we left late in the day to avoid the worst of the heat and started down the dirt.

Within moments we saw the grader. This could be really good or really bad. We had a chat with the operator, and they suggested the road ahead would be really bad, sandy and corrugated and almost not possible for bikes for ~40 km, then it should be fine. But really, don’t try to take the D707 – it’s deep sand. Okay… Only 40 km, how bad can that be?

The first few hundred meters were smooth as asphalt. We had a ridiculously strong tail wind, and we were going downhill. And a few km later, we were pushing our bikes through a sand patch (fighting to hold the bikes in the wind). Long story short, we fought through soft, corrugated road for about those forecast 40 km. We saw the grader working on the road the next morning – it was far less corrugated where they had been, but still soft. Yuck. We survived that bit.

When we started going up hill, out of the plain, the road surface got better for a while. Then softened up again. I’d like to say the road is normally hard and good for bikes and we just got unlucky, but I can’t see that it would be – it’s sand everywhere.

We bashed our way into Helmeringhausen, where there is a little general store – a few essentials and a lot of tourist rubbish. And a restaurant! Just in time for a late lunch and then a snooze in the helinox in the shade. Again, trying to get a jump on the next long stretch, we pushed out in the evening. Probably a bad idea this time, and the routine afternoon westerly wind / gale had sprung up and we fought against it (and the bad road) for only 10 km before collapsing into a culvert.

This stretch between Helmering and Betta had the most variable road surface and scenery. Varying between walking, pushing / dragging the bike through 5-10 cm of sand to a section of rolling hills where the road had been upgraded and it was smooth and fast. Roughly 10 km before arriving in Betta, about where the D707 rejoined our road (the C13/C27), we thought everything was going so well, but the road had another surprise. Clearly more traffic on this section. The road was corrugated. We’re not sure what’s better – bone crunching corrugations or soft sand. What’s worse is both at once. Especially when you need to push through sand going down hill. Real Type II fun.

Betta had a tiny store, just a petrol station really – but they had some baked goods and made us a milkshake. 27 km from Betta was Tolou’s lodge. Before the feed, that sounded impossible, but after eating all the sausage rolls in the store (along with a can of baked beans) we thought we could manage it. More soft sand – but more often ridable than needing to push – so it was only about 2.5 hours.

We somehow ended up not going anywhere the next day. Benni at Tolou’s Lodge made us too welcome. A late start turned into an extended delay until it got cooler, but it didn’t.

The next 16 km to the D827 intersection was also sandy rubbish. From there, the road surface got a fair bit harder. Harder means more corrugations. Better – but still ridiculously slow going.

In the space of a few hours, we met more overland travellers – a couple from the Netherlands cycling the reverse of our route (from Kenya to Cape Town), and a motorcyclist who’d come down the west coast of Africa. Lots of standing on the side of the road (in the baking sun) chatting to the new friends. Commiserating on the state of the road.

We knew we couldn’t get to Sesriem in one day, so we stopped at the last place we had heard cyclists would be allowed to camp – the ranger’s station in a private game reserve. For a small donation, we could stay in the house, with shower and toilet, and lots of running water.

The final stretch into the far more touristy area of Sesriem was slow, long and hot, on reasonable dirt road. A bit sandy, but not as bad as further south.

A few times we’ve wished for a magic wand to make the road better. Or just a bit less bad. But it’s a beautiful road. Stunning scenery nearly the whole way. Few cars (maybe a dozen cars a day) – enough that we’d be able to get help if needed, but sparse enough to make it feel quite deserted. And enough campsites / lodges to be able to get water at least every day.