December 2, 2024 to December 5, 2024
Day 61-64: Sesriem -> Solitaire -> Windhoek
We were getting ready to leave Sesriem (the settlement at the entrance of the park with the dead tree) and in rolled a couple of cycle tourists. The Germans! We’d been hearing about a couple of Germans that were 3 days / 4 days / a few days ahead of us since Springbok. We managed to overtake them in Aus – not because we were going particularly fast; they took a few days off the bike to complete university applications.
We chatted about the road / sandy track we’d been following, the road ahead, and Johannes spent a little effort trying to convince us to ride up the west coast of Africa. Tempting, but the visa struggles (especially getting a visa for Nigeria, Cameroon, and Congo) seem real. DRC visa seems almost impossible.
They make cycle tourists younger and younger – Johannes and Helena are mid-twenties and tackling the west coast of Africa. Makes us feel… old…
We ran out of adjectives to describe how bad the road is (in English – the Germans probably could have continued in a few other languages) and drifted onto politics & life, and before we knew it, it was too late to go on. Oh well, another night behind the petrol station. This night the normal camp and group camp was really full, so we did get to spend the night at the petrol station. Fine apart from the fridge compressors cutting in and out.
Headed off at sunrise. The Germans had to visit the dead tree and sand dunes, so we waved goodbye and took the tar road 12 km east to meet the C12. Some good timing – Julie and Nigel drove past just as we got to the dirt road.
Back on the dirt. It must be hard work keeping the roads in some sort of serviceable condition given the number of tourists in big four-wheel drive cars and trucks bashing down them. We met more grader teams working on this stretch. There is a reasonable difference between a road that can be used by a car and one that is comfortable for a cyclist.
There was a small hill on the way to Solitaire. About 100 m of elevation over 5 km. It looked like nothing much on the map. It took 40 minutes (felt like longer). Quite dispiriting to look at the bike computer continuing to show 6 km/h while slogging up a sandy and bumpy road. In the sun.
The scenery was just as marvellous when we looked up from the road to see it. Rugged hills in various colours and red and sand-y sand. Not significantly different to the section south of Sesriem (that bit was better).
The good news is the road got better as we approached Solitaire. Only 8 hours to ride 83 km. We had a plan to go on a little (make the next few days a bit easier). But after we ate everything left in the pie warmer at the bakery, and a couple of slices of (no-longer-Namibia’s-best-since-the-baker-passed-away) apple pie and had a snooze, it was getting late. We pitched the tent in the Solitaire campground and fell into the swimming pool.
Just on dark, the Germans rode in. They’d managed to see the dunes, see the dead trees, and ride on the horrible road in the heat of the day to get to Solitaire just after sunset. Not surprisingly they were too stuffed to get up early the next day. Hope they made it to Swakopmund to meet their schedule – and we see them again somewhere on the road one day.
Another early day – aiming to beat some of the heat. It started ok on the road to Swakopmund, tail wind and all. Of course we turned off after 10 km, onto more corrugations. Then sand as well. And a side wind. The wind was the tricky one today. It picked up strength until we found we were being sand blasted by a hair dryer. It’s hard to ride side by side to shelter one from the wind when the road is chopped up – so we both copped it. Oh, and the pass. This road has a small pass (Spreetshoogte Pass) with a climb of ~450 m. That’s ok. The climb is only 4 km long. Apparently the max gradient is 22%. Thankfully the steepest part of the road is paved with bricks. Yeah, we pushed the bikes up that one – with a sleep when nearly at the top (there was a rest spot and a tree). We’d been told (by other cycle tourists!) that this way was quite pretty and should be easy enough. Ok, it was a pretty good view from the top. I don’t think I’d recommend going up that hill to a cyclist.
The gale changed direction around after our multi-hour break, so we got pushed along a vastly better road for a few hours. We stopped and camped next to the road when it got dark. No traffic all night. Lots of stars.
The road continued to get better the closer we got to Windhoek. Better as in, less sandy and harder packed. For a day or so we had very hard packed rocks. Sort of like cobblestones, where about half of the cobbles were missing. Tiring having the body shaken about like that – and we were worried something would break on the bike if we went faster. Good road for 4wd cars though – they can really zip along (but there isn’t much traffic, and they all gave us plenty of space).
Not a lot of water available for a 100 km stretch, so we filled up at a farm house and did that stretch in a long day. At least it was flat and the road hard (if bouncy). No breaks to avoid the heat today – not sure why, something to do with it being Cath’s birthday and she just wanted to get to a place with shade and a breeze so she could relax, but it didn’t happen (although there were plenty of spots available if we’d tried).
We met some (French) Swiss cyclists going the other way (who’d already run out of water – they stopped a car to get help while we were talking to them). One had skinny tyres, but they didn’t want to hear the warnings about the sandy roads. They’ll work it out. One of them cycled up the east coast of South America, so clearly happy to slog it out though nothing.
Slept at a campground, refilled the water bottles. A short day into Windhoek and tar roads. We might give the dirt roads a miss for the next little while.
Still trying to decide between the Caprivi strip (northern Namibia), or straight through the boring roads of Botswana (both options are asphalt!). We met a cycle tourist (another young German – again Johannes) in a café in Windhoek who had just come from Botswana, so this route is looking like the winner now.
Today's ride: 308 km (191 miles)
Total: 3,111 km (1,932 miles)
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