Central Namibia - Three weeks of hell (not)!

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JoshJ
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Re: Central Namibia - Three weeks of hell (not)!

Post by JoshJ »

Ek wag ook elke dag in spanning vir Peter en Chris se updates. Goeie werk manne.

Mooi fotos Peter. Werklik
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Regards,
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Re: Central Namibia - Three weeks of hell (not)!

Post by Jules »

Great Pics en vervolg verhaal Pete, werklik n voorreg om jou Pics en skryfstyl te volg !!!
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Peter Connan
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Re: Central Namibia - Three weeks of hell (not)!

Post by Peter Connan »

Dankie Dirk, Josh en Jules
Mag ons ons kenniskry met lekkerkry aanhoukry.
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Peter Connan
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Re: Central Namibia - Three weeks of hell (not)!

Post by Peter Connan »

20 April:

This was supposed to be a very short day. Just 50km to Mile 108. But of course, firstly we hadn't reached our destination the previous night.
Map20Apr.JPG
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When I awoke, I found that the wind had died to nothing, and Gerrit had at some point in the night re-erected his tent.
How many sunrises?
How many sunrises?
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The sun had hardly risen when a couple of crows pitched up. I still struggle to imagine what they live on out here.
Murder
Murder
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This morning they were lucky, because last night's wind had knocked Gerrit's bottle of Mrs. Balls of the table.
Checkup
Checkup
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Soon, we were driving through the Messum Crater.
Nothing
Nothing
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This piece of earth is the harshest I have ever visited. The only living thing we saw in the crater was some lichen on a rock. However, as we exited the crater, we found two cars standing in the (now single-car-width graded) road. Fortunately, they were just having morning tea. As they were moving their cars out of the road, we exhanged pleasantries, and discovered that one of the guys was a geologist who knew the area, and his wife was a botanist.

They gave us some very interesting facts about the crater and the Welwitschias.
Turns out this crater, which is 23km in diameter, is volcanic in origin, and rocks expelled by the explosion were found at the coast, nearly 50km away. Similar to Krakatoa, but several times bigger.

The road to the coast from here was pretty good (seems most people who come here come from the coast and go straight back after), and soon we reached Mile 108 campsite.
I saw the Sign
I saw the Sign
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Shortly before we left home, I had read on 4x4 community that the operator here had lost their concession, but since somebody had taken our money, I kived in hope. Which turned out to be false. None of the commodities on the sign above were available here, as the place was completely deserted, and everything locked up...

So, we had brunch and got our feet wet,
Op pad strand toe
Op pad strand toe
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Skulpies
Skulpies
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Meeu
Meeu
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Peter Connan
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Re: Central Namibia - Three weeks of hell (not)!

Post by Peter Connan »

Since it was still reasonably early, we decided to push on to Henties.

But first, the obligatory stop at the Cape Cross Seal reserve.
Robbe
Robbe
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Suckling
Suckling
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Watersports
Watersports
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And, having reached Henties before 3PM, we filled up and decided to carry on to Swakop. Our campsite in Swakop also said they had room for us, so on we went.

Our next stop was the shipwreck of the Zeile Hangana, where I committed stupidity, sailing on through the parking lot (in existing tracks), en toe moes ek eers " tydelik vertoef", while I took a couple of photos,
Zeila Hangana
Zeila Hangana
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and let some air out of the tires. Then, engage low range, second gear, and give it gas to get back up off the beach.

We reached Swakop without further mishap, and booked into the very nice Alte Brucke campsite.
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Peter Connan
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Re: Central Namibia - Three weeks of hell (not)!

Post by Peter Connan »

21 April

Having arrived in Swakop a day early gave us a chance to recover somewhat. Early in the morning, we chucked my flat spare wheel on the roof of Gerrit's patrol, and headed to Walvis.

At Silverton Radiators, we explained the damage and the repair, and they said they couldn't do any better. Of course, a new radiator wasn't available.
At the exhaust shop one block away, they replaced one of Gerrit's silencers (which had broken loose from it's pipe), at the tire dealer a block further along, I got a gaiter installed (without it costing me a cent), and at the Midas close by we got a number of other bits and pieces (one of my door catches on the trailer had broken, I had lost a couple of rivets, Gerrit's one rear light cluster was falling out, my gas bottle had fallen off, destroying the regulator it was attached to, and so forth).

In the mean time, the girls hit the town in my car, and got the groceries for the last half of the trip. In the afternoon, we hit the beach. I, of course, do this slightly differently from other people, and found some birds to shoot.
Kelp Gull (immature)
Kelp Gull (immature)
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Little Egret
Little Egret
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Caspian Tern
Caspian Tern
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Hartlaub's Gull (immature)
Hartlaub's Gull (immature)
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Later, JoshJ and Trudy came for a braai. Gerrit did us a beautiful Snoek and sweet potato while the girls made a salad and I lent his drilling machine and rivet gun, and then installed his new manual hubs. Dit was 'n baie lekker kuier, dankie weereens Joshua!
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Re: Central Namibia - Three weeks of hell (not)!

Post by Jorrie »

Dankie Piet. Pragtige fotos. Lyk my ek moet maar my fotografiese toerusting opgradeer.
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JoshJ
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Re: Central Namibia - Three weeks of hell (not)!

Post by JoshJ »

Plesier Peter. Was n lekker kuier, werk en braai sessie. Ook lekker gewees om Gerrit te ontmoet. :thumbup:
Being alive is a Blessing!!

Regards,
Joshua
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Re: Central Namibia - Three weeks of hell (not)!

Post by Peter Connan »

Dankie Jorrie en Josh

22 April:

There are a lot of bird photography opportunities in the vicinity of Walvisbay, and this morning was my only chance. With a promise to be back by lunch-time, I got moving early.

I was astounded by how busy the shipping lane is between Walvis and Swakop.
Workboat
Workboat
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Line 'em up
Line 'em up
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When I stopped on the promenade on the lagoon, it was just startig to get light. A flock of Lesser Flamingos stood feeding in the shallows, and I slowly started approaching them.
Legs for miles
Legs for miles
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Touchdown
Touchdown
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Once the sun was up, it was time to move on. I followed along the shore, then at the entrance to the salt works, I took the road to Paaltjies. It was a saturday morning, so there were cylists, a jogger, and several fishermen along the way. The birdlife was fantastic
Black-necked Grebe
Black-necked Grebe
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Though what really surprised me was this guy and his mate
Jakkals
Jakkals
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Paaltjiespad
Paaltjiespad
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Everywhere were flocks of birds (in this case, a mix of Terns)
Sterretjies
Sterretjies
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Reaching Paaltjies, I headed back, and then took the road to Sandwhich Harbor. I knew I didn't have time to get there, and several people had told me that it's dangerous to go there alone, but I found a track heading into the dunes and took it anyway.

But by the top of the dune the track had disappeared, and since this is a national reserve with limited access, I thought I had better turn around.
Spoorsny
Spoorsny
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Coming back, I saw a group of vehicles climbing a steeper dune. The shape of one looked familiar, so I decided to join them.
Toergroep
Toergroep
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Turned out to be a Y60, a 101" Forward-control Landy and a Defender with a BMW M3 engine. Chatting to the leader of the group (Hans, who drives the Patrol), they were on their way to Sandwhich. He invited me to come along as far as the beach, then follow the beach (5km) back to Paaltjies.

It was astounding to see how the two landies struggled in the sand. The two Patrols never had to take a second run, the Landies both took several tries at each dune.

Soon I was heading back along the coast. Flocks of cormorant shared the shore with fishermen.
Cormorants
Cormorants
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Cormorant
Cormorant
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Turns out the girls had forgotten about asking me to be back by lunch, and were somewhere in the town, and with no desire to drive up and down the town, I just took an afternoon nap. They returned at about 3pm, and then Megan (our youngest) discovered that she had left her phone somewhere in town, so back we went. No sign of the phone though.

I did get visits from Hennie Lacock (Sniper on sa4x4 community) and Graham (Tiny here), which was great.

That evening, Gerrit sponsored us for a visit to the fabulous Jetty1905 restaurant
Jetty
Jetty
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Swakop
Swakop
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Great White Pelican
Great White Pelican
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Anthony Forgey
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Re: Central Namibia - Three weeks of hell (not)!

Post by Anthony Forgey »

Hey Peter, your photography skills are very, very good. I'm no photographer, but these are all national geographic quality!!!
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