Desert Rhino Lodge

 

After 1 last rescue on the road to Sesfontein, we said goodbye to the Desert Magic guys.

We resisted the urge to stop in at the Tytanic Bar in Sesfontein, and hit the road to Desert Rhino. After leaving George and Renee, we bumped and jived our way to the lodge. Some much needed comfort at last!

Blinkie se Gat

After a night at Camp Site 3 at Puros, we set out to find the elusive desert elephants.

The drive along the Hoarusib river was pretty and we even managed to find a couple of new birds 😊

At around 13:00 we were rewarded with a great sighting of 14 cows and calves.  A little further down the river we found a lone bull, so there definitely are still elephants in the Namib.

Now to find a good spot to setup camp for the last night of our Shelton Coast adventure. 

Volker found a great site next to a cliff face and it will forever be known as "Blinkie se Gat" 😂

A braai with loads of meat,  baked potatoes, pap, chakalaka and fresh salad was a fitting "Last Supper" to a wonderful trip with Desert Magic.

Thanks Volker, Johnny and Nixon for taking such good care of us.  You guys put the magic into "Desert Magic " 😊

Blinkie shopping on the way to Puros!

Marble Mine and searching for Desert Ellies

 

Started the day off with a visit to Marble Mine. 

The rest of the day was spent looking for elephants on the way to Puros, but all we found was evidence of the great grey beasts  😀

Etambura

After a stop at Red Drum to check for the stones left by some of our party on a previous visit, we made our way to Etambura.

A little gem nestled on the top of a mountain near Marble Mine. 

Hartman Valley

Today was an uneventful, but scenically spectacular day, as we said goodbye to the dunes and the Kunene river, and made our way to the Hartman valley and from there to the Marienfluss. From there we traversed 'Mrs van Zyl' to our overnight stop at Etambura lodge.

Kunene River Camp

Day 4 on our skeleton coast adventure didn't bring any major surprises. Just another day of bashing through the dunes and an occasional snatch rope recovery all the way along the Kunene river to our overnight camp next to the river.

What was surprising, or maybe not, was the score card,  Dunes 2, Pajero 0.

D(une) Day

An early start and to the dreaded Dune Day.   2 pied crows followed us for most of the day... Was this an ominous sign of things to come?  😯

Fortunately we all survived despite our nerves.

Pirates of the Kunene?

 

After we'd setup camp, Volker decided that it was time to cool down.   A short walk down to the  River and soon all the Pirates (well, almost all :-)) donned their swimming costumes and had a dip in cool waters of the Kunene River.

The view from our Camp Loo .... not too shabby I'd say!

Kunene River Car Wash

Starting day three with a hearty breakfast of Leberkäse and eggs proved to be a very good idea for what turned out to be a long day.

We started off well enough on our 150km trip all the way along the last stretch of beach to the Kunene mouth. But then the fortunes turned.

Our first incident occurred on a very churned up, left hand uphill, which saw us neatly beached on the crest. Luckily a quick reverse tug by the sweeper support vehicle gave us a chance to try again and crest successfully the second time around.

Following on from a quick sandy lunch at 'Bosluis baai' , we continued uneventfully until we hit a patch of what was later relayed to us as being 'sugar sand', which might just have been BS to make us feel better. In any event the sand did short work of our forward momentum and within a second or two we were solidly stuck. Not to mention the two Landy's that were following us.

After a lot of digging in the sand,  which made me feel ten again, and some snatching and tugging with kinetic straps, we once again got underway. Our intended destination was the Kunene mouth where we could wash off the cars and get out some of the sea salt that had accumulated under the car chassi's from all the beach driving. All went well until one of our party got solidly stuck in the mud on the edge of the river. This recovery resulted in a lot of mud digging and numerous forward and reverse snatches until finally the mud relinquished it's hold and we could finally make our way to our camp spot for the evening,  which was nestled beautifully in a hole cradled on all sides by the  dune sea. This then marked the end of a long day on the Skeleton Coast.

Agate Mountain to Kunene Mouth

After a stop at Agate Mountain, we were off to the Kunene River mouth.

Numerous stops along the way. Not all of them as uneventful a the one at the seal colony at Cape Friar (cold in Portuguese)  😉.

The Pajero was the first to get bogged down in the sand!

The old and the new?

New cars in the distance...  From the old oil rig wreck in the Namib

Survived the first sleep in the Skeleton Coast

Left Swakopmund on time and started making our way up the coast heading for the Kunuene. Easy going on the salt road to Terrace bay, all be it in wet misty conditions,  so that the white cars looked like they had driven through mounds of baby poop.

Filled up at Terrace bay for the last time,  when we noticed diesel and dust muck all over our back window. Turned out to be a cracked jerrycan on the roof which was slowly disgorging it's contents all over the back of the car, including our roof rack table.  So before we could setup camp for the night,  we made a stop next to the sea and washed of the back with loads of sea water. While we were doing this, some of our party were already practising there recovery skills at getting out of the 'stuck in beach sand condition'.

Once we were again reasonably diesel free, we made it to our overnight camp,  where our newly acquired rooftop tent setup skill came in handy,  as it only took us a quick five minutes to get setup for the night.

In the interim, our host Folker and his crew had already started a raging fire for us to huddle around with some good red wine, which helped to ward off a chilly evening wind which had started. This was followed by a lovely chicken and lamb sosatie braai,  and then off to bed for a well deserved rest.

So ended the first day on the Skeleton Coast.

The road to Terrace Bay

Miles and miles of nothing but sand and salt

Entrance to the Skeleton Coast Park

1st wreck stop

Our first wreck of the trip, The Zeila.

Convoy on it's way

Sitting in Cafe Anton in Swakopmund having 'Kaffee und Kuchen '.  Clearly all the German konditor have left. ?😢😢

Naukluft - Guab Pass

Sossusvlei

The view of the night sky just after Sundown is quite spectacular. 

After a good night's sleep,  and once all the "Lemmings" had rushed off to be the first to get to the World famous Red dunes,  we had breakfast and then made our way to see them ourselves.

Once again, many were covered in grass!

Sossusvlei

After crossing the border at Sendlingsdrift,  using the cute little two vehicle pont, we continued our drive north on Namibian dirt roads were speeds of 100-120km/h are quite comfortable as they don't have potholes. Besides dodging occasional rubble such as shredded tyres, mud guards and other flotsam deposited there by unlucky travels, we had an easy drive to take us a total of 2200km from home.

So now finding ourselves at Sossusvlei, and two nights of fixed accommodation,  we will enjoy the crisp white linen, hot showers and most importantly the ice cold G&T's in this magical desert setting.