Swakopmund to Windhoek - 9 Days 605km

Walvis Bay, Desert, Desert, Solitaire, Maltahohe, Marential, Windhoeck

I though the short trip from Swakop to Walvis bay was always going to be a non event and that is how it turned out. It did give me a chance to test out the new MP3 player and move the legs again after a long break (4 days) in Swakop.

The lingering thought during the ride was what was coming next. I knew that I was now going to be entering the desert and this time it would be on dirt roads. In my experience the worst place to ride a bike is in the desert. The 4 things that determine how difficult a ride will be were all against me. The road was unsealed, it was going to be hot, there would be wind and there were no services (water or food) along the way. All this meant I knew I moving towards something that would be tough exactly how tough I wasn't sure.

The easy riding is about to end

At the beginning of the National Park. After this there would be nothing for a while.

Welcome to the desert

It is as hot as it looks

There is some shade over there

By this time in the journey I thought I had this cycling thing sorted, even in the desert. My experience from Sudan meant that I knew that it would be very hot, there would be little to see and I would need a massive amount of water. I loaded up with 10L and departed Walvis bay thinking that it would take 2 days at the most to cover the 205km from Walvis Bay to Solitaire, the next town.

That was my thinking but the desert had other ideas. It was hot, in the early 40's but because there is no shade there is nowhere to hide. The sun seemed to bounce off the rocks and sand on the side of the road to make it even hotter. Then there was the road. I had talked with people beforehand and they had said it was a good gravel road. Good in the car and good on a bike are two different things and it wasn't good on the bike. Patches of the road were smooth and fast while others were sandy and rough. The road was worse than the other dirt roads I had encountered on my travels, there simply wasn't a good lane that I could bike along. At times I was doing 6km/hour pushing through what was mostly sand.

On top of all this there was the elevation. The first 100km took me from sea level up to 1200m. It was over 100km but there was a lot of up/down and on the rough roads in the heat it was tough.

I biked for seven and a half hours and had done a little over 100k. I was starting to feel the affects at this stage so I stopped for some noodles and planned on going through the night to the nearest rest camp around 70km away. The mind was willing but after getting back on and travelling 200m cramp set in. Like every other time I get cramp it started in my right groin. I get a bit of a warning (some moderate cramp) and then I can usually carry on for a while but another 400m up the road I cramped up again. I fell off the bike and rolled around the road trying to make it stop. My day was done.

I have learned that there is very little margin for error in the desert. If you fell hungry or thirsty under normal conditions you have nearly an hour before it starts to become a problem. In the desert you have around 15 minutes before the hunger and thirst can reduce you to a wreck on the side of the road.

I moved off the road to setup camp and realised I had reached the 1300km mark. I took this photo and made sure that I got my fingers around the right way for 13. Instead I got it totally wrong. I was a little tired.

I setup the tent, cramping in most leg muscles at one time or another then watched the sun go down.

The desert is a terrible place to ride a bike but it makes for amazing sunsets. Sitting in the desert watching the sun go down while I tried not to move was really quite special. It was quiet, still, desolate and so very beautiful. I had suffered to get to where I was and it was just nice to sit and enjoy the place. I also realised for the first time that the stars were the same now I was in the Southern Hemisphere (I had been there for a while). So it was nice to see the Southern Cross and think of home.

I didn't sleep well (cramp) but the main problem was that I was low on water. I was down to 1.5L and it meant I would have to rely on charity to get enough water to get the rest of the way.

The top of the pass

I got lucky early on the second day, the men grading the roads had a campsite near by so I got to fill up the water bottles from their tank and I knew I would have enough water for the rest of the day.

I though it would be a reasonably easy 65k to the rest camp but this is the desert. It was hot again, I now had a head wind and there was the Kuiseb pass to get through. This was a long downhill, across a bridge then a very steep uphill.

I arrived after 6 more hours in the sun and then fell down at the entrance to the camp site. I hid in the shade for a while before beginning to think about getting off the round and riding the 8km to get to the site itself. Luckily the owner Christiaan appeared so I got a lift in his bakkie long what was a pretty rough track.

I did wonder why the camp site was 8km from the road but when I got there I totally understood. The view was incredible

I had the day off, slept in the shade and then had a great dinner with Christiaan and his family then it was back on the road.

The Tropic of Capricorn. I had to look up exactly what this was later.

The town of Solitaire - Yes that is all there is.

After 3 days tough riding I arrived at Solitare. I was dirty (not unusual), tired, disheartened and in need of a beer. After so long on the bike I thought I would be able to get through the desert without any problems but it was far tougher than I thought.

During that 3 days it was the first time in months that I was questioning what I was doing here and I had doubts at times if I could get to Solitare on the bike. It was a physical and emotional roller coaster which I wasn't expecting. Sometimes I felt great and thought it was fun and other times I wanted to sit by the side of the road and cry. Still I got there in the end.

In Solitare I had some beer and worked on a plan.
I needed to find better dirt roads and ideally somewhere a little cooler. I had been planning to go to Sesriem but after talking with the locals I found out the road was very sandy so that was out. The only alternative was to head to Maltahohe 170km away. From there I could either get back on the tar road or head further South on the dirt.
I had a day off and spent most of the day sitting in a restaurant watching tourists and the odd local arrive at the petrol station. It made for interesting viewing watching and listening to tourist dressed in safari outfits (beige trousers and shirts with pockets everywhere) complaining about the heat. Late in the day something very unexpected happened Two other cyclists arrived!

They looked as tired as I felt the day before so I gave them a while to eat and drink before I went over. Philip and Fran http://detouring.org had been following much the same route through Africa as I had taken but they started from China instead of London. It was a great relief to find that they found the ride from Walvis Bay as tough as I had and we had dinner and shared stories of the journey through Africa.

The next day it was back on what was promised to be a better road and to hope to Maltahohe.

There was some stunning scenery, some monkeys and a long day to get there just before dark. There was a tailwind (for the last time) so I managed to cover the 170k in the day. I dropped the bike at a hostel then went into town looking for food.

I went to a take aways and there were people sitting behind the counter drinking beers. I ate something then joined them. Namibia was always really friendly and I found it was culturally very similar to New Zealand. I ended up drinking beer then Brandy and Coke (the national drink of Namibia and South Africa)  for most of the evening. We talked rugby, cricket, farming and about New Zealand. It was just like being in a small town on the West Coast and it was a really great way to end what had been a rough section of the journey.

Breakfast and another day off

So I recovered from the night before and set about seeing if I could get the bike fixed. 5 of the 6 screws holding the small sprocket (Granny Gear) had fallen out on the rough roads so I needed to get that sorted. There was no bike shop in town so I would need to get to Windhoek to get it fixed. Not ideal but there was not much I could do.

I was eating dinner at the only pub in town when Philip and Fran appeared. This lead to a number of beers, a lot of laughs and they eventually kicked is out late in the evening. It made for a rough ride the next day to Mariental but was well worth it. On the way a gear cable snapped with 30k to go so I was pushing a very large gear for the final part of the ride.

In Mariental it was a bus to Windhoek and to what I had been told was one of the best cities in Africa.