4 January – Aus, Namibie

As I write this, it is Thursday 3 January and we sit on a campsite called Mount D’Urban at about 20 km north of Helmeringhausen in Namibia. After the terrible events of last Saturday, Sunday was slightly quieter, although Lisa had to intervene in the upsurge of our neighbors at the campsite in Rehoboth. These people were drinking and gambling from 10 o’clock in the morning and by the end of the afternoon it became unpleasant. Luckily the guard of the campsite was quick to spot and he removed them from the camp because they started to threaten with knives. Sociable huh?

The next day, with the guard, we had a good laugh about it.

The owner of the campsite came along to talk with us about the events of Saturday and invited us for a buffet at Newyear’s Eve.

The last day of the year was strange. Without children, family or friends in a foreign country on a campsite. During the buffet we talked to a Bulgarian couple who had been living in Cape Town for 30 years and were able speak very relaxed about South Africa. They were with friends in Namibia. Also a Swiss couple sat at the table with us and they were curious about our experiences.

Before 12 o’clock, we went to the tent because we were just very tired. During the buffet there was a big thunderstorm passing by and that resulted in an incredible amount of mosquitoes. Millions of mosquitoes were present and they were really everywhere. There was nothing to do against it, even a fire did not help. Eventually we entered the tent, but also there they could enter because the mosquito nets had holes which were too big. By eventually extinguishing all the lights and not moving we could manage. Happy New Year!

On 1 January we left south towards Mariental on the main road B1. This is an excellent road that runs from Cape Town (N7) to Windhoek and then to Angola. Although the car had had maintenance on the 24th I heard strange noises in the V-belt which, and I am not a mechanic, in my opinion had to do with slipping. It sounded like the belt was slipping over the drive shaft and that is something you don’t want to hear. In Mariental a Toyota garage was present and we could go there the next day. A campsite in Mariental was not easy to find; the first 2 were closed (Newyears Day….). But the third, located in the Hardap Nature Reserve, was open. The reservoir contains a large part of the water reserve of Namibia and is also used for irrigation so there is much agriculture in the area. The campsite was small but from the restaurant we had a beautiful view, see the pictures.

While we were sitting on the terrace, we heard 50 m lower and about 500 m away suddenly shouting and we saw people in the water. Lisa was quick to know that this was not right and warned the staff of the restaurant. It turned out that two people, a mother of 32 and her stepson of 13, had fallen into the water while taking a photograph.

They both drowned.

The lake is very deep and all attempts to salvage the bodies failed. Lisa spoke later in the evening with an policeman who was completely devastated and said that a salvage team would come out the next day. What a horrible event.

Wednesday we left after we had been kept out of sleep all night by heavy winds that shook the tent, but also took care of falling temperatures. Because we were in the Desert, the ablutions were full of locusts so the toilet visit was a challenge.

At the garage we were kindly welcomed and the car was ready within the hour, with 3 new belt mounted. The mechanic had seen some damage on one of the strings caused by the slipping and had decided to replace all three of them immediately.

After the car got filled with diesel and a good breakfast in a ‘ padstal ‘ we drove westward to Maltahohe (120 km) over a fabulous road without any traffic. In Maltahohe we did shopping. There were a lot of begging children who were provided by Lisa with food (bread, toppings, chips and drinks).

After Maltahohe we drove southwards towards Helmeringhausen (120 km) over an excellent, unpaved road. This road runs parallel to the fault line between the plateau and the desert, see the pictures. The faults indicate where South America broken loose of Africa; Wonderful that you can still see this!

Helmeringhausen is a very small place with 1 shop, 1 camping one a gasoline pump all in 1 street. We were still forgetting some small things so we shopped there…..

The camping where we are now is new, owned by a Boeren family and it is managed by a cheerful young man coming from Opuwo in North Namibia. He is a civil engineer but has lost his job and is now, temporarily, the camping manager here. Together with the owner, whom he knows of his earlier work, he set up the campsite. We talked to him last night about Namibia, his family and his work. If there are more Namibians like him, it will be OK here! If this campground is ready, it will, without any doubt, be very busy as it is beautiful here. Lonely for use because we are the only guests. There was no living soul in the neighboring (10 km) environment last night.

Today promises to be a very hot day, so we look for shadows. Tomorrow we continue to Aus and then the day thereafter on to Luderitz

Thursday, January 3 was incredibly hot. The camp site has virtually no shadow and the wind also disappeared while the temperature went up to above 40 degrees. To our great surprise, there was a rainshower later in the afternoon. Yes rain, really. It was just delicious.

At night we looked at the Milky Way that is very clearly visible. Not so strange as there is no light to see in the wide area.

Today, Friday 4 January we drove through Helmeringhausen to Aus, to the B4. This is the road that will take us tomorrow to Luderitz where we stay until Tuesday morning. The road to Aus went through a landscape reminiscent of Mars, red with lots of stones. Very interesting to see.

Here we are again on an excellent campsite with private shower and toilet, but especially a lot of shade.