We’re almost there! The tour guide looked back at us and said it in a “great news” way! bunch of 6 tourists struggling to climb a sand dune at the national park near Little Soussus, the park is called Sousssusvlei, which is 580,000 Hectare. The size of Belgium and Scotland together! we were climbing in one line behind our tour guide to reach the top of the dune which was around 70 meters high! Did I really wake up for this? It is like we don’t have a desert in Qatar! Or like I have never climbed a sand dune! I didn’t want to tell them that being in the dunes is like walking the dog to them, but I have pretended a tourist and enjoyed the moment like they did! Yes, they asked me questions whether Qatar is similar to this or not, here is the answer: each Desert has its own magic, its own soul, and its own glow. The more deserts I see the more I fall in love with them. I am proud when they call me the sand guy, the desert boy or son of the desert. This is where I belong. Although in reality I am just an Arab city boy! This was the highlight of Namibia to me. now I will start from day one in This beautiful country.
Namibia is one of the most important stations on this trip, yet it’s the country that gave me hard time with the visa the most too. I had to obtain a residency in Tanzania in order to apply for a Namibian Visa, other than that, staying for around 11-12 days here! I don’t want to do the same “usual Thing” and go somewhere else until I meet with the rest of the group, that’s why I was pushing to get it done. Otherwise I would be somewhere in Botswana or South Africa until we regroup again. So, the day I left Botswana to Namibia I was worried the most, of either being rejected, or the visa is not valid, or anything! But it was smoother than any other border except the tour group of Germans who were there at the border and caused a bit of delay. Most of them were curios and friendly except one weird guy who never said a word. I was standing inside the customs office, and to him I was blocking the exit, meanwhile I was checking my paper standing in the queue, I noticed someone standing to my left and staring at my face, I noticed him and said sorry! Moved away so he can pass! Then he shook his head annoyed! Excuse me? what’s your problem? I said to him! You could have just told me you would pass and I would move! I even said sorry to you! He ignored me and went out! I continued riding that day with UB to a remote town in the middle of nowhere, called Mudumu National Park, but facing Botswana, and on the other side, you could see lots of elephants, hippos, birds and one Crocodile which I haven’t seen. In remote areas in Namibia, electricity is limited, and WIFI too. So, we didn’t have a proper WIFI that day, it was a limited one with a satellite connection. It is sometimes good to stay away
from technology and detox social media once in a while. The place is owned by white people who are
From Namibia, and I guess originally from Germany, very welcoming and friendly. We have enjoyed one night of great food and in that night, I have shared the room with UB, the rooms were a walking distance from the main building, but during the night we weren’t allowed to walk alone, someone from the staff has to escort us with a big flash light. We have been hearing stories of elephants walking around the camp, tracks of lions and leopards. I haven’t seen any lion but during the night UB heard some noise outside the bathroom, and when he sneaked in to check what it was, it was a big elephant walking around, unfortunately I haven’t heard anything as I was in deep sleep “snoring” as UB said! I missed that.
The deeper we rode into Namibia, the more challenging the rides got, but the real deal would start right after Etosha, where we spent 2 nights there, to visit the Etosha National Park. It was a long tarmac road, on the way I rode into some gravel to see the moba Metorite, which wasn’t impressive to me, however I have enjoyed the bit of gravel I did. In Etosha, stayed at that amazing Lodge with a great WIFI and delicious buffet, next day we did Etosha National Park to see more animals, to me I already had enough of seeing animals, but since it is there better to see than just sit at the hotel, so I’ve prepared my gear and cameras, got into the truck which took 6 persons in capacity, and continued on that dusty ride and first animal we saw was the giraffe, it wasn’t any motivating to me except that I was looking to see an animal that I haven’t seen in the all previous national parks, until I saw the rhino from distance, then the driver started chasing another one, which took us approximately 40 minutes just to see and take a good picture of it. We were so patient to wait, for few photos. Until here this was the only impressive thing to me, but when we were getting ready to leave, by sunset, we spotted some giraffes walking towards the road, and I managed to talk this photo of the giraffe and sunset, which looked like the giraffe is kissing the sun! wow! This was the most amazing part of the whole visit that took us 4 hours to do! In the beginning I thought 4 hours is too long for a national park, but I haven’t felt the time as it flew! Etosha was beautiful, next day is a big gravel day!
We did couple of gravel rides until we reached mount Etjo, where we have seen another rhino and elephants just in front of us! Carried on next day with another gravel ride to Swakopmund, where have met with the Atlantic ocean, this ride was special, I was riding all day with UB, we were going a bit fast on gravel, temperature was 36, and as I am 37 km from the ocean, I felt the breeze of the ocean, temperature dropped from 36 to 17 and I started smelling something I know very well! Yes! This is the smell of the ocean, without noticing we have gone a bit faster until we reached the first city had a meal then headed to Swakopmund, which is a German colony where all buildings and designed the German way, at least there are many options to walk around the city and have some different type of restaurants. In the briefing for next day, Kevin pointed at us saying we were going too fast, and we don’t want to end our trip this way because roads can be really tricky here, no matter how good we are, this has slowed me down, as I have promised my daughter and mother that I will make it and fly back home!
After Swakopmund, is one of the most challenging riding days, 100% gravel and sandy rides, for 366 KM! we have gone slower, but we were the second who arrived, to Little Soussus Lodge, very relaxing lodge in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by Oryxes which I can tell it is a true desert, spending 2 nights here so next day we visit the oldest desert in the world! Sossusvlei and Seisreim canyon, we did the tour and had breakfast under a 1500 years old tree, if that tree just can talk, what stories it would tell? The shape of that tree was amazing, growing up and goes back to the ground to re-grow again as another tree. Breakfast was simple, we were 6 and I noticed Angelica was so quiet that day, she didn’t even climb up the dune with us. I have noticed she is not the Angel I know in The Silk Road trip and morocco trip. Something is different, I was hoping she was ok.
After the 2 relaxing nights in the desert, we had the most challenging day of the whole trip, riding through the desert to reach further south to a small lodge called Bahnhof hotel, which shows everything German in it. The ride was very difficult but way easier than how it was described. We all have arrived and angelica is not there yet, I am pretty sure she would be there since she took the tarmac road which is safer than what we have gone through! But we heard the bad news, Angel crashed into a bridge broke her leg and shoulder! Horrible shocking news to me, I felt she wasn’t ok the day before, she even told me that she was scared! I hope she recovers soon.
The last full riding day in Namibia we did another gravel road to AI Ais, riding next to the orange river facing south Africa, as usual riding with UB until we reached the fish river canyon, stayed at the amazing hotel which is so route 66 theme, this is it, Namibia is the highlight of the trip so far, and I guess South Africa which we will cross tomorrow is not as impressive as Namibia.
with the elephants in mount etjo
sunset in the desert
fish river canyon
