Day 23 TRANSPORT BIKE TO RUNDU 150km

Had a good night's sleep and woke up with a new zest for life and went over to The Famous Five and bid them my final farewell. 

Went over to reception where Kobus helped me find someone to take the bike to Rundu, the guy came around negotiated a price and then went to fetch his trailer.  Four hours later he returned and had a tiny little trailer but managed to make it work. 

Went to fuel up his car and then fuel just started gushing out from underneath, told me to hop in, it wasn't a problem ! Two and a half hours later we arrived at Kaisosi Camp, eight kilometers outside Rundu and unloaded the bike, right next door the campsite i stayed at four years ago.

At the campsite on the other side was The Famous Five, how embarrassing, it's like they are being stalekd by me. I tried to hide but to no avail, there's eleven of them waltzing around. Evening came and Tersia came around and invited me for a braai and I told her I had eaten and everything, but she won't listen to "no thanks" and ended up there of course and was so enjoyable hanging out with all these folks. The guys have pre-determined tasks and the braai is a moerse operation with loads of different meat being braaied in ways not seen very often. The woman have their tasks which seem to be more than the men's, but the men have to drive and change tyres so it's equal in the end, the responsibility of driving your wife around on these roads weigh heavily on you, and is quite exhausting. 

    Dr. Jannie (bald) and Hennie.

    Dr. Johannes and Jan the Man.

    Beer in hand Dr. Johannes and Jan opposite side with beard is Hennie and Dr. Jannie attending to the braai.

    Dr. Johannes, Marnus and Jan the Man.

We feasted like Pharaoh's and Tersia insisted I have an Amarula nagdoppie which did taste rather good.

Day 24.   ORGANIZE BIKE TO WINDHOEK 

Left for town early and arranged transportation for the bike to Windhoek BMW. Grabbed some food and went back to camp and got my bags packed and looked for airline tickets to Cape Town. Felt good to have everything sorted after the last few days, and looking at the bike it does not appear that damaged.

I joined the gang at the restaurant for our last supper, with much laughter and beer.

    Ans,  'NO'Tersia  and Wies

DAY 25.   TO WINDHOEK 

Got a call from Lawrence at 8am and that the guys were in Rundu unloading the truck and would then come load the bike. They appeared at 2pm and loaded her up and I got a ride into town  for my 9pm bus ride (R480) to Windhoek. 

16 AUGUST 2022 ANOTHER FLAT TYRE AT 446 KM !

Got going early cause I still had 500km to go, but was behind the famous five and with their trailers they leave behind some serious dust clouds so drove slow to let them get ahead. Stopped at the same Himba huts that were there in 2018 and chatted with a few, well tried to and gave them my peppermint crisp chocolate. 

Refueled in Ruacana and went to my old army base at the airport but it's all gone, a small partial sand wall is kinda visible, when we had to flip armoured car tyres up the sand wall, they were a lot taller and I was a lot younger.

From Ruacana it is all tar road heading east and then you get on the B10 which runs parallel with the border forever. 

I refueled again and stopped and had some lunch and the peanut butter sandwich which hit the spot. Was very hot and a boring road to boot, with goats and cattle crossing all the time, and the skies are an ugly brown from all the fires in Angola and with no wind to clear the air, it's not pretty. 

I had just overtaken a bakkie with a trailer  for the second time on this never ending road and gave him a thank you wave, for no reason , but they don't speed here all go about 10 to 110 kmph, no rush to go anywhere.  Suddenly my front tyre was flat at 120kmph and the bike was uncontrollable, and it was a huge fight to keep it upright and I didn't  want to go off the tar onto the shoulder as that would have bucked me off. The bike was veering to the right and got it to go left again and then that's  when it must have started to slide on the left and I hung onto it the entire way and stopped right on the edge of the road. Seemed like ages fighting it to stay upright but it was a matter of seconds and it was over. I jumped up amazed that there was no pain or anything, looked at the bike and didn't  appear to damaged. 

The guys with the trailer pulled over as I got out from under the bike and my jacket arm and left leg of my suite was chowdered, they helped me pick it u and dust off and was so relieved that I was fine, absolutely no pain or bruises, the riding suite did it's job and my head never touched the road. Another car stopped and they all helped load the bike into the back of the bakkie. This happened 62km from Mpungu , where we dropped off the trailer and then proceeded to Simanye Lodge near Nkurenkuru where they have some real nice camping aswell.

As we pulled in the famous five had just arrived, it's like I'm stalking them. We unloaded the bike and gave him R700 and then set up my camp and took a closer look at the damage to the pannier and riding gear.

The lodge has never opened and so there is no food services or beer. Was happy that the padkos Liz had made me last night had survived in my pannier and cause my stomach was crying for food, so devoured it  and then went to bed feeling really lucky, it was like I was high. However high feels.

Must have fallen asleep cause I was awakened by Tersia telling me to come over for supper and my medication, so got dressed and joined them. Two of the guys are doctors and there are four nurses , so after being served a great meal again, Tersia doesn't listen to NO ! They gave me a sleeping tablet and some pain killers.Was the best sleep , slept through the night ,didn't wake up once or pee in the bed, the fact that there were no injuries or bruise was amazing to me. 

DAY 19 to 21 ALONG THE KUNENE RIVER

Having the Italians invade my site cause the camp was full, really chaffed my hide as they were so rude and unfriendly, was happy to leave. Two guys from a group of five vehicles, was at my bike as I was about to depart and we chatted and then ended up at their camp and next minute Hennie made me coffee with two rusks. We went over some maps and destinations they recommended and then departed to Cornie Camp just 34 km along the river, where I was the only camper there for two days.

It is on the river and you have your own ablutions which is always a nice touch. Cleaned up my pannier and on opening my food dry bag the stench of fish hammered my nostrils, the bloody tuna and mussel cans had broken from my lost excursion last Monday. After washing the bag three times ,there is still a whiff of dead fish.

    You can just see the bike and tent.

    Crumpled ti of tuna .

There was another family at the camp but they were in the nice tents and we all listened to the Springboks lose tphe All Blacks in Afrikaans, was tough for me to follow but they would explain to me when needed. The family was going to the same camp in the Caprivi where I was going and needed to deliver a car part I was muling for a another guy, so he kindly took it for me which gave me some more space in my pannier. 

The following morning the group of five stopped in for a quick visit and then went onto their Kunene River Lodge campsite. 

Jan who is running the campsite made a lekker braai with boerewors and steak and a toastie, was absolutely delicious. The night before he sold me a steak and braaied it at my campsite using Mopane wood which maybe better than Doringhout, these guys are all braai masters and all have their own techniques. 

    Jan making a lekker braai.

    The famous five.

    The pet Porcupine. 

Day 21    First puncture 

Got off at 8am as today was going to be about 600km so needed to get going. Riding along the Kunene River is quite a treat and enjoyed it even though the road has hundreds of dips in where little riverlets would run, so you can't go fast.

 A Himba waved me down and asked for a lift to the clinic for her to take her baby on her back. 

She was tightly packed between me and my drybag, believe me. Had to drive real slow as there was no option of falling with a baby on board so just putzed away and everytime she saw a friend she would yell with glee and wave, was kinda fun.

All the fun came to an end when my front tyre went flat and couldn't go on with her, we sadly departed and rode about 10 km with the flat tyre to the Kunene River Lodge. Got the campsite on the river and was here in 2018 and the monkeys were an absolute pain but luckily this time they were not around spreading the monkeypox thankfully. 

Got to work on fixing my puncture and the group of five came by and offered help and inspiration. Replaced the tube with a brand new one and got it all together again and then had a dip in the pool and Marnus invited me to join them for a braai which was much appreciated. 

So there are five couples in the group and they all have their own vehicle with a safari camp trailer that has everything in it, so they all park in a laager and they all braai and bake bread and a potjie, they are organized and the variety of food and dishes and who makes what and when and one guy has to make coals, it's like a military operation. 

The different meats and potjie and salad was so good they forced me to have a second helping, that was even better, Tersia does does not take no for an answer. Then Liz made me some padkos and Alta made me two peanut butter sandwiches, it's unreal how welcoming the group is. So much for my 600km day, only did 61km. I bid them farewell as they were going to a different camp tomorrow as mine so would not see them again.

    Marnus baking bread for the famous five.

    Jannie and Teresa doing a potjie.