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.