Now in southern Namibia and at last we hit a tarred road at Aus, it felt strange, but good! After averaging 60km per hour for the last 4 weeks, driving at 100km per hr again was a pleasure. At this stage we could barely see what colour our car was inside or out – the dust and sand where everywhere!

Anyway we arrived in the fishing town of Ludertiz hoping to treat ourselves to it’s famed crayfish/lobster, but to no avail, we were just too early in the season, but we did manage to eat some fresh fish. Luderitz is also famous for it’s wind and at first we thought we may not be able to pitch our tent. We even went as far as checking out the backpackers, but when they said they were full we had no choice, but to batten down the hatches and hold tight in the tent.

It was the first time on this trip in 30+ nights of camping that we had to get out the guy ropes. The camp site on Shark Island was a stunning one with good facilities, and on a calm day (which are few and far between in Luderitz) would be perfect, but with the wind gusting at 75km per hr (Dave loves using his wind meter!) it was a bit nerve wracking in our little 2 man tent.

Luckily for us it did calm down on the first night and we slept well; however late in the second afternoon after we came back from visiting the ghost town of Kolmanskop (old diamond mining town) it was blowing again. One peg popped out and then Dave ended up holding on for dear life while Shaz was blissfully unaware in the shower that there were gale force winds outside. Then it was as if someone turned the fan off and it all calmed down so we could go out for dinner and relax knowing that we had a home to come back to!

We thought that would be the end of the wind for us so we were in for a shock the next day when we pitched up at the Canyon Roadhouse in the Gondwana Canyon Park. No sooner had we set up camp when a storm started brewing. What we didn’t realise was that it would come through so quickly – there wasn’t even time for Dave to get his wind meter out – and in one puff the tent blew away before our eyes. Thankfully we were near a section of rough, long grass and we managed to catch the tent and it’s contents there before it all went too far. We took shelter as best we could, threw the tent in the car and ran for cover in the roadhouse (where incidentally had the most expensive cokes in Namibia N$10 each!). The storm fizzled out with a few raindrops and a very dramatic sky and sunset and we repitched safely for the night. The only damage was a very small rip in the fly sheet and more unfortunately a wee puncture in one of the Thermarest mattresses. But we should be able to fix that once we find a bicycle shop.

Our last stops in Namibia were the Fish River Canyon and Ai-Ais Hot Springs; the canyon was really impressive, but again due to the extreme heat it is impossible to do any hikes or walking. And one doesn’t really want to get into natural hot springs when the outside temp is 40 degrees!

From here we headed to the border and back into SA.