Well here I am again, it is my turn to fill you in with our recent story. The only real reason it is my turn is that most of it concerns paragliding. I should at this time thank my patient wife who has had to endure some long periods of waiting and some running around to pick me up (otherwise known as retrieval).
So as we last left you we were on our way to De Aar, this is currently recognised as the best place to go for long distance flying in South Africa. The main reason for us to go there was for me to get a SA license. De Aar was the first place we got to in SA with a school. I had to prove that I had a New Zealand license, show my log book and then do some flying.
Unfortunately there are no hills in De Aar, so the only way to get flying is to get a tow launch, something I hadn’t done before. Still Des (one of the instructors) gave me a quick briefing, tied me to the back of a Ute and started driving. I ran behind for about 2 steps before I was airborne. Then as she drove down the runway I got higher and at the end I released, as easy as that.
My first flight was very short but I managed to carry out a couple of moves that were required of me. The second flight was a bit longer as I got into a small thermal and the 3rd was fantastic as I managed to climb about 1200m in one thermal. Unfortunately I was only wearing a T shirt and no gloves so it was a bit chilly so I came down again. Still that was my biggest ever climb. Conditions started to get a bit stronger so we called it a day.
The next day the same thing 3 flights each progressively longer, only this time I was wearing the right clothes. So as I got into the thermal on my 3rd flight I decided it was time to go cross country, so I stayed in the thermal and headed off over the desert. Unfortunately I dropped out of the thermal and landed a short time later a grand distance of 8km, only 294km short of the national record set this year!
Luckily my flying had proved competent enough for them to sign me off on my license so that was a relief. The following day we moved on towards the south coast and hopefully more flying. We did stop on the way but I’ll leave that up to Shaz.
Next stop for flying was Wilderness, where I got in touch with some local pilots to learn about the sites. They were helpful, and reasonably friendly although did insist on speaking Afrikaans all the time leaving me feeling a little left out. All the flying in this area is coastal soaring, again something new for me. In 3 days I managed a few flights at about 4 different locations. Although Shaz was left to pick me up, I think she would admit that we got to see some stunning scenery.
So now we are back in East London (Shaz will fill you in on the rest). Yesterday we went for a walk on the beach and saw 5 paragliders, so things are looking good for me to get a few hours of flying in while she is at work! Thats about it for now Dave
Once we got Chico back on the road we drove out of Upington and just as sun was setting we found a beautiful country lodge in a wee small town called Griquatown that offered campers space on their lovely lawns. We had such a nice welcome from the owners who offered us dinner from their braai, and after hot showers we had one of the best night’s sleeps in a while.
From Griquatown it was a couple of hours to Kimberley where we were planning on learning a bit more about the history of South Africa – the diamond diggings, Cecil Rhodes and the Anglo-Boer war, etc. But when we camped up and headed for the museum we were so disappointed to find it was closed for renovations. All we could do was have a look at the ‘big hole‘ – a massive hand dug chasm by the diamond miners of old. So the next day we planned on going underground on a diamond tour, but when we arrived at the mine were told they no longer conducted the tours.
Diamond Mine Kimberley
By this stage we were a bit despondent with Kimberley, with the things we wanted to do being impossible, combined with the fact that the campground was infested with ants and Shaz meeting a couple of scorpions during a late night toilet visit, we decided there was no point hanging around. Also since buying any diamonds on a volunteers allowance was out of the question we couldn’t see the point of staying. So off we went to De Aar, the distance paragliding capital of SA.
It wasn’t us choking in the Kalahari, but Chico the car, more on that later…
We managed to leave Namibia without having to pay the fine from way back near Windhoek, and after about 6,000kms of driving we arrived back safely into South Africa. Our last night in Namibia we heard the sad news that George Best, a hero from both our childhoods had died. We were gutted not to be anywhere near a TV so we could watch some of the coverage that no doubt filled the news in the UK. The best we could do was over a week later log onto the web and read about his homecoming to Belfast, all very moving.
First up Upington
Our first stop back in SA was a Saturday afternoon in Upington, a reasonably sized town in the northern Cape, but astoundingly that did not have a single bookshop! A sad reflection on the literacy rate of it’s approx 28,000 local population. With pretty much everything closed from noon on a Saturday we camped up at the local municipal camp site Die Eisland. After camping in quiet national parks we soon realised we could be in for a hot and noisy night. Since we were back in a town it was time to eat out and we had a beautiful meal with wine at Le Must restaurant for the equivalent of about 20 quid or NZ$50, bargain! We were in for a pleasant surprise when we got back to the campsite as the majority of people seemed only to be day visitors and were all on their way home, so we had a peaceful night’s sleep after all.
Since there really wasn’t a lot to do in Upington on a Saturday, you can imagine there was even less on a Sunday so we decided to head out of town to Augrabies Falls National Park. We were looking forward to seeing natural running water again, although saying that the Falls were pretty dry at this time of year. We were really starting to feel the heat and couldn’t face doing any of the hikes in the park so decided to book a rafting trip on the Orange River for the next day. Again because there wasn’t a lot of water, the rafting was very tame, in fact it was more like drifting, but at least we were cooler in the water rather than on land. By the time we finished the river trip it was getting very hot and we decided not to stay another night in the park, but headed back to Upington – not sure if that was the right decision as they recorded 48 degrees that day!
Kalahari Desert
We stocked up with supplies again and headed north into the Kalahari Desert region. The down side was we were going back on to the dirt roads. We stopped on the approach to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (SA & Botswana owned) at a nature reserve. The build up of heat was now bringing in a storm and we thought better of trying to put the tent up in the thunder and lightning, so for the first time in 5 or so weeks we slept indoors – Dave badly and Shaz not so badly. The Kalahari Trails Nature Reserve was run by a lady professor of desert ecology originally from the UK who took us on a very informative guided drive.
From here we went north into the park on the search for ‘cats’ – the place is famed for its predators, but with the storm and rain arriving we thought some of our game viewing may be hampered. We headed for Mata-Mata camp and just after arriving and getting the tent set up another huge storm came through, but only lasted half an hour or so. The game was not bountiful, but we did see some animals that we hadn’t previously – giant eagle owl, white faced owls, bat eared fox, and red hartebeest, plus loads of birds that neither of us had any clue about!
The next day we went further north to Nossob camp and it was the next morning that we had our reward – we managed to spot a male and female lion (on the Botswana side of the river bed) and after watching them for a few minutes realised they also had two cute little cubs! We were now content to leave the park as the driving on the combination of gravel and sand was hard work.
Choking in the Kalahari
All was going well until about 130kms from the park exit and Shaz realised that Chico was starting to lose power and chug along. There was not much other traffic around and no phone signal so the only option was to go for it and try and get to the exit. Eventually after over three very nerve-wracking hours we made it, but only just. Chico pretty much conked out in the car park and to top it all had his first flat tyre. We phoned the AA, had a cool drink, and a huge sigh of relief that we were at least in a camp site with facilities.
Tow Truck Time
Choking in the Kalahari – Chico back on the tow truck
So for the second time in 8 weeks Chico ended up on the back of another tow truck! (Read about the first time here.) This time for a 300km drive back to guess where… Upington! And to make matters worse it was a Saturday afternoon. But we cannot complain, the AA garage had the best service ever. Apart from the fact that the mechanic fixed Chico within 5 seconds of him getting off the tow truck (all he had to do was pull the choke out and that cleared his blockage!!!), he got us 2 new tyres and fully serviced the car and cleaned the carburetor (to prevent future blockages) all by 4pm. It meant we didn’t have to endure another night in this bookshop-less town, but instead we could start our journey to Kimberley (home of the diamond!).
We have spent just about 5 weeks exactly in Namibia. It has not been the easiest country to travel around in a little VW Golf packed with a paraglider, camping gear and cool boxes, but is has been fun.
There are very few roads of the tarred variety, but there are plenty of reasonably good gravel ones. The roads are long and dusty and the sand truly gets everywhere. The wildlife has been fantastic and the contrasts of colours within the landscapes as stunning as you will probably get anywhere.
We have missed meeting people on this trip, especially not meeting many local Namibian people, and often those that we did meet (local and foreigners) were not particularly friendly, there were exceptions of course.
All in all we have had a good time, but if coming to Namibia again we would choose a cooler season! For us Namibia has been a country of contrasts and well worth a visit. That for us is Namibia in a nutshell.
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!
KolmanskopKolmanskop
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!
Fish River Canyon, Namibia
From here we headed to the border and back into SA.
Before we could watch the sunrise in Sossusvlei we had a bit of driving to get there.
Although the majority of roads we have travelled on in Namibia were hot and dusty, more often than not there was some kind of reward at the end. One such reward was the Tsauchab River campsite where we had a private campsite and had the most fantastic outdoor shower built into the trunk of a tree!
The day we arrived at Tsauchab was the England v All Blacks test so we couldn’t refuse the offer from the SA owners to join them for a shandy or two to watch the game in their home. We stayed only the one night as it was really too hot in the day to do any of the hiking trails in the area, but watching the stars in the desert sky at night was spectacular.
Going in for a bush shower!
Sand dunes of Sossusvlei
Our next reward was Sesriem, the entrance to the massive sand dunes of Sossusvlei and probably Namibia’s number one tourist attraction. It was here that we even got to talking to other tourists (not German for a change), which was quite a novelty for us on this trip. The only down side here was that we had to set the alarm clock for the first time in weeks for 4.45am to get to the dunes for sunrise in Sossusvlei.
We drove Chico as far as we could and then walked the final 4km (only accessible by foot or 4WD) into Sossusvlei. It was a beautiful walk as it was relatively cool and the colours of the sun rising over the sand dunes was fantastic – it really was picture postcard stuff. We stopped for breakfast at the bottom of one dune and then climbed up to admire the views over the massive sand dunes. What breath we had left when we reached the top was almost taken away!
We took the easy option coming down – sliding on our backsides!! Sossusvlei is really a magic place and highly recommended a visit.
From here we took another long, dusty drive to Dunswib Castle – a strange sight in the desert landscape, but worth an overnight stop. We were now getting to the end of the long, dusty roads and looking forward to reaching tar again!
Hi, we're Sharon & Dave an active and adventurous Irish & English couple who've been travelling together for more than 20 years. These posts are our travel stories and personal journeys. Follow our adventures to see where we've been and where we're going next!
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