TARTARUGA

Our trip today started in Puros community camp where we stayed 2 nights. We travelled north through the Horasib river bed then crossed over to Khumib and drove up to the D3707 and turned toward Opuwo. We stopped for the night about 120km west of Opuwo where we will do some shopping tomorrow before heading north again the next day

One small momentary lapse this morning while frantically looking for elephant and I missed a gear, ran out of hands, and found myself off the track and stalled in deep sand to the diffs

Babbler in Puros campsite

Today we travelled to Opuwo

134km 5hrs 39min and Ave speed 24km/hr

Bit of a hell run on the D3707 which was damaged in the 2015 floods and now in many places simply does not exist

After such an awful road, one needs to rinse off the dust, welcome to Kaoko Mopane

Shaken but not stirring

Today we are camped just outside Opuwo at Kaoko Mopane campsite, we are on vehicle maintenance and clothes washing day, Johan cleaning up bag of burst charcoal and washing clothes, Charlotte slaving over a few weeks of dirty dusty clothes, and I got to fix water leaks in the trucks hot water system that have seen us topping up the radiator up to 4l per day, and of course coking leberkase und spiegelei with chicken liver onion and tomato gravy for brekkies. Trying to get the northern Namibia government survey maps all in one place and hoping to find something for Angola. Once we cross the border I have only got T4A data for the trip. Tonight restaurant dinner and some cold Hansa draughts, then it's on the Ruacana and Angola

Arrived in Ruacana and made a mistake, went to the old town which o know from previous visits, it is totally undeveloped since our last visit in 2009, literally nothing of any value to modern man, aside from a fuel station where we waited two days to get fuel when we last used it. Checked in at Omunjandi Restcamp, nice spot on the river, beautiful view. Chatting to the owner we discovered the town has redeveloped 10km down the road, looks like there is a bank there to exchange money, so tomorrow we should be able to get organised for Angola. Today was an easy trip on tar roads, the prize today was finding our old friend Jacqui Rousette who used to own Oreness bar and campsite in Opuwo

Jacqui with Johan and Charlotte and his "mistake" youngster, he is now 7t yrs old

I think the mud was two much for that bobejaan op die baaisikil, Ek Weet my Oom Wouter sal nooit opgee Nie!!

I just filled my fuel tank, 65 liter, R20p

It hasn't really been a good day for photos, just driving and driving, but we did stop at a very quaint little town, chibai and take a few pics with the camera, which I shall add here presently.

The day ended badly with a drive through rush hour Lubango only ended up on the wrong side of the road once when I followed a taxi on the left side of what I assumed was a one way, and ended up facing off with an oncoming motorcycle, of which there are but plenty here. Climbed the hill, 400m to the top above the city and ended up In a total shithole for the night at a closed down campsite on a farm in Humpata, at the kind behest of the farm caretaker who let us park infront of his quarters and share his toilet, no charge. Tomorrow we will slow it down, look for decent camping, there is a scarcity, and then there is a huge bucket list which should produce a ton of pics

So this is our travel for today, almost 400km and way to far, but a good day I suppose, was able to confirm a new road is in process of construction from the calueque dam Wall to cahama where we were able to draw money and top up our fuel for135 Kwanza, R3 per liter

My apologies for the late update. Today we travelled a whole 23km, which frankly, was wonderful. Having slept in decidedly sub standard surroundings just outside Humpata last night, we travelled to the mountain top overlooking Lubango at the Jesus Christ statue, and then took up residence at the nearby Flor DE Lis lodge, which is in the process of setting up a camp site, the bathroom is a work of art, beautifully tiled, but the showers are still incomplete, the camping ground is a mine field planted by the (clearly) large size watchdog and also contains a fruiting orange tree, two buggered Nissan Sanis and a bonus rosemary bush. Ah life's little controversies, yet it is far better than the night before. Camping is almost non existent in the city and you cannot bushcamp as every inch of country is inhabited by very poor and very inquisitive people all trying to sell you something, from naked breasted Himba women at the statue, to strawberries and other fresh fruit, this is a farming area, we settled for the strawberries, even with cream and liqueur they were at best edible, but at least we were able to make a small contribution. We settled down to a long braai and session with maps and Charlotte's incredible notes and research and made some plans for the short term, discussed the coastal routes and camping at length with the very helpful proprietor, and still managed to cook some chops and wors, and a beer or two to wash down

Shot, sorry

Views of and from the statue

They'll never need retreads where we are now

For those who don't know the story of the Dorstland trekkers, they began in the Groot Marico area, near Rustenburg and trekked across Africa through Botswana, Namibia and Angola and came to settle at the Humpata plateau near where we are now. Along the route there were tensions and a large part of their trek didn't enter Angola instead returning into Namibia. I was unaware of the significance of Humpata which was colonised as such and developed into a flourishing farming community, which today, although one wouldn't say it flourishes, still grows maize and other grains, and fruit including guavas, citrus and strawberries, and us doing much better than most of the rest of the rural areas. We tried to visit a few graveyard sites and the memorial at Humpata, but it is difficult, tourism is almost non existent, everything is derelict and the roads even in the big ivecos require low range and diff locks to traverse at times. And then you get to the sites of these incredibly brave pioneers, and they are completely destroyed, strewn with plastic and rubbish and human faeces, they lie at rest among the human detritus unrecognised unacknowledged and unappreciated for their legacy which still makes this area unique and somewhat more affluent than the poverty and degradation of the rest of Angola that we have seen so far. This is the legacy of war, especially civil war, there are simply no winners in war.

Charlotte and I have an interest in the Dorstland trek that was fired by the assassination of Jan Joubert many years ago while following the route of the trek in Namibia near Tsumkwe, at the time to better understand what was a tragic loss of a great man, we gathered stones from Ecotracs members and went to the site of the assassination and piled a cairn, isivivaveni, there In his honour. Long time ago, and the disdain for these brave souls brings a tear to my eye

Evening All, today we drove from our campsite near Humpata, into the little town, then turned off to Jau about 45km south, then east to Huila and then via Lubango back up the mountain to our camp. The target was some Dorstland trek sites of undisclosed nature, and two beautiful churches, one at Jau and one at hilau

Jau is at the south most point of the red track line, and so today I have also a theme to my report, it is the importance of being WRONG, admitting when you should what you should and turning back. That is how it was on the road to Jau, a route Mrs Google will tell you is 44km and 50 Min drive, it isn't, we left camp at 9h00 and arrived at 13h00 at Jau, the first half was ok and the second half there was no road

In this pic the road appears quite lightly in white, and our track is the thin red line, over time the road has been entirely washed away and people have had to wend their way around the vlei, shown in blue, and this rambling overgrown track requires difflocks and low range to negotiate in the big trucks.

It just goes on and on and on and on two occasions we had to confirm the tracks as there are a myriad of little roads, turning off into every conceivable little kraal and circumnavigating every mielie field and it is endless harsh and destructive on the vehicles. Fortunately we are proficient and have the mapping tools to persevere beyond the logical point of return, but thank God we were able to get through and tonight sleep in our campsite again, it could well have been different, a well prepared vehicle, knowing how to use it (we are still learning with these ivecos) is everything.

We asked this guy for directions, and he ran on ahead for about 5km to help us find the way, we couldn't communicate well enough to explain we were OK, so he got some lunch and a good tip

Donald overjoyed to see some hard gravel again

Tomorrow, Leba pass, one of the main attractions, then the seaside and harbor town of Namibe for a few days

At hilau we saw a bakery, stopped for a half dozen rolls, freshly backed, tendered 2000 kwanza, about R44 as I had no change, in the end they gave my money back and the 6 rolls for free, we worked out later, one roll costs 0.79c it just wasn't worth their trouble to find me some change

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Some important maintenance and checks this morning after a he double shock this week of discovering loose wheel nuts, and a rat restaurant on my tappet cover

Afternoon all, today we did a short drive from Humpata to the coast at Namibe and checked in at Praia Amelia for two nights. Only 180km but included the stunning Leba pass designed by an Angolan lady and built in 1970 it descends 1845m in altitude and has some of the most stunning views.

Leba pass

So no tracks today, we cycled down to the harbor and followed the "promenade" down to the end if the town and back, well James James Morrison Morrison was pretty much in the mark. This is a very poor country with very little industry, and it is heartbreaking to see what is left after civil war, I would love to have seen it before.

Not much travelling for today, from Namibe to Tombua, and then back to the flamingo lodge on the coast, about ⅐ way, after q brief stop on the cliffs at the lighthouse. Hassled for about an hour by a policia in Tambua because our bicycles are not shown on our vehicle TIP documents, like it has anything to do with him in the first place.

No travelling today, rest day listening to the sea, cleaning clothes and truck and few odd jobs. Tomorrow we head for Praia Da Soba a little north of here

Last nights potjie, pork in pomegranate sauce, cabbage, potatoes and tomatoes, it was a winner. Today we had leftovers with a good krummelpap

Scenes in the river bed, which is actually the road

Market on the north side of Namibe harbor

Well deserved n' Gola draft on arrival

Just to clarify as one of the questions asked, the perpetual squeak squeak when we show video from inside our truck, is the spring loaded driver's seat which has need of oil, and the peep and peep-peep signals, are when the diff lockers engage and disengage. The Iveco is permanent 4x4 but on these steep inclines, and they are much much worse than they look, we use the centre diff to stop the truck bouncing, if it slides and the back wheels suddenly get traction, it makes the truck surge, and looses traction on the front wheels, so it literally bounces along like bunny hops. If the back diff isn't locked, the weight and high centre if gravity has the truck quickly bouncing from left to right back wheel, it seems the springs will break it can be do bad, so we lock up before the trouble starts, then unlock after the obstacle is passed to reduce stress on the drive shafts

Today we travelled from flaming lodge between Tambau and Namibe where we slept last night, to Praia Do Soba, a proper piece of paradise to be sure. The road to and from flamingo was tough, corrugated and hell on our trucks but on a scale of one to 5, it was a 1 and the road to Praia Do Soba a 5. Steep rough and hard. And all worth it to be here

He is still the owner, he is from Garries

We had a slightly different experience, at Tombua we got harassed by a policeman who checked every orifice in both our trucks and held us up for more than an hour, he took photos of the vehicles and papers and all he could find wrong was our bicycles did not appear in the TIP. He tried to make an issue of this although it is nothing to do with a policeman, and at best a customs issue. I mentioned this to Hannes who manages the lodge and this was reported to Ricoh, the next thing the local police chief was phoned and he got a long story, then the dumb duiker got into trouble with the police boss, and when we left Ricoh was at the lodge and in his way to go and see the police chief to ensure this doesn't happen again, so I assume when he harrassed you, it was to protect his commercial interests, which these lodge owners are known to do.

Only lady we met there is Simoné, she is Hannes partner as I understand it.

Evening all, no travelling today, we just enjoyed Praia Do Soba and prepared bread and Potjiekos and tomato gravy for our krummel pap, settling down now at my cooking fire with an excellent camelthorn urbock all the way from Namibia, cheers

location: https://maps.google.com/?q=-14.7475194,12.2908618

Still not sure what kind of venison it is, but sure tastes good

Cliffs of clay and limestone with layers of glacial fallout, incredible carved and shaped by glacial water at the end of the ice age, (I would think been pondering these exotic formations all day)

Wouter my mind burns with curiosity to understand this sand, from the limestone and glacial piste of yesterday to the hard hard basaltic cliffs of today, the geology if this area formed about 130 million years ago by glaciers and then chopped up by the melt water of those same glaciers as the ice age ended, much fascination and curiosity to know the truth, gonna have to find me a geologist who knows

There are a lot of newcomers to the group again so I just would like to say again, the group is broadcast only but you don't have to consider it a one way discussion please feel free to message us directly with any comments, suggestions or questions, we would love to hear what you think and fill in any gaps in the big picture

Three fish from yesterday's fishermen, one in particular is a good size shad, already filleted for future reference, the other two are prepared pocket style for braaing in foil.

The wheel was powder coated before we left home so it didn't really want to come off, the immovable object encounters the irresistible Force

Not so much travel today and even less pictures, we travel just over 200km north to Praia Meva from Lagos Naturalis, the first 25km are hell road, up and down, diff locks on and off, low range in and out, hard work. The tar was good on the EN100 till it stopped and then soon we were in the road to Praia Meva, which is dirt but 2x4 and not to badly corrugated. Unfortunately back left wheel got a puncture, short cut on the sidewall, no idea where that came from, nor one we can quickly plug so the tyre had to be changed. Fir Those Who don't know, the Iveco wheel weighs 75kg. So not too many pics today either

Once again a travelling day today, 253 km travelled in about 5 hours most of it on good tar, but the day did start a bit rough with 17km through the river beds and over the hills to the EN100 and then about 59km of EN 100 that is under construction. Getting a bit tired of the gatstamp now. We wanted to see Benguela and Lobito, not sure why, they are one endless mess of urban poverty and luckily we identified a place out of town, Chicos inn resort, lovely spot, greeted by the owner with a big warm handshake and friendly smile, nice beef steak supper, Charlotte had a crayfish with two huge prawns, couple of beers, and then the owner brought out the tequila and aguardente and fed us with after dinner liqueur on the house. Another interesting day, and here we are now at our turn around point, pretty much turning around and heading back the way we came, next major target is the Iona national park. Probably take us two days to get there.

So that is it, now we head for home

The police guard said OK but at the same time must have phoned his superiors, the next thing we had an army comondant, a police colonel an three policemen around us asking many many questions. They were polite and friendly as per usual for Angola, and check our passports, then we chatted about roads and routes and gave guided tours if the vans, they were really intrigued and took hundreds of cellphone pics, and eventually went their way leaving us to settle down and braai our last two shad and a choppie for Johan.

Hopefully we will have more interesting photos tomorrow night, so from the Gove dam, back on the cunene river, good night all.

Long day of travelling again today, left chicos inn resort near Lobito and planned to reach Huambo today, we canned the idea of going down the coast to the Iona park, there are too many little problems cropping up with the trucks, and lastnight our camper batteries ran flat. We are not going to get them full now, as nowhere in any campsite, have we had decent 220vac, sometimes the line voltage has been as low as 160v, and then to protect itself, my truck disconnects. The victron chargers don't go much above 13.3v and that is far from fill on a lithium battery. So we are now officially homeward bound, probably via the he oshakati border in about three days time. We found no camping at Huambo and it is a huge sprawling African city, just goes on and on and so we kept moving, one way or another we ended up at a town called Gove, which is also host to a huge damn on the cunene river, and we drove over the he dam Wall to the monument overlooking the dam

The first thing I want to say tonight, is that a year, even a month after a trip is over, you forget all the bad stuff and only the beautiful, exciting and pleasant moments remain. You always know how bad the roads are, but you don't really remember or dwell on it, and after a day like today, we say, thank God for that or we would just stay home. Today for 100km we drove with our centre diff locked, underage, 1st and second gear, we lost another tyre, and tonight my back, arms and shoulders are so sore from propelling this truck through the rough unyielding and pothole EN280. Not this is EN route, Estrada national, a national highway

And things went pear shaped just 45km later when the tar ended

Lovely start to the day at the Gove dam and hydroelectric facility where we were guarded over by both police and army, both of whom sent officers to sanction our unusual overnight stay. We were awoken this morning at 6h30 by the police foot patrol admiring our trucks

Old fart getting special privileges tonight, thanks Johan

Travelled from Lubango to Ondgiva today, quite a long haul, not much to show for it, there is no camping or tourism facilities at all so we just did it. Interesting to see the fallout from ops protea lying around north of Ondgiva

Stopped in at the Roman Catholic mission at Omupande where we were warmly welcomed by the pastor Bernabe and after discussing our travels, we were presented with a bottle of home grown Aguardente, nearly concealed in an old communion wine bottle

This was our travel yesterday, from Omupanda mission, to Tsumeb, a long tiring haul but we needed a place to get tyres fixed and rest up with electricity water and laundry, kupferquelle resort was and is all of this and more, perhaps the best resort we ever stayed in. Today we roamed Tsumeb and had tyres repaired and went out for lunch, lastnight a nice chicken potjie while Charlotte and Johan washed a mountain of clothes, now on to Etosha and some good game viewing

No trip report yesterday as the only tripping was around Tsumeb and a Hansa draft in the campsite restaurant. Today we entered Etosha at Namutoni and after being told the park is full, we got a spot at halali, and tonight the campsite is very far from full. Nice day game viewing, beautiful elephants, gemsbok, hartebeest, springbok, impala, zebra and wildebeest. Also a giraffe and then at the campsite waterhole, black rhino, african wildcat and more zebra. Lovely day, perfect sunset, really privileged to be here

Peace and tranquility, only Africa can provide this beauty

Morning all, we didn't cover any ground shaking distance yesterday was just relocating from Halali to okakeujo camp.

Nice trip we saw lions, giraffe, hartebeest, gemsbok, springbok, rooibok and lots of birds

Yesterday we did not travel, spent time in camp coking pita and potjie, windy dusty day, spent some time at the waterhole, then in the evening the wind died down and had a spectacular nighttime session at the waterhole, which is why no trip report yesterday!

So just a short little travel today, not quite 300km, we left Etosha and overnight in the Waterberg park, which we haven't visited before. Lovely clean campsite and ablutions, majestic Waterberg above. Stopped in Outko for a little retail therapy and a good strong coffee and schwartzwald kuche at the bakery. Nice quiet day, tomorrow, if it doesn't rain, we will climb NB to the Waterberg lookout point and share some images before sucking of to Gross Barmen for Charlotte's birthday and some hot spring treatment for travel weary bodies. We parted company with Jean Neal and Ilana this morning after three nights together, hope we have converted them to the iveco way, but still, they have a lovely van already.

Shallow pigs are cleaning up the campsite

Little friends in our campsite, potato skins and carrot bits, they also enjoyed the birdseed and gem squash seeds, especially mielies from the birdseed mix

Another 300km behind us today to Gros Barman after celebrating Charlotte's birthday with a slap up brekkies at the rasthaus in the Waterberg plateau reserve in the morning. An uneventful journey and a bit sad to find Gros Barman looking very empty and run down, we are two of three vehicles tonight in the campsite capable of accommodating hundreds. The baths are looking seedy and the indoor pool is so hot as to be unusable, 10mins was about all I could handle. R200 for a pretty basic and dusty camp, but at least the facilities are clean and water hot

1904 at the battle of Waterberg the Germans were defeated and escaped into the desert where many died

Deck at the restaurant at Gros Barman, we shared the services with two other tourists

springbok roam freely all over the place

not much to say about todays leg, we covered the 350 from Gros barmen to Mariental and have now gone full cycle, stopped at the first Namibian campsite we used when the trip started. the roads are long straight and utterly boring, just glad it's over, tomorrow night grunau and then AIS AIS for some fish river Canyon time

double trip report later

So we find ourselves back in SA and at the mercy of the ANC and load shedding, and what a pleasure it has been to live without them for a couple of months. Yesterday was the last day of slogging it for now, we slept in Grunau at the hotel, not much to say about that except the Hansa draft was bitterly cold and 50% larger than normal. Tonight we are back among the stunning wild flowers and sleeping at the Springbok caravan park. We will tour around the flowers for a bit now, before heading for Capetown. AiS AIS got cancelled, the roads aren't great and the Tartaruga is being a little temperamental so this will remain a mission for another trip, nothing unusual about that, we always leave a little over for another day.

Today we did a loop from Springbok to Kleinsee to Koingnaas and then Kamieskroon, the splendour of the flowers was absolutely incredible, we saw today what we have been trying to see for the last 5 years, amazing

Tonight we made a fish curry with the fillets I cut from the shad caught at Lagos Naturalis in Angola, added a couple of store bought hake fillets to bulk up the pot, but when your motorhome has cumin, garlic, ginger, tamarind and mustard seeds available for the chef at how can you go wrong??

Short Jollie patrolie trip today, after a nice brekkies in Kamieskroon, we headed east to the Skilpad section of the Namakwa park, and the flowers are beyond stunning, neither words nor photos can hope to suffice, if you haven't seen it you haven't seen it and that is that. We have been coming to the Westcoast every year for 5 years now, this year we cracked the jackpot and word has it Nieuwoudtville where we will stay tomorrow night is even more spectacular, so here is our sensory overload for the day.

Relaxed trip from Garries to Nieuwoudtville expecting fantastic flowers but thinking we are a week late. Nice rosterbrood and mince for lunch at Belgrad cafe. Sad to see Bustop campsite closed, checked in at groenrivier and got an isolated little house to park at, will check flowers on the way out in the morning, last night out tonight then back to civilisation tomorrow.

Bagdad not belgrad

Last long trek of this leg, Nieuwoudtville to St Helena Bay, now we rest for a few days. We had the right route for flowers today particularly between Wuppertal and Clanwilliam but no sun, cold a raining so there was not much to see, a no pictures day today, next trip will be to Vanrhynsdorp on the first leg of the mammoth Richards Bay trip, perhaps Monday or Tuesday, we shall see

First leg of the homeward bound journey, sleeping in Vanrhynsdorp tonight, visit Charlotte's Mom before running for the East Coast

And of course 22h00 Britstown started loadshedding, so now we have a generator in our bedroom till 0h30

unfortunately our house was broken into so today we hit the road for home. sleeping at filling station in Britstown till sunup then a long haul to kzn

Made it to just outside Matatiele and our radiator fan broke, managed to limp into matat caravan park for the night, it never rains but it pours, radiator damaged need to assess in the morning.

Top is before, striped down to reveal faulty cores, then epoxy coated. Tomorrow when it is set we top up and add sealant then I just hope it doesn't leak or gets me somewhere I can get someone else to do the work. We carry a lot of tools, there isn't much I can't do in the bush, the problems are with the heavy stuff as I am old and feeble now

Kokstad behind us now for next target Port Shepstone

Harding behind us, stopping to cool down

Sukkel sukkel, the trick is to keep moving without blowing the head gasket

Ra Ra rarse stick your flatbed up your.............

We passed sheppie and scottbourough and having our first hot meal in about three days at the south coast one stop. Thanks for all the encouragement we have recieved from everyone, especially Jerry Davies who has been trawling the Soares shows from Gauteng to Capetown to try and find me a fan, truth is now the worst is over on the highway we travel at 90km/hr which is pretty much normal speed, at normal temperature so the immediate risk is over, we will indeed be home tonight

Home

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There are some Namibia tracks still missing and from George to Strand, it looks like the it department blew it [number removed] changed to [number removed]