Not to Sossuvei either

Place: Keetsmanshoop ... maybe ... I got no idea.

Tunes: Armin van Buuren

This was our second and last day in Namibia. Tomorrow we will push across to South Africa.

Speaking of Africa, we are no longer in Africa. The roads are so good, the cars you see are are so new, there are shops and they have things there for sale and everything is tidy. And in general everything is less shit. The people also harass you much less and leave you to do your thing.

The day was long and boring. The Kalahari Desert is very hot and dull. Nothing grows there and we did not even see the desert proper. The most boring road in the world has a name – the Transkalahari Highway – so that you know to avoid it. The road was completely straight, with nothing fun worth mentioning. No animals of any sort. It was 36-40 degrees all through the day, which made everything even more miserable.

I am running out of fuel a bit too fast. I can only get about 320km per tank at about 110-115kph speed. This is worse than it should and it may have something to do with my ”naked” BMW design.

After a full day of riding, we found a lodge from the Garmin and everything looked peachy, except we had to try three different cottages until we got one with working aircon. In some hotels/resorts/whatever the staff actually checks these things, but not here. It's up to the guest. Visa is accepted – at least for paying the room, but not for the bar or for the restaurant. 

The town itself is as dead as the desert and so is the ”resort” we are staying in. There was however good South African wine available and the food at the restaurant was edible with no complaints.

The gravel road from Windhoek to Sossuvei - that we decided not to take - was apparently quite difficult in places, with plenty of loose ”ball bearing” rocks and soft sand. We also got a word before lunchtime that Peter and Pasi had not gotten all the way to Sossuvei as Peter has a wrist injury and could not carry on the shit gravel road. Suckers! I knew it was going to end up in tears and we both thank Markus for his ”broken” rear shock. If not for that, we’d be there wrestling with the BMW’s, just like in Kenya. 

Pekka, Teijo and Jukka will press on to Sossuvei on the gravel/sand roads regardless. Let's see if the Honda stays up all the way. This is pretty much the last time when there is a good chance of Teijo dropping the bike.