Discovering Namibia
Six in the morning, the alarm goes off. When you’re camping you have to live by the sun, and we can’t afford to dawdle, because in the southern winter it gets dark early. The day dawned cold. After taking the tent down, slower than usual thanks to first-day inexperience, we made ourselves some breakfast to keep hunger at bay. We’ve been looking for methylated spirits ever since we arrived, but so far we haven’t been able to find any, so we have to make do with a cold breakfast. Luckily, while we were eating, a man came over, took an interest in our bikes and told us where to find a shop selling camping gear. Our spirits rise and we’re sure the hunt for methylated spirits is about to end. We get on the bikes, ride to the shop and… to cut a long story short, methylated spirits don’t exist in Namibia. With our hopes dashed and our stomachs cold, we hit the road towards Outjo. 70km of easy riding, where the only hard part is surviving the traffic.
We ride along an easy road and, once in Outjo, we visit its museum. It’s a colonial house, lived in until 1980 by a German general. Inside you can see how people lived in the mid-20th century… or rather, how the white man lived in mid-20th-century Namibia.
After a bite to eat in Outjo we head for the lodge. That’s what they call rural accommodation here and no, it isn’t cheap. In fact, most lodges are prohibitively expensive. We have no intention of paying a fortune for one night, so we only go to the ones with a camping area, which is very cheap. Green grass welcomes us, and we know from the outset that comforts like these won’t come round again.
A good beer, a few dik-diks and a great dinner round off the day, but not before one last surprise. The lodge uses spirit burners!! But instead of methylated spirits they use a sort of gel (heating gel) that does the same job. The next morning we ask the lodge for a little and hit the road happier, knowing we aren’t carrying food and a stove around for nothing. We’ll try it out tonight.
125km separate us from Khorixas, our next stop before heading into the remote region of Damaraland. But first, a call home ;)
