Week 9 in Africa! Biking from Swakopmund to Sossusvlei, Namibia

Day 58: Swakopmund > Windhoek, Namibia

No alarm set. Up at 7:30am and down for breakfast just after eight.
Heading into town for a walk.
Hung out and browsed the town. A few more photos then back to our car.
Grabbed a coffee and treats for the road and then off we went.
Back at the Fryer’s at 3pm to get our stuff packed up.
Then we were in the car heading to the family farm. It was good recon as it’s the road we are riding out tomorrow.
Had the most amazing Braii with so many people: diplomats, former radio host, neighbors and friends.
They showed us their game camera and we saw cheetahs, giraffes, leopards, tortoises and baboons. Crazy that they are right here that we would be camping at.
Back the house to do some planning. Up late as it is a bit more remote in terms of food.
In bed at midnight!!

Day 59: Windhoek > Steinheim Game Farm Camping

Up at 6:45 because we couldn’t drop the car off until 8am so we are not rushing out. Today is also a short day. We’re both a bit tired as we were up quite late last night, and PL’s stomach is not feeling very good. He didn’t sleep well at all. Hopefully it will work itself out.
Grabbed some pasta for tonight as there aren’t any restaurants or grocery stores for the next few days.
PL went to drop off the car and grab a few groceries while I waited.
On our bikes at 9:30am.
Just passed the garbage dump and there are tons of [] everywhere.
Arrived at the Styn Game Farm Campsite just before 1pm. Would’ve liked to go further, but there’s not really anything for a long stretch. And because we had a late start, it just wouldn’t make sense.
Really cool campsite. We also found that we can have [food bro] stop by later tonight possibly. Had to walk up to the road to get some cell service so we will see if it actually works.
It’s extremely windy so I’m glad we’re down out of the wind. Seeing a lot of baboons in the mountains.
Tried to have a fresh shower/rinse, but there was hardly any water coming out. In the end, I did get to rinse off. Did laundry in the sink though as there’s more water coming out there. No chance I was thinking of washing my hair tonight…lol.
Apparently, we are getting food, but the guys never been asked that before! Not sure why his employee told us to ask him, but we’re extremely thankful.
Had a little bit of a lie down as there’s nothing really to do and we were finished so early today. No Wi-Fi either, so I did a bit of reading and we did a little bit of research as we may change our route a little bit farther south.
Have to walk up the hill whenever we want to try and send a WhatsApp! Very spotty.
Kept waiting for supper to show up. I kept reading and PL sat around.
Finally boiled our smokies so they were fully cooked for tomorrow. Munched on them until 7:30pm when the owner drove in.
He was delayed because he works in the city and it was month-end. Also, when he went to pick up the pizza, they didn’t have the order ready. Felt bad that it took so long. We were just thankful that he showed up!
Credit about the fryers and this farm and also the one we’re going to next. They’re the only two that people usually stay out on this stretch.
In our tents at 8:30pm.

53.39km / 744m
Total: 4,424.67km/28,248m

Day 60: Steinheim Game Farm Camping > Camping Nauams

Alarm set for 6am. We both slept pretty decently. Very quiet, although there are some birds that tend to squawk during the night.
Had our coffee and oatmeal & packed up. Riding out at 7:30.
Incredible scenery riding here. It’s like a whole different trip. Much more motivating.
First 25K of gravel was pretty good. Then we hit some rough red corrugated stuff for a while. Trucks are flying by so, you get a good dust storm every once in a while.
Stopped for snacks 43km in.
Ran into Marco from Italy cycling north and he’s going to stay at the Fryer Farm tonight. Told him to tell them “hi” for us and tell them that we’re OK.
Turned onto the D1265 at 11:30m. 60 K to go.
Crossed the Tropic of Capricorn at 12:30pm.
2nd snack at 1pm. 30km to go. Winds are crazy and gravel is tricky!!! Really got hard to ride.
Pulled into Nauams to get a cold drink and decided to stay. Good thing…noticed my rear rack was broken 😡
Rode 1 km to our campsite and then went to the pool to soak for a bit.
Had showers and then PL rode back up to get food & I set up the tent. It was so windy it was tricky!
We had meat pies (lamb, oryx & mince meat) and beer with chips for dinner.
So far the replacement rack will be here tomorrow by noon. There is a guy coming this way from Windhoek.
Walked back to the pool to get some Wi-Fi and wait for the sun to set.
Walked back straight into a warthog. PL had a stare down and it eventually ran off.
Back to the campsite. In our tent by 7:30pm.
Read and then fast asleep…

** Animals we saw today, which was totally unexpected!

* Oryx
* giraffe
* spring hare
* Wart hogs
* Ostrich
* Baboons
* Sable or roan antelope
* Black, spitting cobra…yikes!

103.99km/ 822m
Total: 4,528.66km/29,070m

Day 61: Camping Nauams, Namibia

Set the alarm for 7:30am as we are having breakfast at 8:30. Up a few times the middle of the night, but we actually slept until the alarm went off. Another beautiful morning.
Rode up to the store to have breakfast for 8:30. Talked to Jack the owner about if we should ride out this afternoon and he said the road is worse. The wind will be bad and the traffic is worse so he suggested two days, one to Solitaire and then to Sossusvlei. Looks like we’ll be here all day.
Had breakfast and decided to take two days to get to the sand dunes. We will try to be up and on the road at 7am to avoid the heat and the wind.
Popped on our bikes and did a 15 K mountain bike ride around the property’s trails. It’s incredible here.
Back to the store to have our lunch and grab a cold drink. My part arrived so PL worked on that and is working on his bike.
I went back to the campsite and went to the pool to sit in the cold water until he’s done.

PL came and then we went on the “trail of bones” hike to look at the Bushman’s art. Super cool. “The ancient rock art located at Nauams Camping along the “Trail of Bones” hike features ancient San (Bushman) paintings that tell stories of the past. While the exact age of the specific paintings on this property is not explicitly documented, regional rock art across Namibia typically ranges from 2,000 to over 6,000 years old…”
Then back to the camp to get ready to go grab our pizza and beer. Had a great chat with Ronica the owner.
Looked in our tent and it was covered in sand so we had to take everything out and shake it all out. Hopefully it will be ok when we get back in.
Back to our campsite. Both had hot showers, reset our beds up after we shook out all the sand and then were in the tent by 7:30pm. Plan is to be up at 5:30 and riding out by 7am.

15.27km/260m
Total: 4,543.93km/29,330m

Day 62: Camping Nauams > Solitaire, Namibia

Alarm set for 5:30am. Woke to an incredible morning. We were both up at 1 o’clock to go to the bathroom and see an incredible sky. Winds were calm and it was warm.
Bit windy when we woke up, but it died down. Had our breakfast and we’re packed up and riding out at 7am. A quick stop at the store to get the Wi-Fi to update everything and then we were off.
Stopped at the top of the Spreetshoogte Pass at 8:50am. Now we have a really long descent.
Stopped for snacks at 9:30 just after the long descent, which was on paved bricks. It was so steep. I’m not sure what it would’ve been like with gravel. It was epic and it was amazing.
These flies though! They’re not the ones that bite but man are they a pain in the [foot].
Stopped at Rooi Dak Padstall for a flat white and some apple tarts. Dutch, Belgian, German, Polish and Namibian flags out front. Also had a USSR rocket and a couple of astronauts on a tractor. The story is it’s Putin and Zelenskyy, they were cowards and they tried to escape the war, but they ran out of fuel and crash-landed here. So the owners put them to work, but they are lazy and they don’t work very hard…lol.
Really awesome place with lots of antiques and local made products. They even had a disabled bathroom, which we were just talking about not being many of around here.
Rolled into Solitaire at 12:15pm. Traffic started once we turned onto the C14. Had a few really good homemade Ginger lemonades and cookies and uploaded all of our stuff with the fast Wi-Fi at the reception.
Went to a campsite which was originally nine, but asked for eight as it was more protected from the wind. After last night’s sandstorm, we’d prefer to keep the sand out of our tent!
Set everything up and then off to the pool to do a nice cold soak, while PL went to reception to upload his GoPro. Also to check and see if she could find us a place to stay as we don’t have accommodations for tomorrow night yet.
Hung out for a bit and then back to reception to find accommodations. Grabbed our apple pie and uploaded some more at the bakery as the reception WiFi went down.
Ate our pies and hung out in the bakery. Finally just booked the lodge at Sesrium as there is no place to stay. Bit more expensive than we’d like to spend but oh well. Ended up booking the large as there was no camping available.
Did some laundry and charged our devices. Had hot showers. Dinner at 7pm.
Walked over early to do some planning to the border.
Went in for dinner and sat with the family we met from London, Ontario. Enjoyed our time chatting about their trip to London and British Columbia as they will be moving to Surrey next year.
Back to our tent in bed by 9:30pm. The sky was incredible, but both of us were in our sleeping bags. We probably remembered we didn’t take a picture!

72.26km/406m
Total: 4,616.49km/29,736m

Day 63: Solitaire > Sesriem (Sossusvlei Lodge)

Alarm set for 5:30 to go pick up our breakfast at 6:30am. Woke up to a really chilly windy morning. Could be a rough day.
Wearing my jacket and my gloves this morning! With a buff…lol.
Riding out before 7!!! Cold & [water body] but pretty.
Saw baboons & ostrich this morning. Quite the sunrise with these views.
Saw this canyon walk in the distance. Bright rust color.
Not a lot of traffic so far which is good with these bumps.
Snacks at 9am over a 1/3 of the way in. 35km.
We think we got lucky with a [greater] as well. The section is pretty good.
Well, that was short-lived, about 15 km and then it turned pretty bad. And the wind also turned to a strong headwind. So the next 25K was pretty crappy. Couldn’t find any smooth spots for a lot of it, but then turned onto the road to Ceram and it was paved for the last 12 km! Who knew!!
Came upon a couple of German cyclists on the road. Had a quick chat and realized we were staying at the same place so we decided to meet at the pool later and have dinner as well.
Rolled into our lodge and realized it was outside the park gate, which meant that we would not be able to do the sunrise hike. I was pretty ticked at myself for a bit, but the longer we’ve been here the more we’ve talked about it, hitting the sunrise isn’t always possible anyway.
Checked into our room, did a little bit of laundry and then headed to the pool to have a beer and upload all of our media.
Planning to have dinner with the German cyclist that we met on the road today.
Hung out at the pool and chatted with the Germans.
I started to get pretty hot until we went back to our room to have showers wash clothes and chill out.
Walked up to the tower to check out the views and then met Klaus and Maria for dinner at 7pm.
Had an incredible dinner, took photos and were back in our room by 9pm.

83.61km/314m
Total: 4,700.01km/30,050m

Day 64: September 5th @ Big Daddy & Deadvlei, Sossusvlei

Up at 5:45am to go for breakfast at 6:15. Plan is to walk to the outside gate and find a ride into the dunes.
Had breakfast and walked to the front gate and asked a couple cars for rides. The young couple was thinking it’s not that easy.
We’ve got all our stuff in the back, and there was an older gentleman, waiting outside of his door in the truck ahead, giving me a wink and a smile and a nod saying come with us.
So we got in the truck with Einet and Ronnie from Israel. Super interesting conversations. Exchanged WhatsApp numbers and said goodbye. Offered us a ride back if needed.
Hiked up Big Daddy…took photos and had snacks. Then moved down the side in the sand into Deadvlei. Such a blast!

Took some photos, PL climbed a tree for pics which was forbidden. Got yelled at by a few people and his natural consequence was slivers!!! We didn’t read the sign🤦🏻‍♀️
As we were walking back, we ran into Anna & Rich from Capetown. Our future hosts!!! So random and awesome!
Had a snack at the benches and chatted with a local guide. Walked to see the lake at Sossusvlei and then back to the parking lot.
Ate a bit more and looked for a ride out. Ronnie & Einet’s truck was still here so we will go with them.

Found them coming down from Big Daddy! Went with them back to Sossusvlei and had some yogurt & granola with drinks.
Then went to the canyon and ran into Klaus and Maria again.
Got dropped off at our hotel at 4 o’clock. Had showers, washed our clothes and then went to the lobby for 5:15 for our sundowner nature drive.
The oryx is the Namibian national animal.
Watched the sunset with a glass of red wine and some snacks. So beautiful and relaxing.
Back to the lodge for dinner and then to our rooms to pack our bikes back up.
In bed by 9:15am.

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