Central Namibia - Three weeks of hell (not)!
Posted: 07 Jun 2017 20:03
About 9-10 months ago, a friend and I were discussing where our next trip should be. We were in favor of a trip to the Central Kalahari. But our wives (mine in particular) were adamant that they wanted to see the sea.
Then we discovered that, from the 8th of April and the 1st of May, we could get three full weeks for the cost of 8 day's leave...
This meant that we could do a proper trip, one we had both been dreaming of for years. But this was definately a trip for trailers, as we would be 8 people in two Patrols, and some of our stops would be multiple days. Gerrit just bought one (from Trailerman), but as you all know by now, my way is not that easy. i had to build one...
Eventually, the day arrived.
The target for day1 was to get 100-200km past Kang and find a spot to wild-camp. We were going great guns until we got to Zeerust. Something you guys may not know about, but there is something about Zeerust: nobody there can actually drive. The problem is so bad that, at the first stop street as you enter town, Gerrit, who had never had a proper accident in his life, ran into the back of my trailer.
He did some damage to his nudge bar and bumper, but fortunately no real damage.
My trailer, on the other hand, was more seriously damaged. The surge tube snapped off, the drawbar bent a bit, the kitchen drawer setup was pretty badly damaged and the rear storage box was destroyed. Also, the towbar on my car was bent downwards and the rear door was bent as well.
Things were looking pretty grim untill Gerrit found a small engineering shop who were prepared to help us out on a Saturday. The proprieter turned me up a new surge tube out of solid bar while Gerrit and I removed the remnants of the rear box, patched up the kitchen drawer and made a few other small repairs, while the girls went and got lunch in the town.
This had unfortunately set us back about 4-5 hours, and now we were under pressure for time. We got throught the border with no problems, and as we drove into the sunset, there were spectacular thunder-showers around. We reached Kang just as full dark hit. Since we had already seen a considerable number of cattle in the roads, we decided to stop at the Kang Ultra Stop, and also ate in the restaurant.
Then we discovered that, from the 8th of April and the 1st of May, we could get three full weeks for the cost of 8 day's leave...
This meant that we could do a proper trip, one we had both been dreaming of for years. But this was definately a trip for trailers, as we would be 8 people in two Patrols, and some of our stops would be multiple days. Gerrit just bought one (from Trailerman), but as you all know by now, my way is not that easy. i had to build one...
Eventually, the day arrived.
The target for day1 was to get 100-200km past Kang and find a spot to wild-camp. We were going great guns until we got to Zeerust. Something you guys may not know about, but there is something about Zeerust: nobody there can actually drive. The problem is so bad that, at the first stop street as you enter town, Gerrit, who had never had a proper accident in his life, ran into the back of my trailer.
He did some damage to his nudge bar and bumper, but fortunately no real damage.
My trailer, on the other hand, was more seriously damaged. The surge tube snapped off, the drawbar bent a bit, the kitchen drawer setup was pretty badly damaged and the rear storage box was destroyed. Also, the towbar on my car was bent downwards and the rear door was bent as well.
Things were looking pretty grim untill Gerrit found a small engineering shop who were prepared to help us out on a Saturday. The proprieter turned me up a new surge tube out of solid bar while Gerrit and I removed the remnants of the rear box, patched up the kitchen drawer and made a few other small repairs, while the girls went and got lunch in the town.
This had unfortunately set us back about 4-5 hours, and now we were under pressure for time. We got throught the border with no problems, and as we drove into the sunset, there were spectacular thunder-showers around. We reached Kang just as full dark hit. Since we had already seen a considerable number of cattle in the roads, we decided to stop at the Kang Ultra Stop, and also ate in the restaurant.