As you will all know it rarely rains in the desert – unless the Minogues are there.
It rained in Cradock, it rained in Prieska, it rained in Ai Ais, and now it’s ruddy well peeing down in Keetmanshoop!! Maybe we can hire ourselves out to the local farmers.
We left Augrabies on Monday the 3rd, after a very pleasant stay, and headed for Pofadder through flat desert scrub and very straight roads. Pofadder is a charming little dorp, with big wide streets, and neatly painted houses. It is possibly the cleanest town we’ve come across in S.A. The caravan park is in the middle of the residential area and takes about 6 vans in what could possibly be someone’s front garden (all the gardens are gravel – not much grass in Pofadder) electricity is supplied and each site is allocated an individual loo and bathroom – all for R 30 per night.
Oom Koos Louw, the owner, visited us next morning to welcome us and give us a small brochure on the area – seems that he was a former mayor. Anyway, all in all a very friendly gesture, although to be honest, there’s not much to do there. Apart from a number of churches to look at, there are couple of 4 x 4 trails and some quite rugged mountain bike trails.
Whilst at Augrabies, we explored some of the villages nearby (Looking for a pub lunch actually – unsuccessfully) and saw their rugby fields – gravel. They make them tough in the North West Cape – might be a good idea to take the Aussies up there for a couple of softening up games.
After staying overnight at Pofadder we took the dirt road to Onseepkans and the Namibian border. To our disappointment we found that the name had nothing to do with a lack of soap at all. In fact, it is Nama for something totally boring like bend in the river or some such.
Namibia
The road was good and hardly busy. We passed 3 farm vehicles in 150 k. Border documentation was no hassle. An inquisitive Namibian policeman did stick his nose into the van and very obviously counted the 3 bottles of wine that Jean had stowed conspicuously in the doorway. It was just as well that he didn’t look further and find the bottle store under the beds, because they can get snotty about that sort of thing. A young couple we met at Ai Ais got knocked for 25 % duty plus VAT.
As we got into Namibia the scenery became flatter and we drove through vast Karakul farms. We saw relatively few animals and one wonders just what the ratio is of sheep to kilometre of fencing. The fences just go on and on. Unlike the Karoo where the horizon was made up of low mountains, here it was flat with the odd koppie sticking up looking – dare we say it – like a slag heap from industrial Europe, but in a very impressive way and without the dirt and smog.
As we approached the Fish River Canyon the scenery changed drastically, and we wound down to Ai Ais through stark and dramatic mountains.
Ai Ais itself was pleasant enough, but very touristy (not that we are tourists you understand), with tour busses coming in, in the afternoon and leaving at sparrows next morning. The baths are in a large building. There are 2 large swimming pool types with equipped with water massages (large pipes that shoot water at you at speed), and also a couple of Jacuzzis. Temperatures range from warm to hot to Ai Ais!! All quite modern and jacked up but tending to be a bit scruffy. The baths and the awesome scenery are the main attraction, but a number of people do an 80 k walk through the canyon ending up at Ai Ais. It takes 3 to 4 days and there are no facilities, you carry everything. Most hikers do not carry tents because, as we all know, it rarely rains in the desert.
View of Ais Ais campsite from top of hill
Whilst we were there it rained one whole day and night. Lounging in our heated Jacuzzi, we were truly concerned about the poor unfortunates out there in the wilds, but then we thought, if they were damn fool enough to do it in the first place, they deserved what they got. Take note, Brown, Froude, and Stacey and any of the rest of you who abuse your bodies in this manner.
We stayed an extra day in Ai Ais to dry out the van awning, and yesterday set off for Luderitz, via Keetmanshoop. The idea was to stay two nights in Keetmanshoop in order to stock up with provisions, not the least of which being Sean’s Hankey Bannister Muscle Relaxant (Pete, the Old Brown is Jean’s), and to do our laundry. There is a washing machine at the camp here, and the clothes will dry quickly because -as you all know-it rarely rains in the desert.
Thank God we achieved the first objective without problem, as for the second, we have a bunch of wet laundry strung between two trees with an awning Jean has rigged with ponchos and an umbrella, whilst we are peed on by heavy and very cold rain. The radio forecast has just announced fair weather and sunshine in Luderitz. When we get there it will probably snow!!!
The photo attached is of Jean trying to avoid sunstroke in Keetmanshoop.
Washing Day Keetmanshoop