Day 4: West Coast to Richtersveld

This time we really woke with the ocean thundering right next to us. In the misty morning air we made coffee and ate rusks again. We manage to leave by 09:30, but first the Go Pro had to be fixed onto the Snorkel to get a FPV of us potentially getting stuck trying to get to the road again. Luckily (or unfortunately) the MonkeyMobile went up the steep and thick ‘sand dune’ like it was a flat asphalt road.

We got to the Namakwa National Park and decided we had seen enough of the Wild West Coast, so we went on the gravel road inland to Garies. After refueling we headed for Springbok on the N7. To pass time Hugo and Caro played ‘Name, Diere, Dorpe’ without paper. A one point they even heard the Swiss playing ‘I spy with my little eye’ in Swiss German.

In Springbok we made use of Nando’s WiFi and Peri-peri chicken. We tried to find out how the Richtersveld Conservancy works, but no number on any website worked and not even the Springbok info office had any idea. In the end we just drove to Eksteensfontein, but their info office was already closed at 16:55. The shop next door had some information sheets of the area. We looked on the GPS for camping spots and saw a few, the directions went straight from Eksteensfontein into the Richtersveld, but the paper information said something about a gate at Rooiberg.

Road to Rooiberg Gate

At Rooiberg someone was still sitting close to the boom and asked R20 p.p for camping. We happily paid it and followed the GPS on a scenic 4×4 drive to Fluorspar. Fluorspar is an old Fluor mining ‘village’ (three houses), since we didn’t want to see any man made objects we drove to Sun Valley campsite a few kilometers further.

We arrived just before sunset. While putting up camp Caro started boiling corn and made the fire. We braai’ed our last tjops and had carrot salad, corn and potatoes with it.

Nice shelter around fire place

The night sky was the most beautiful we had ever seen, with the milky way a bright white stroke. We went to bed early at 22:30 as we were all tired from the long drive.