Distance: 238km (Cumulative: 4 844km)
Moving time: 4:56
Average speed: 48km/h
Road surface: 99% gravel, wet river crossing, very corrugated sections
Accommodation: Camping
Marble Community Campsite - R100 p.p
Clean facilities, big mopanie trees, highly recommended. Stayed 2 nights.
We got up again very lazily and took what feels like three hours to eat and pack up. By the time we left it was already scorching hot.
The road from Sesfontein to Puros was very scenic and in not too bad a condition. At Puros we stopped at Manchester United Trading CC Beer and Basics. The Brudi’s thought it’s funny because beer is basics, so basically the shop is only selling beers. There was no bread so we only bought biscuits.
Susan then told us to cross the riverbed, but the river had water in it. Caro got out to see how deep it is and came back saying we should not cross. Hugo asked “So should we turn back to Sesfontein?”, upon which she replied: “No, we should go back home – all the way to South Africa.” Then Hugo proceeded to drive through the river. Inside the MonkeyMobile it felt like driving on a tar road, but on the other side we got stuck in the soft sand. We lowered the tyre pressure in the burning sun and easily got out again. After some more soft sand we reached the D3703, which is a scraped road.
Mirage on the horison, from the heat.
The landscape quickly turned to dessert. Luckily the road was newly scraped and drove like a dream. To pass the time we played a game called ‘spot-anything-other-than-stones’. The only winning answers was: “Sky, clouds, bushes, road signs and a glass bottle.
Vultures next to the road
To our dismay we passed the bulldozer and the road quickly turned in the worst corrugation we have ever experienced. 20Km from Orupembe we decided not to try and reach Groendrom, but to rather camp at the Marble Community Campsite (R100p.p). The landscape quickly changed again to lush green hills covered with Mopanie trees. We reached the campsite at about 16:00.
Caro immediately started making smash with bully beef and butternut. For the first time in a long time we ate dinner while the sun was still shining. Caro put up her new hammock and we played some card games again. We tried some new games like ‘Spoon’ and Gamsch, but returned to playing ‘Asshole’ and the neighbour game.
The camp supervisor brought wood, so Sam made a fire and Caro mixed the beer bread ingredients again. The plan was to make bread for lunch tomorrow. The bread, however, came out perfectly golden brown and we all decided that we should rather eat it immediately – 22:00 at night. We only went to bed some time after 23:00.
Day 25
Old marble mine
Yesterday we agreed that we are going to have a ‘rest’ day so some of us slept until 10:00. Caro walked to the old marble mine and took some photos while the guys played cards. After Caro came back the monkeys did some work while the Brudis chilled in the hammocks. At 15:00 we realised we haven’t had lunch yet so Sam (with some help), made Spaghetti with Tuna and tomato relish and extra garlic. It started raining hard during lunch so we moved in under the thatched roof of the ablution block. After lunch we played more cards until the rain stopped. The Brudis went to look for beer, while the monkeys did some more work.
The Brudis found a shop a brought back beer, R23 for a 750ml bottle (in the middle of nowhere). For dinner Caro made pap and chakalaka, but had to move in under the roof again as it started pouring. After dinner we played more cards until after 22:00.
I remember when Hugo and I camped at the Marble Campsite after the most terrifying day on our motorcycles. I don’t know where the Brudis bought the beers, but I can still recall my amazement when I found the shack in the nearby town with the deep freeze containing those Black Label quarts. And the wild cats that stole Hugo’s biltong that night. Looks like you guys are having a great time!
Are the roads really that bad? I can’t remember that we ever drove heavily corrugated roads in Namibia.
The Brudis had it easy with an ‘official’ shop less than 2km from the campsite, they had to walk however.
I think on a motorbike it is easier to find one track that is not corrugated than with a 4×4, but yes it felt like some of the roads were worse. It all depends on the maintenance cycle as we still passed a lot of bulldozers and then had short sections of smooth road before or after them.