Namby-pamby:lacking energy, strength, or courage; feeble, timid
SAND route: Segment 4 – part 2
We left Bethanie with full tummies. We had eaten a big dinner of a well marinated wild Oryx snitzel the night previous and a big omelette for breakfast. Food is definately more appreciated the greater the distance between good meals and that someone else has prepared.
It was a long stretch out of town on an immaculate C road before we turned left onto D425. The riding became more interesting thru small canyon features and past the very occasional farm house.
In the middle of a stretch of not much, a twenty year old lad came racing up behind us on his bike. He lived in a shack with his brother. We had noticed the smoke and asked what they were burning. It seemed that they had seen a black cobra or mambo and had set alight a bunch of dead milkwood shrubs to kill it! He didn’t ask for money but seeing his situation we gave him some rand. He said he wanted to bike with us some but had to get back to the goats.
We had planned to camp after 80km but with strong winds forecast the next day we pushed it to 110km with some beautiful late afternoon riding. We made it to the Farm Tiras campsite in a stunning location with a sheltered camp, a wonderful hot shower and all to ourselves.
The D707 is famed as one of Namibias most iconic gravel roads but it has a reputation for being rough, slow travel with 100km between the 2 farms on the road. It runs between the red and white sands of the Namib desert and the Tirasberg mountains.
It was blowing very strong NE as we started in on the road and leaving the first farm felt very committing as we had little idea of how we would get shelter for the tent if the winds persisted. We had 11 litres of water on board but knew we could likely get water from passing vehicles if we had more than one night out. The wind was assisting our journey as a cross wind and the next 15km went well until we hit a long section of soft slow sand and things ground to a crawl. The desert and mountain scenery was stunning and through the day we were surprised to see only half a dozen vehicles.
Fortunately the winds died, and as we were starting to consider camping we saw a structure in the distance. It turned out to be a corrugated water tank with one section blown out. Perfect. We tidied it up and moved in sharing it with a family of geckos. The wind picked up for a bit and we felt very lucky to have shelter. The full moon rose and the sun set.
We had camped at the low point of the road so next day had to grind our way up the last 60km of D707. We were riding at 7 before sunrise (and moonset) and enjoyed that beautiful time of day when the colours are at their best.
Progress was fast (not) at 7km/hr and we knew we were in for a long but still beautiful day. In our sights was the end of the D707 and the mostly downhill to Betta – betta be a betta road than this one. Despite being a C road it was pretty lumpy rough gravel and we were more than happy to finish another long day and treat ourselves to a chalet.
Next day we planned a short day only 30km to the Toulous farm chalets. No-one was around when we arrived before lunch so we settled in on the verandah. Fortunately Logi turned up and sorted us out before taking us up on our offer to help him that afternoon. We had a magic couple of hours with him looking for and checking on a pregnant cow and then penning the sheep up at 2 of his watering holes. He liked to talk so we learned a lot.
As well as the drought they have to deal with a variety of predators including leopard, cheetah, baboon, caracol, hyena and jackals. The farm borders the Namibrand Private Nature Reserve and there are strict controls on killing the predators and they must have proof of the kill and a record of tracking the perpetrator. There is ill feeling between park and farmer.
It was sunset as we made the rounds of the very dry farm. Remarkably it can all turn green if they get sufficient rain. The first western farmers were Germans back in the 1820’s and they arrived to long grass so put up the fences and brought in the cattle and sheep. It wasn’t long before the grass was all eaten and the realities of farming in a desert set in. Some farm wild oryx and kudu which are more suited to the conditions.
We enjoyed chatting to Logi’s brother Benni and his wife who run the tourist accommodation. They were excellent hosts and put on a fantastic breakfast for us. Their business took a hit thru Covid but it is coming back. The Tour of Africa cycle group stay with Benny. This is a fully supported bike tour from Cairo to Cape Town over 140 days. They cycle mainly the more major paved roads. This stay turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip.
From the Toulouse accomodation we set forth knowing that we were in for some rough roads. Back at a camp by the Orange river in South Africa we had been warned about the state of the road. We hoped that they had remembered wrong but no they were right on the button.
