Spectacular. One of the bends caught me off guard and I nearly came off which was quite a sobering experience. I calmed my riding down a bit after that. heh. I also hit a few small rivers unexpectedly. Those signs that indicate a river I had been ignoring as they never have water. I also spotted a Jackal whilst taking a rest. The first I've seen in the wild. Cool!









Coming over the top and seeing the panorama of Streetshoogte pass was amazing. The descent was surprisingly steep too!



On the way back I popped into camp Gecko for some lunch and had a nice chat with the farm manager.

I'm probably going to drive to Swakopmund tomorrow and use it as a base until after Christmas and the new year. I'm due my 8k service soon so will be popping in to Windhoek at some point for a day or two.

I'm pretty excited to drive Keiseb pass on the C14 as I'm reading The Sheltering Desert and thats the area where they were hiding out. Pretty cool!

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Here's today's report :

50 km's on the C14 after leaving Solitaire I came to the Tropic of Capricorn for the obligatory photo :



I spotted a cave (called "The Grotto") and decided to go investigate. It was pretty steep and with all my luggage and yet to be acquired off road skills I came off. I chose the wrong line and started using the brakes which wasn't a good combination. heh.

Bike was fine. I am fine. Lesson learned!



The Kuiseb Pass was break taking. It was made even more spectacular for me as I'm most of the way through "The Sheltering Desert" by Henno Martin which took place in this same area.





Solitaire to Swakupmond was around 270 km's which was out of range for the meagre 8.5 litre tank on the CTX. This is only the second time I have had to use my 10L. I never have it full but fill it with an 5-8L's depending on what I think I will need. There's no point in lugging 10L's around all the time if it's not needed.

Its nice the amount of people who enquired whether I was OK when I stop for photo's or refuelling etc.. Gives me confidence that if I did have a problem someone would be there to help. I met an Italian guy (who lives in Nairobi) on holiday with his family at this stop. He had a blow out and rolled his 4x4 a couple weeks earlier. He even showed me his scars! Nice guy... He rides a Honda XR125 back at home.



After the Kuiseb Pass there's over 100 km's of plains before you get to the coast.



I'm currently staying at Villa Wiese Backpackers. It looked pretty nice from the website but now I'm here you can tell its been neglected for a while. The kitchen is filthy. I'm going to try a different backpackers the day after tomorrow. Find somewhere cool to hole up.

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I moved hostels to Desert Sky Backpackers which is much nicer. I plan on spending Christmas and the New Year in Swakopmund as I have heard its the place to be with plenty of parties and people. I booked a bed from the 23rd to 3rd so will have 10 nights of a proper bed and a break from the bike which is a good idea on this sort of long trip. I also met some cool people there including someone I met in Cape Town and Mat and Jaap on two KTM 990's :



I haven't been feeling too well since Luderitz. I suspect that the fresh oysters I ate at the Oyster bar there were bad. I was getting stomach cramps and a pain down my right side especially when I took a deep breath. I thought it was getting better slowly but it had been nearly 2 weeks so I decided to go to the doctors to be sure. I got prescribed some anti-biotics which sorted it out straight away. The doctor reckoned it was some kind of colon infection.

I was looking for a 10 day mini trip before Christmas and decided to head up to the Brandberg (burnt) mountains. A Malaysian guy I met at the hostel called Yien was planning on a few days up there too. He was also a biker and decided to hire a Yamaha XT 250 from the local dealership. They have a pretty funny "wall of shame" in there :



So we both set off around 10:30 and drove through Henties Bay and soon came across one of the ship wrecks that the Skeleton coast is famous for :



Wanna buy some salt ?



We carried on as far as Cape Cross which has a massive seal colony. There must have been 10,000's there and loads of seal pups.



One of them wanted to use my bike as shade



After Cape Cross we headed inland taking a 4x4 dirt track towards Messum crater. It was quite easy going at first with fairly solid rocky ground and we make it to the crater without seeing any vehicles. We didn't see anyone else for the rest of the day.



After a while though we hit some increaing longer stretches of sand and both Yien and I fell off but fortunately only at low speeds without injury.





We didn't quite know where we were going and the lack of any other vehicles did have me slightly worried at times but we eventually made it to a not much better "D" road where we came across this burned out bakkie. Pretty mad max!



I also spotted my first wild Zebra. They were running quite near us beside the road :



With the Brandberg mountain on our left side we made our way into Uis where we set up camp at the Brandberg rest camp.

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Here's our camp :



The next day Yien and I headed up to Twyfelfontein to see some of the bushman art. Before heading in we stopped for lunch at the lodge. This little fellow was scrambling about on the rocks :



For 50 NAB$ each we got a guide called Dion who showed us around the bushman art for an hour.





The circles represent water holes and their location relative to each other.



After our tour we visited the "Organ Pipes" :



Next the not so impressive "Burn't Mountain" :



We were relying on filling up to get back to Uis but unfortunately the new owner of the pumps decided he didn't want to operate them any more. It looked like we had enough fuel to get to Khorixas but it would mean a 70 km detour



Fortunately after hanging around for 10 minutes debating what to do and trying to gauge how much fuel we actually had a worked there took pity on us and offered to sell us 5 litres each. Result!



We didn't see any but I do love this sign. Beats road works!



A bump in the road provided a nice opportunity for some air

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I met Basil the owner of Brandberg Rest Camp who rides a Honda Africa Twin and also gives discounts to bikers who stay at his place (50 N$ for camping). He had just returned from a trip down to Langebaan and introduced himself as soon as he clocked my bike. Next thing I know he announces another biker has arrived so we went to introduce ourselves to Vian who also recognised me from my planning a ride post on here and even remembered my name. I'm famous now apparently! hehe

Later that evening we were having dinner and Basil kindly offered to take us on a loop around the Brandberg so naturally Vian and I jumped at the chance. The next morning we set out. I found it quite a technical ride with lots of varying terrain from loose rocks to sand. Probably one of the most challenging days of my trip. I'm definitely getting better!

Quick rest stop :


I'm getting better at sand riding and this stretch of sand was quite tough. Keep the power on and let the bike do its thing. Turning was tough whilst trying to maintain your speed.



We all made it through without stopping which was great :



We stopped for a spot of lunch :



Onwards!



Basil pointed out this rock which is used my the Rhino's as a kind of rubbing stone :



Another rest before we went fo visit the waterfall which was unfortunately not flowing.



We were running low on water so we stopped at this small farm and topped up.


We came across the native Namibian meat tree. No wonder they eat so much meat here!



You can download the GPS Trace of the trip (in GPX format) here :


Thanks again to Basil for an awesome day out. I really recommend you stay with him if you are in the area.

Here's a short video I edited too :

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I had a funny image posted on the wild dog forum by a guy who's not far behind me :



I've just been chilling in Swakopmund for Christmas and the new year. I'm heading into Windhoek on the 3rd for a service on the 6th then north to Outjo and then Etosha. Afterwards I reckon I will head head to Ondangwa and then east on the C45 to the Caprivi. My visa expires on the 21st January so I need to be in Botswana by then. I need to get a move on!

I'm driving 350 km's to Windhoek tomorrow via the C28. Looks like some real nice mountain passes. Should be a great drive. Looking forward to getting on the road again.

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KM's so far ~8000.

So after an awesome time riding around Brandberg I wasn't quite ready to head to Swakopmund for Christmas so I took the D1930 past Spitzkoppe to Usakos where I stayed at the Namib Oasis Farm Stall campsite. The food here is quite good but the camp site is right next to the main B2 road and bearing in mind all the people travelling from Windhoek to Swakpopmund I didn't get too much sleep :/ I decided to just head back to Swakop early (on the gravel D1918 of course!) via Henties Bay and pop in to Spitzkoppe.

I should have just camped at Spitzkoppe. Pretty neat place



I think it was only about 20 NAD for a day pass. They let the bike in for free which was nice. I think it was perhaps because I was English and the guy on the gate was a BIG (Chelsea) football fan.





Surprising to find a rock pool in all this heat.



I took the gravel road (D1918) as usual instead of the boring (B2) tar into Henties Bay and then south to Swakopmond. I tried to book into the Desert Sky Backpackers early but they were full and my Christmas booking didn't start until a couple of days later. I stayed at Skeleton Beach Backpackers for a few days and then came back.

I perhaps shouldn't have taken a long break for Christmas in Swakopmund as my Visa expires on the 21st although I imagine a lot of places close up shop so perhaps it was for the best. Some of the Christmas "highlights" include spending Christmas eve trying to sleep in a dorm that someone has puked all over, learning of a fellow dorm occupant doing a runner without paying their bill and getting arrested by the cops (with an expired visa) and generally avoiding very wasted annoying people. heh.

I ate a lot of fish while there and my favourite resturant was the Fish Deli. I must have eaten there over a dozen times! Also worthy of a mention is the Brauhaus where I had an obligatory Stiefel



So on the 3rd I set off for Windhoek along the C28. It really is a cracking road and you can really appreciate the slow change from parched desert to lush greenery. You see the plants slowly appear and get bigger the further you drive. Awesome. It really felt great to be on the road again!







I did have some problems though. I hit a particularly large pot hole at speed and bottomed out the bike which in turn ripped some of the plastic from under the mud guard. It wasn't helped by the fact my extra 10L fuel can was full. There's no petrol stations on the C28 and the CTX only has a 8.6 litre tank. I cable tied the plastic back into place and emptied 7 litres into my tank which helped but the tyre was not scuffing against the exhaust when the suspension was compressed. I took it pretty easy on the bumps for the rest of the journey. The problem was figured out when I got the service later...



chrisL on the wild dog forum mentioned a visit to the old German building :

I would probably have just driven past if he hadn't mentioned it. I do like wandering around old buildings. Thanks Chris!



I also took some video which I will hopefully get the time to edit together soon.



I arrived same and sound in Windhoek and stayed at the Chameleon Backpackers over the weekend ready for my 8k service on Monday 6th.

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So I took the bike into Honda Windhoek and explained a few of the issues I wanted looking at and was told no problem come back at 2pm. Its quite exciting knowing the bike was going for some TLC. It deserves it after all the abuse I've been giving it in Namibia. The mechanics there seemed very helpful and knowledgeable so I was happy to leave it in their capable hands.

Apparently the spark plug was a bit loose! Can't say I checked it but it did get replaced in Luderitz by the mechanic there. Perhaps he didn't tighten it enough or it vibrated loose. Also the oil was in a bad way apparently but I had it replaced 3k's ago in Luderitz too. Guess I should change it even more often then! I'm now carrying 1.5 litres of castrol 10/40 which they supplied me with and I will change after 2k's.

The main issue with the bike that was causing the back tyre to scuff the exhaust was the fact that one of my back plates was missing. I noticed it was missing after the service in Honda Upington 4.5k's ago! It may have vibrated off but they did adjust the chain then and I wonder if it was perhaps forgotten to be put back on !?! Anyway this combined with hitting the pothole combined with the fact I have a fat E07 on the back cased the scuffing of the exhaust. They bodged a plate together for me and even put a spacer where the exhaust attaches to the frame giving some more room. Good stuff! I wasn't sure that the plate was important when I noticed it was missing and presumed not. I now know!

They also said my air filter was dry implying it wasn't soaked in oiled properly at the last service. I'm not sure myself but on the other hand oil doesn't evaporate as far as I know! Thinking back on it I remember not being that impressed with the mechanics at Honda Upington. I kinda got a bad feeling. Then again I can't be sure these issues were definitely their fault. I bought a spare air filter like we mentioned before and another spark plug. All good.

I forgot to mention before that while on my way to Twyfelfontein I lost my tool kit off the back of the bike So I replaced my tool kit in Cymot Windhoek.

Next I headed up to Waterberg National Park on the C/D roads and guess what ? I lost my toolkit AGAIN! FFS! So annoying.

Anyway I arrived in Waterberg and immediately saw lots of wild life. These little fellows popped out of their hole to have a look at their new neighbour. Not sure what they are. Meerkats ?



Camp all setup. I decided to go for the simple hammock without tarp setup today. Only takes about 5 minutes.



Next I took a dip in the pool. Nice!



The next day I hiked to the top. Nice view :





Then some of the shorter trails around the camp.



I got to within about 5 metres of this female klipspringer i think ?


Very cool.



In the afternoon I went on a 4 hour game drive and saw my first Giraffe along with plenty of other game.



The next day I headed down the D2512 towards Tsumeb. Its a really nice quiet gravel road with lush greenery with lots of farms and gates to pass through.



Just outside Grootfontein is the worlds largest meteorite. Just watch your head!



I had to pop by and see it. Very cool!





Now I'm up to date and staying in Mousebird Backpackers. *I like Tsumeb. Its a really nice chilled out town with a couple of good cafe's and lots of greenery. I was hoping to meet up with some other travellers and hitch a lift into Etosha but I'm the only one here! An Austrian turned up earlier and talked about getting a taxi in for a day trip but I will probably just hit the road tomorrow morning. Not sure exactly where I will head but probably towards Oshakati and camp somewhere for a day and start making my way East towards the Caprivi. I could go direct to Rundu but its a long boring road apparently. Any thoughts ?

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KM's so far 9400

Leaving Tsumeb I drove north and after about 20 km's I came across Otjikoto Lake. Its estimates to be over 142 meters deep!



The retreating Germans chucked their guns and a "mysterious safe" into the lake.



A very boring drive for about 230 km's up the B2 highway took me to Ondangwa where I setup my hammock camp at Ondangwa Rest Camp.



I was snoozing in my hammock when 3 noisy bikes drove in next to my camp. Meet Thomas (Germany), Florian (Austria) and the famous "deaf biker" Istvan (Romania). Very cool guys to hang out with for the evening!



By coincidence these guys met Mat and Jaap on the KTM 990's in northern Africa but decided to come down the west coast (Mat and Jaap took the easy coast).



The next day I said farewell to the guys and headed on a day trip exploring the local area off away from the B2. Lots of small villages and people just staring as I rode past on my bike. I don't think they see many bikers up here.

Where am I ?



Tomorrow I'm going to head east towards Rundu along the Angolan border. I'm not sure if I will camp on the way and make it in 2 days or just go for the whole 460 km's in one go. Even with my 10 litre jerry can on the side I think I'm going to need to take a few more litres just in case. AFAIK there's no petrol on this road. Should be an interesting day!

---

Side note regarding my new GPS tracking I mentioned where you can track my exact position and speed / altitude etc... There was a bug causing it not to update. Now fixed it shows my location properly. Updates every 5 minutes. Im interested to know if anyone uses it :

Where is James ?

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So I have had my first major problem of the trip

I'm in Katima Mulilo right in the north east of Namibia on the Caprivi strip. I changed my oil today and tightened the sump plug too much and snapped off the outer collar that holds the rubber ring in. Its now dripping a drop of oil every 2 seconds. Damn it! So annoyed with myself.

Here's the collar that snapped off :



Here's what is should look like only snapped :



Here's the rubber ring exposed dripping oil :





The sump plug was really tight when I undone it so when I noticed what seemed like a spot of oil after having run the engine for a few minutes I presumed I hadn't tightened it enough then SNAP!

Its a Saturday evening here so nothing will be open until Monday and my visa expires on Tuesday. So I have to act quickly. I have several options as I see it :

Ideally I need a replacement so I will try and find one here in Katima. There is at least one decent mechanics here. Failing that I will see if it can be repaired and perhaps have one shipped somewhere from Windhoek Honda which is AFAIK the closest honda dealership to me. I can't get there because of my visa expiring on Tuesday.

Visa-wise I'm close to the border so I can cross even with a broken bike. Perhaps go to Livingstone which I think is the biggest city closest to me and therefore most likely to have a part or possibly be my shipping address for a shipment from Windhoek. Its not ideal as I wanted to go to Botswana first.

Perhaps I should just cross into Botswana and try and get to Maun and hole up there until I can get the part sent... It would allow me to then continue on my original planned route at least.

Any ideas or suggestions welcome!

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I got some advice from two uses on the wild dog forums. I'm going to go to the local mechanics / spares shop tomorrow and hopefully pick up a replacement. One of the many reasons I chose the CTX was because its such a common and standard (GY6) engine. I'm hoping I shouldn't have too much difficulty replacing it.

I did manage to pick some of this up but I held off using it yet because as it stands I do have a bit of a seal and its not leaking too much at the moment. If I keep the oil topped up I think I might be able to make it to somewhere I can get a replacement plug or at least get one sent.

It seems to depend on the oil temperature but its dripping anything from every 3 - 15 seconds. Even in the last 20 hours or so my oil level is about 50% between min and max level's (it was at max before) and I've been driving around town a bit to test how much it leaks.

I spoke to my dad this morning and he raised a very good point. By undoing the sump plug and trying to repair it I may well make the problem worse. Its better to add to the seal as it stands. I can only lesson the amount of oil dripping out.

The washer idea might be another idea too if the putty didn't hold. I'm going to pick up some gasket maker tomorrow and try and improve the seal I have. Now I wish I had bought a spare but to be fair if I had taken everything everyone had advised I would have most of a spare bike. I'm still learning and your previous advice is well appreciated now

My plan (after seeing what I can at the local mechanics / spares shop in Katima) is to still head to Divundu (Popa falls) tomorrow and try and cross the border there. I will load up with an extra litre of oil and cross my finger's I don't leak a litre and a half of oil during the 320 km's.

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I'm going to get my ride report up to date as it's out of sync with my recent sump plug issue.

So I left Ondangwa on the B10. It was a LONG 467 km stretch. The road has lots of villages along it and I came across this old rusted VW shell and stopped for a photo :



After about 300km's I was feeling pretty tired and noticed these looming clouds that I was headed to. I had a small down poor to drive through which wasn't too bad but enough to soak me. The sun then came out and I dried myself out only to come into a BIG storm which lasted about 30 minutes and after that I was completely wet through. It started out with some small wind and then it was a real storm and I had to slow down to 40 km's and was nearly blown over. I could barely see anything.



I arrived in Divindu and checked into The Okavango River Lodge. Being soaked through and tired I paid 420 NAD for a single room rather than trying to find somewhere cheaper.

I was going to stay two nights but at the last minute I decided to head to Divundu. The D3402 road which runs parallel to the B8 is a must. Lots of villages next to the river and much more fun than the tar road.





As with yesterday clouds started to appear and I was ready to be drowned again.



Fortunately I made it to Divundu before it really bucketed it down and took shelter outside one of the two supermarkets in town.



I checked out most of the camp sites but decided to camp at Shametu River Lodge. Its run by a South African couple called Cheryl and Mel. They even offered for me to join them for dinner so I didn't have to have my standard pilchards and beans. Very nice people!

I just strung my hammock up in the kitchenette area. The ablution facilities were really nice too and all for 120 NAD per person.



The view towards popa falls from Shametu. I wasn't going to pay NWR 150 NAD just to go and look from their resort!





I spent a couple of nights there and then headed off the Caprivi strip to Katima where I was going to meet some red cross volunteers I met in Swakopmund. I decided to take the C49 instead of the B8 tar road. Unfortunately (or fortunately depends on how you look at it) they are working on tarring the road.



Came across this big fellow crossing just behind me. My first wild elephant!



I arrived in Katima after driving 400 km's and camped in my friends garden. Seeing bikes is rare in Namibia but whilst wandering around town I came across this Honda Trail 11 :



The next day (Saturday) I washed the bike, cleaned the chain and decided to change the oil. This is when I broke the sump plug as mentioned in the previous post.

I had to wait until Monday as everything was obviously closed on Sunday. I trawled round all the local mechanics and even outboard motor shops trying to find a replacement sump plug and ended up meeting a mechanic called Eddie who was happy to jump in and help me out. First he tried the Partleys steel glue and it looked promising but as soon as he tightened it up even a little its just broke again. So next he used some tape on the thread and then sealed it with some sealant :





Eddie then replaced the oil and only charged me 150 NAD for the emergency work. Thanks man! I immediately left for Divundu checking the seal regularly of course and thankfully it held and got me to there.

The next morning on the last day of my Visa I exited Namibia after spending two whole months there.



I entered Botswana via the Mohembo border crossing. Both posts were very friendly and quick so no problems and no accusations of spying! I paid 150 Pula for the Botswana fee's for the bike. They accepted namibian dollars too.



I followed the A35 south on a very boring road full of pot holes and strewn with cattle and donkeys. I stopped for lunch at Dijo Deli where they recommended I visit a crocodile farm on my way down. I arrived in Sepopa where I stayed at Sepopa Swamp Stop. I was the only guest there and the dinner was very good. The place was a bit run down though and could do with an overhaul to be honest especially the ablution facilities.

After a nice breakfast I headed south again towards Maun and stopped off at Krokovango Farm as recommended by the Dijo Deli. It cost 25 Pula and was quite interesting. I recommend it. You can spot it by the giant painted crocodile by the side of the road :









At the end of the A35 where it joins the A3 is Lake Ngami which I thought I may as well try and cross. Not going to happen but the scenery is quite unique with all the dead tress.





The A3 is just as boring as the A35 and after riding about 350 km's I eventually end up in Maun where I'm currently staying at the *Old Bridge Backpackers.

I just got back from trawling all the local bike / spares shops and although everyone was helpful it appears I can't get a replacement plug here. Getting one shipped will probably take a long time too as it will have to go via Gabarone for customs. I think I might just head down to Francistown and try my luck there.

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Here's the current status of my sprockets and tyres at 11,600 km's.

Front :


Back :


Front (Headenau K60) :


Back (Mitas E07) :


I've got a bit of a seal that's leaking too but not enough to really worry too much about I think :

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Hi Jim,Kiwiron here,check out my ctx200 trip on trailriderreports.co.za i went from Capetown To Luanda,Angola on a ctx.Good bike for it.

Yeah for sure Just had a look through your pictures. Nice!

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