Just an update. No pics. I'm not finding too much interesting stuff to see or do the last couple of days.

From Clanwilliam I decided to head to Elands Bay to get away from the heat. I passed "The Dunes" and thought I would have a gander but dropped the bike on the sand on the way so decided it wasn't such a good idea! I only stayed one night in Elands bay as it seemed like a pretty boring place. I get the impression it is busy at weekends and around holidays. I hit the road the next morning and decided to just drive north until I felt like I had enough which happened to be Garies on the N7. Its a tiny agricultural town. Seems quite friendly here.

The driving today was 50% road 50% gravel / sand and a good learning curve. My off road riding skills do seem to be improving although I have to admit I nearly lost it a few times when I went from gravel thick sand.

Before I head into Namibia I'm going to head to Upington to get my 4k service done as its the only Honda dealership between Cape Town and Windhoek. I'm liking the look of Augrabies Falls national park and may drive here tomorrow : Augrabies Backpackers - Home Its 415 km's so it would be my longest drive yet. Will see what happens.

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From Elands bay I just headed north to see where I would end. Garies was where I decided I had done enough km's for the day. I stayed in a nice cheap self catering apartment for 280 rand. The next morning I decided to do the same and drove through Springbok which seemed like a nice place. I would have considered staying there but it was only lunchtime so pushed on. I read about some cathedral at Pella on someone's itinerary and decided to have a look. Pretty cool place. Pella is a very quiet town which some quite spectacular mountains in the background.



A local guy told me to just keep driving through to end up at Klein Pella where I knew I could find some accommodation. So I headed off where he pointed and ended up in some spectacular but challenging terrain. Managed to drop the bike in some deep sand. Wasn't going fast so no matter. It quite tough with when you hit that deep sand especially with all my luggage. Fortunately the small bike is nice and easy to pick up again. I ended up doing a bit of a loop for an hour or so and got back on the N14 and headed for Pofadder to try and find a room for the night.



Turns out they are building some massive solar farm near Pofadder so lots of contractor's have taken all the rooms. I was advised to carry on to Kakamas. The sun was setting so full throttle and I managed to find a room but ended up paying 400 rand for the night! Ohh well shit happens.



So now I'm staying at Augrabies Backpackers which will be my base while I explore the area for a few days.

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Been hanging out in Augrabies the last few days. The backpackers is a nice chilled out biker friendly place to use as a base camp. I have been exploring the local grape farms and getting a few things sorted.

Yesterday I drove a big loop to Riemvasmaak. There's some great 4x4 off roading to be done in the area.





I stopped off at the hot springs (50 rand) and chilled in the water by myself for an hour or so. Its really beautiful down there with two pools to choose from.







I got the bike serviced today in Upington. Its been 4000 kms so far. I also picked up a 10 litre fuel can which gives me a total range of around 450km's. Should be enough for Namibia I also got the tracks4africa Namibian paper map as a backup to my GPS.

I'm hoping to head to the Augrabies falls tomorrow.

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Augrabies Falls Gorge walk. Was a crazy hot day to go hiking but the views were very impressive :



Two balloons took off at 5:30am from the backpackers. Pretty cool to watch. The wind was up and it was touch and go whether they would make it.



Just south of the Namibian border crossing at Onseepkans. You leave the N14 by Pofadder and travel 50 km 's on gravel / sand to get there.



I made it across the border. The guys on the South African side were really sound. I was chatting them for about half an hour. I crossed at 2pm and I was their second crossing that day. Somehow I managed to loose my little disc along the way as it was attached to the swing arm. Fortunately the cape town municipality issued me two by mistake

Goodbye for now South Africa!

Hello Namibia!

After crossing the orange river the Namibian's weren't so friendly and berated me for not quite filling out their form's. I was also asked if I was a spy and asked to explain why I wanted a 2 month visa. The small bike was also criticised as the only bikes I think they see are BMW's or KTM's. After stamping me through and reluctantly giving me change for the bike 140 Nab$ fee the guy came out for a cigarette and completely changed his tune. He was interested in my trip and even wanted to buy the bike from me when I was finished! Random...



There hasn't been much tar in Namibia. Its all pretty much like this. I drove to Warmbad and tried to get some accomodation but was told there's nothing as the hot springs has shut down. Pretty much a ghost town! I drove up the C21 to Karasburg and stayed in the Zebra B&B for 250 NAB. It's run by a nice old man who was more than happy to point out places of interest on my map.



After Karasberg I drove to the fish river canyon via Grünau where I stopped for a coke and got told a joke about the English leaving Namibia and promising to come back and then they did with land rovers of something. I didn't get it...

This is my hammock camping setup where I have been for the last 3 nights.



Yesterday I went to visit Fish River Canyon via Hobas and parked by the edge of the furthest viewpoint. Very easy to bypass all the barrier's and road blocks with the smaller CTX.



Parked on the edge of Fish River Canyon :



Namibia is still waiting for it's rains so the river is running almost dry at the moment. This was taken with my Canon from the main viewpoint.



Same shot but with the GoPro2 :



After the canyon I headed down to Ai Ais camp site / resort for the afternoon and chilled by the pool as a day visitor (20 NAB$). Came across this old bullet ridden truck so had to stop for a photo or two.





Pretty cool so far! Off to Lüderitz tomorrow.

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Some extra photo's from fish river canyon. Here's inside the Canyon Roadhouse bar :



Some of the old trucks outside :





An old Honda :



This is Derek. He's cycling the same route I'm doing :



Gotta do my laundry! :

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I drove 388 km's from Fish River Canyon to Ludertiz yesterday and the bike was a bit sluggish and not giving me a very good fuel economy like I was getting before . I think the air filter needed a good clean. I had been doing mostly gravel since the last service when it was last cleaned so makes sense. Because of this I also managed to nearly run out of fuel on the way to Aus. I kept my speed at 80 km's an hour and my head down and fortunately made it.

I changed the oil today. It was black so certainly looked like it needed to be changed. The local mechanic here helped me and only charged me the 40 NAB$ for the oil. What a nice guy! I will be leaving 100 NAB$ behind his local bar (where I met him yesterday) for his s. I also took a look at the air filter and blew it through with an air compressor. Not much dust came out but I didn't have the solvents required to clean it properly. I have heard petrol could be used... Not sure on this though and would like to see it done by a professional before I attempt it myself. I'm very much learning as I go here and the last few days have been great for bettering my understanding.

The bike is performing great again after the new oil and air filter cleaning so I went to visit Kolmanscop today.







Sitting in another bath of course! Couldn't help myself



This place is so photogenic!









Hello ? Hello ? Yes Jim here. I would like to order some more sand...

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On the way into Ludertiz I came across a road block just outside Kolmanscop. It turns out that a veichle transporting a boat had bought down the 22,000 volt power lines that were now just lying in the road. I saw a Honda Transalp 700 so pulled up along side and met Stefan who had also bought his bike in South Africa. We drove round a few poles down in sand to get by. I dread to think how long the non 4x4 cars were waiting.



Stefan follwed me to the hostel and the day after Kolmanscop we drove a loop round to Diaz point :



This place is so desolate. The wind was also incredible.

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