We hit N7
very early in the morning, at 4-30am, which was maybe a bit too German but we didn’t know how the border crossing will go
and how much time we'll have to spend on it. Keen to stay a day in Namibia and then surf some sick spots at the Golden mile of SA with Ivan Newmark.
I slept the
first few hours in the back of the bakkie and woke up when we were stuck in traffic, because some parts of N7 are under construction. It’s a beautiful road,
the N7, so I was happy that we had to stop and wait, so that i had time to take some pics. The scenery is very special, so you can just sit back, relax and enjoy the view for the whole 7h drive.
Mostly you
drive past beautiful wine farms and dams where the nature reminds more of Switzerland and not South Africa. A lot of
little towns and farms in the middle of nowhere had those funny africaans names like “I lost hope farm” and “Bitter
farm”.
Drove past numerous herds of sheep, cows, ostriches and even 1
little meercat standing on top of the rock like a king.
We got to
the Noordoewer border around 1pm, the lady stamped out passports, noone checked
anything in the car and we just drove through. Past the SA border, there’s that Orange River which belongs to both countries (farmers from both sides use it)
and after the bridge across the river you enter Namibia.
The border procedure is very simple, fill in 1 form, pay R220 for the car and there you are in Namibia.
The first thing
that strikes you is the heat. It’s not even hot like in Egypt in summer time,
it’s crazy hot and moist. The lady at the supermarket told us that it was 43C
outside on the thermometer that day.
The
landscape is very different to anything you’ve ever seen. The desert is full of
colors from yellow to back with mountains and funny hills. It could be Mars or other planet but not the Earth. Different farms,
vineyards, peach and mango trees stretch all along the Orange River.
We decided
to stay in the camping area not far from the border called Amanzi River Camp.
There are around 20 nice camping spots inside with green grass and braai facilities.
The spot that we chose was right on the river, you could just jump into the water over the little wooden fence.
The only thing that
was worrying me were the crocodiles. My best friend just
told me that on the news they said 15 000 crocodiles escaped Limpopo and
drifted in the river somewhere. I know Limpopo is miles away and
actually on the other side of continent, but what if there’s 0.000005% chances that 1
traveling crocodile would chill at the same camping spot? The guy at the
reception told us he’s never seen crocodiles there in his whole life but there’s "a little irritating wind" that might bother us. Little irritating wind? Ha! We
are from CT, there’s no wind that could bother us. So we unloaded
our stuff, went for a swim in the river with the craziest current I’ve ever
seen and then drove to the supermarket to get some stuff. When we came back, all
our stuff was lying across the whole spot in chaos. First thought, someone was
looking for the money or cameras and threw everything around, but then came the
gust….after that first gust, there came the second one and we realized that this
“little irritating wind” is more likely to be Red Bull Storm Chase conditions
hitting Namibia full power.
The
Orange river was white with 60-70 knots gusts lifting the water up and
hitting our car full power. That’s a real wind nature here. Forgot to say
that on the way to the supermarket there were those twisters, little hurricanes, crossing the road, that i've never seen in my whole life. They could've lifted our car and brought us back to SA in a second. On the way to the river i got 100 thorns in each of my
flipflops, then had to fight with a solid army of ants marching towards out food and cloths. I love
camping but I don’t think I could handle
more than 1 day at the Orange River in Namibia. 70 knots wind at the camping spot and all that wild nature...that's for real sunset and brandy lovers.
When it got dark, the wind eased off and the
night unfold with billions of starts so bright and close to you, it was almost
unreal. Time for a braai. There was that crazy rain with wild lightening
striking all over the place in the middle of the night tho, so luckily we were sleeping in the car and not in the tent. Felt like 4 seasons hit us in 1 night. In the morning we packed up, crossed the border again and went on a real 4/4 mission to the the spot called Blue Mayo and others that stretch all along the west coast.
We drove to Garis, got food for braai there and then took a gravel road towards the beach. Everything went fine until we saw a massive cold front coming from the ocean. When we got to Blue Mayo, everything was competely foggy, white, super cold and windy.
That's a ship wreck at Blue Mayo but you can't see even a white wash behind it not talking about the famous wave. Like 2C outside as well. So we decided to drive down to Elands bay and stay at a friend's place as camping in the cold front was too crazy for me, couldn't see my hand stretched out.
That day we drove for more than 10h, left Namibia at 10am and got to Elands after 9pm in the evening. Saw Green river, Blue mayo, went 4/4 along the coast (thanks to Ivan for letting me drive his precious 4by4 through every bump i could find), rescued local people stuck in the sand and got 2 very tasty and very organic melons as a present from them. Drove in the sand with flat tyres like 2 pros, it was a sick trip. We saw a lot of amazing spots with massive killer waves all along the Golden Mile but the cold front was following us everywhere.
Misty, raining, foggy at Elands as well and no swell with onshore wind. Camping without surfing sucks but at the same time it was nice to see the west coast so wild and harsh. Happy that i got my new SA visa and i can now stay in the country until beginning of May. So definitely more surf and windsurf trips ahead, stay tuned for moooore. xx
