We hit the road for our off-road adventure and drove on some gravel roads further north. We stopped at the “White Lady,” a famous ancient rock painting. From the car park, it is still a one-hour walk away, and a guide comes with you to show the way and explain some interesting facts about rock art. It was a nice but hot walk along a dry river bed.
After this excursion on foot, we jumped back into the cars and left the official roads. We followed an off-road track in a dry riverbed. The scenery was beautiful, and since it was the end of the dry season, driving in the riverbed on the very sandy tracks was not a problem. Liv’s parents seemed to enjoy it and got more confident on the 4x4 track. We knew in what direction we were headed and there were lots of different paths to choose from. Once we left the riverbed again, we started looking for a nice spot to spend the night and found a beautiful place behind a bit of rock, sheltered from the wind. Tom and Roland were taking care of a nice fire, Evelyne and I prepared our dinner, and we enjoyed a fantastic night out in the wild.
The next day, we continued our trip. We read about a simple camp called Ugab Rhino Trust Camp with very basic infrastructure, but supposedly, they had water for showers, which we found reason enough to stop there since we planned on staying out in the wild for a couple of more nights. Shortly after we left our camp in the morning, we saw springboks and even ostriches, who ran in front of our cars. We continued through the wide open fields, and slowly, the scenery became rockier; it looked like we had landed on the moon. The track we chose is called divorce pass, and we soon found out why. The road got increasingly rough and very steep until, eventually, we had to stop and check on the road conditions before we dared to continue. Tom and I quickly had to teach my parents some offroad basic skills we learned in our training back in Italy. We only had the option of continuing or turning around, and after a six-hour drive on a bumpy road, the second option didn’t seem too appealing. We also knew that we had two excellent and strong cars capable of driving almost any route, so we decided to continue. Only this last bit we had to pass, and then we could follow a riverbed again, which led straight to the camp. The “last bit” turned out to be more than just one steep climb; after every climb, there was another even steeper descent and another ascent again; our (and more so my parent’s) nerves got tested, but we managed the divorce pass without any divorces 😊 Back in the riverbed, we saw lots of elephant dung, but unfortunately, we did not spot any desert elephants. When we arrived at the Rhino Trust Camp, it was very windy, so we tried to find a place with some shelter. Unfortunately, we only just arrived to find out that the showers were not working. But it was, what it was; we still prepared a nice dinner and calmed our nerves with a bottle of wine ;-) The next day, we were ready to leave the rocky terrain.
When we got up the next day, we saw some local people from the village getting some water from a close-by water station. We asked them if we could also fill our water tanks, which we could. This was great; we knew we would have enough water to take a shower that night, which was something very nice to look forward to. The people from the village also told us about a waterhole a bit further down the river, where the desert elephants usualy stay, and they also informed us that the road we intended to take was not possible to drive at the moment. So we quickly had to change our plans. We first tried our luck and went to the waterhole to see if we would meet the desert elephants. Unfortunately, they were not there. On the way, we passed an old and abandoned mine, which Tom and my Dad found very interesting, but my mom and I just wanted to finally leave the stones and rocks and drive back to open fields with easy sandy tracks instead of rock climbing trails. We let the boys take some pictures, and my dad and I switched cars for the next bit. I was driving with my Mom and my Dad was getting his Defender experience. We maneuvered the two vehicles out of this valley, which still included many bumpy tracks. Unfortunately, the Landcruiser did not have the same ground clearance as our Defender, and it was almost impossible not to hit a stone once in a while. We still managed to get out, and finally, the roads became more sandy again, and the view slowly changed from the rocky moon landscape to open fields. We stopped to prepare a little snack and continued to the “Dolores Crater Rim,” where we intended to spend the night. A giraffe crossed our way, and when we arrived at a crater, we agreed that it was a nice spot to spend the night, also a bit sheltered from the wind. We took turns taking a short but very nice shower before the sun went down and it got cooler again. And then, we started to prepare dinner. Only then my Dad realized that the big fridge they had in their car was lose. The fixation apparently broke, so while my mom and I prepared our dinner, the boys tried to fixate the fridge since our bumpy rides were not yet ending.
We enjoyed a nice breakfast the following day and continued further up north. We wanted to reach De Riet, a town where we heard that people are in need of basic things, that’s why we had bought some bags of maize and rice and toilet paper as well as other essentials, which we wanted to bring to them. The scenery on this day was very beautiful again. We came back into desert land and even passed some dunes again after driving over plane wide fields of nothing, and just when we were driving in a dry river bed again shortly before De Riet, we finally spotted the desert elephants. It was a big family eating the leaves from some trees. We did not only see the elephants but also other cars, which seemed just as special after three days of meeting no other vehicles. After watching the elephants for a while, we drove to the town of De Riet and gave the people there the goods, and they seemed to be very grateful. It was windy like crazy; we could barely keep our eyes open and were very impressed by how these people lived here in their very basic huts in this rough surrounding.
We spent our last night next to a dry river bed again, close to the main road, which would bring us the next day to Palmwag, where we had made a reservation for two nice campsites with ablutions, which we were all very much looking forward to. We enjoyed our last night in the wild together and sat around the fire until late, talking about the adventures of the past few days. It is always so special to spend some days far away from everything else, with no phone connection, no other people, just the car and yourself is all you need. In these days, it is very easy to forget the busy world we usually live in.
We arrived at the Palmwag Lodge and Campsite, and while I was talking to the receptionist to check us in, the rest of us were refilling the water tanks of our two cars and then they spotted, that our Defender had a flat tire. It was still slowly deflating, but once again we were more than lucky. Literally about 50 meters away from the spot we parked, the lodge had its own workshop where they could fix tires. The place to detect a flat tire couldn’t have been more perfect. So while my parents already drove to our campsite to settle in, Tom and I went to the workshop, where a very skilled guy was helping us to locate the hole and fix it again. Within no-time, we were ready to join my parents at the campsite. We all took a nice shower and spent the rest of the day chilling at the pool, before we treated ourselves to a dinner at the restaurant of the lodge.