Adventure Articles

THE "HOW TO SURVIVE NAMIBIA" TOUR 1997 - Day 6 - 11 a personal insight .... Article by Jan Maritz Photos by Lynette Oxley

Day 6 - I think it is Thursday 11th September - our next port of call is Ongongo Springs - sounds wonderful doesn't it. Cool, enervating, an oasis in the desert. You can dream!!! With sad hearts we left the dustbowl of Abu Huab on route via Palmwag to Ongongo, which is just outside Sesfontein. When we got there, I could not believe my eyes, we were to camp in a quarry. Talk about basic. Somebody had put up a few shelters - four poles with a grass roof in the middle of this pit and they charged us to camp there. Luckily the weather was warm enough to omit tent pitching and we just put the stretchers under these canopies. Still there had to be a high point somewhere in this location. The highlight of the visit is, of course, the Springs. It was a strange anomaly, a pool of crystal clear, luke warm water under rocks, about 3.5 feet deep - in the middle of nowhere!! Since by now we were hot, dusty and tired we decided to take advantage of this amazing phenomenon and in we all went.

Picture on the left: Arriving at the Ongongo campsite!

Picture on the right: Cooling off in the Ongongo Springs!

After the cooling off, we went back to sit and drink beer and plan our evening meal. A Danish guy and his girl were also camped there and we invited them to join us for braai (barbeque) and salad. They were most impressed at our culinary abilities as they had been travelling through Africa for six months and were continuing on for another six months and I think meat was not on the menu all that often. Picture on the left: Anne Kirstine & Kasper from Denmark with their Landy at Ongongo!

Vehicle maintenance is being attended too. The Range Rover petrol tank is taking quite a battering over the rocky roads and the exhaust pipe which was duly fixed in Swakopmund is now held on with wire. We are still rolling but, we haven't got to the bad bits yet!!!

Day 7 up bright and early, have to get out of this quarry while it is still cool. We are going to Epupa Falls today. Excitement - water. Can't get enough of the stuff. I reckon the cold drink manufacturers have reaped an unprecedented profit this last few days if you count the number of cans we are consuming along the way.

We leave Ongongo after a last early morning swim and head back to Sesfontein to catch the road to Opuwe. Ah, a major town at last. Who am I kidding? It is a God-forsaken hole in the middle of nowhere. That was my first impression. I am to eat my words when, a few days later, we are back in Opuwe desperately seeking landrover parts, welding shops and welders. Still that is in the future, I must continue with the present. We filled up with petrol, found a bakery with fresh bread, stocked up on cold drinks and gazed with fascination at the Himba people thronging around the petrol station begging.

The Himba women have this odd habit of covering their whole body with a mixture of butter fat (today I am told they use petroleum jelly as it is easier to come by) and a red ochre clay. This is supposed to protect them from the sun, insects and probably the unwanted attentions of the men of their tribe. They did not smell, I must admit. They wear a little skirt of springbok skin, a lot of necklaces and bracelets, a sort of headdress, also made from springbok skin and they braid their hair in the red mixture as well. It feels like shoe polish on your hands. Most of them had a baby on their backs, also covered in the red stuff and they carry them in a beautifully made leather sling bag of sorts. Their nomadic existence and their goats and cattle seem to keep them going and they are probably one of the most primitive people in the whole of Africa. One tried to sell me a "pillow". It was a carved piece of wood on which you rest your head when you lie down to sleep. Picture on the right: Himba woman and boy north of Opuwa!

The Himba are totally different from the Herero, who wear the dress of a typical Victorian lady on the early 90's. There were also plenty of them in Opuwe too - talk about different cultures. I am having a culture shock.

Alas, we have to leave Opuwe - on with the trek. We are to get to Okangwati and from there get directions to Epupa Falls. The roads are awful, we don't meet much traffic. Probably because no one else is fool enough to make the trip. This is where Eric lost concentration for a split second and careered off the road into a rock someone had left lying there.

The bull bar came off worst in the encounter and thank goodness it was only a small rock. - there was a much larger boulder beyond it. Due to the other slight problem of the engine cutting out every so often, it wouldn't start again since it was overheated so he had to be unceremoniously towed back on to the road by Paul. Some time later, however, it was discovered that that 'little rock' had in fact cracked the front diff.

We left Opuwe at 0930 arrived Epupa 1630. As we come over the last of many many hills, there it was a real, oasis in the desert. A band of palm trees lining the Kunene River. Water, water - I know just how it feels to be lost in the desert with no water. The camp sites, also overseen by the friendly Himba, are the best yet - but then they couldn't get worse, or could they? We camped right on the river bank under the palms and for the first time - out came the tents. There was a marvellous shower and separate toilet facility - sheer bliss. All in reed huts of course, but who cares, the water was warm and the toilet flushed!!! Picture on the left: Arriving through the dust at the Kunene river and Epupa Falls We are so drunk with all this luxury we decide to stay two days. There's not much to do here, but never mind, we will unwind, replenish our resources, charge our batteries, you name it, we will do it.

Day 8 - Good Morning Epupa. The morning was beautiful, time to do some very necessary washing and general cleaning up. We loafed about all day, took a look at the Falls, which were quite impressive, although the sad lack of water is quite evident. Angola, over on the other side of Kunene, didn't look in any better shape either, very brown, dusty and dry. There is evidence of the war fought between South Africa and Angola at Epupa as you can still see the remains of gun emplacements. Picture on the right: Part of the Epupa Falls

We managed to buy cold beers from the Himba, goodness knows how they keep any sort of refrigeration going in these parts. Complete mystery. They are very noisy people too, they sit up all night singing, chanting and generally partying. I suppose with all the lovely money they make from us foolhardy tourists they can afford to drink their lives away.

Day 9 - dawned and I think we can safely say that this was the start of our troubles. I never want to hear the name Otjitanda again in my lifetime and quite honestly I still don't think we actually found it. Still I digress. Day 9 was a beautiful, hot, sunny day just like the last 8. We are going to Otjitanda so that we can assault van Zyl's Pass and view the Marienfluss - the highlight of the whole trip I am told. Only trouble is we are not too sure of the actual way to Otjitanda and are more or less following our noses.

Off we go. Nine hours later we haven't a clue where we are. Eric is of the opinion that we must follow the road we have been on for the last nine hours and Paul feels that we must have missed a turnoff some time back, eight or nine hours back probably, and that we are not where we want to be at all. He has a GPS in his vehicle and according to that we are somewhere in Angola!! Obviously it is faulty - or is it?? The roads were not nice, rocky in places, hilly and sandy - not good for low lying, long-range petrol tanks. There is a storm brewing, weather and temper-wise. The clouds are coming up and it is getting darker. What to do? Think we will stay right where we are, in the middle of a vast, empty track of land, miles from anywhere. We pitch the tents in a circle, we find some food. The rain storm never materialises so that was one relief. Anyway, there are no wild animals, we hope, in this desolate place. Then a herd of cows wandered in to the camp. Just goes to show there is some life in the area, probably Himba. Perhaps tomorrow we can find one of them and ask him the way, duly bribed with baccy.

Picture on the left: On the "track" to nowhere!

Slept well - I have never been lost in a desert before.

Day 10 - Good Morning wherever we are!!!

Plan of action. Eric will drive 5 miles in one direction, ( his speedo is calibrated in miles) and Paul will drive 5 km in the other. Rest of party will stay in the middle in radio contact. I lay down on a convenient large rock and made like a lizard for a while till the sun got too hot and I began to bake. Eric radioed in - he had found nothing. Paul radioed in - he was 7km away and had a puncture and needed help. Eric turned round to come back and when he arrived, we all set off to find Paul. Puncture was not the least of our worries, Paul's landrover had a cracked chassis. When we found him, he was in the middle of a river bed, dry of course, and things did not look good. Still nothing confounds our intrepid explorers for long. Temporary repairs can be made until we can find a welding shop!!! Not exactly lining the roadside in this neck of the woods, but we must stay positive.

We spent the rest of the day in the river bed doing the repairs. We snacked on tuna fish and dry biscuits, etc. We admired the scenery. A herd of cows and a couple of Himba dropped by for some polite conversation. We offered the Himba a packet of tea. He shook it, sniffed it and to this day still probably doesn't know what it is. He will probably smoke it. Another guy sauntered up, sat himself down and watched the operations with great interest. We asked him about Otjitanda. He smiled and nodded, took the tobacco and wended off to God knows where. Picture on the right: Fixing the R6's chasis at Ovivera Dam

Paul's Landrover is now patched up enough to get going again. However, a change of plan has been mooted. Since we can't find Otjitanda, we can't find van Zyl's Pass and the Marienfluss. Anyway, dodgy to take unroadworthy vehicle on said pass so we scrapped the pass and the Marienfluss from the itinerary and we plod on to find the elusive Otjitanda. The next bit of road was not a road, it was a mountain track. The vehicles had to inch their way down it. We ran in front putting rocks in the holes and trying to build it up so that the low lying petrol tank would not rupture. The Range Rover was overheating too, which added to our problems. But, we made it to the bottom, I don't know how and I never want to do it again. At the bottom we met three Toyotas full of Germans. They were going to attempt to go up where we had come down. They asked what the road was like, we told them in no uncertain terms. They said they would give it a try.

They told us Otjitanda was not far, just over the hill and we could camp on a lovely sandy plain about a kilometer away. As it was dusk already, we opted for that idea and once again, we made camp who knows where. The Germans gave up on the hillclimb and came back to camp near us.

There was a storm threatening but it never materialised. We made supper and rigged up a shower under a big tree. We only had 25 litres of water for nine people to shower but it was enough. I don't think we got all the soap off, but we were clean. We saw no animals, quite a few birds and no people. We were in a wilderness of peace and quiet, a thousand stars and a brilliant moon. Romantic I guess!!! Picture on the left: Our campsite at Otjithanda

Day 11 - A good night's sleep was had by all. The latest plan is to return to Opuwa, I didn't think I would have to see that dump again, get the Landrover chassis fixed and replenish supplies. Our troubles are not over yet.

We are grinding along on the most awful road and we get a call from Terry. The axle on his trailer has broken. We turn round and back to the scene. Major discussions ensue. Unhitch trailer, leave on side of road, drive into Opuwa, find a scrap yard (no holiday should be without a visit to one), find the hub of a scrapped Landrover, get some other parts and weld up the axle, take it back to abandoned trailer, put it back on again and drive trailer back to Opuwe. All sounds easy doesn't it? Picture on the right: Terry's trailer without its wheel - on the way back to Opuwa

We unhitched, manhandled it to the side of the road, unpacked it and put everything on to the other two vehicles, removed the broken axle and left it sitting unhappily on the side of the road. Two guys passed us and gave us the glad tidings that Opuwe did in fact have a welding shop and a welder. 80km to Opuwe. We arrive and ask the way to the one and only rest camp. The guy we asked was a Spaniard who is working as a photo journalist for Time Life Magazine doing an article on the Himba and Herero. His first words were, "Are you the people with the broken down trailer?" News travels fast. The rest camp was full, no room at the inn. We are directed to the back garden of a fully-occupied rooming house belonging to the guy who owns the supermarket. He will let us pitch our tents in the garden, on grass, and we can use the bathroom, toilet and kitchen of the house. All mod cons eh!

The girls are left to pitch camp and make supper. The boys are off to find the scrapyard and welding plant. All, believe it or not, went according to plan. The parts were found for the axle and the scrapyard dealer said we could return the next morning to carry out repairs. Eric, after much cajolling managed to persuade "Rip-Off Russo" to allow us to use his workshop that evening so it was welded at vast overtime expense. Paul decided to look for a cheaper source of welding equipment and found another welder to do his chassis the next morning. The guys came back tired and hungry to our makeshift camp, where we had acquired yet another dog for the night. It was also the night of full eclipse of the moon and that was quite a sight to see. The queleas kept us awake twittering all night in the tree right above our heads and if I could have caught the cock who crowed all night we would have had Coq au vin for supper.

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