Here are some of our favorite photos from the trip (each photo is a thumbnail linked to a higher quality picture.):
21) We had a day off in Windhoek so our eighth day was spent exploring the city. We started with a visit to the Single Quarters' market - an open air market in what was a Namibian tribal township in apartheid times. Now everything from fresh vegetable sellers to meat grillers to barbers and tailors have booths there. Smoke from the grills mingles with hair spray. Dehydrated desert salt is sold alongside dried mopane worms. Vacumn tube TVs are repaired next door to a booth tailoring traditional Herero dresses. For contrast, we then went to downtown Windhoek where skyscrapers house branches of international banks, multi-floor shopping malls sell the latest European and Asian fashions and coffee shops brew up expensive espresso drinks.
22) What makes a tour like this successful are good guides. While we were off exploring Windhoek our guides Rene and Jan were making sure the maintenance on the bikes was taken care of. Jan was nice enough to let Alan pitch in changing one of the bikes' tires but it was just a drop in the bucket compared to all the work Jan and Rene were handling behind the scenes.
23) After riding through the flat landscape of Botswana for a week we were happy to see hills when we got into central Namibia. Our nineth day started with a spirited ride through the Auas Mountains just south of Windhoek.
24) After riding south for a couple of hours we turned west off the paved road for our first of many days riding on Namibia's dirt roads. The roads are regularly maintained but they consisted of varying depths of soft sand making them a constant challenge to ride smoothly.
25) This was also our first of many days in the Great Namib Desert - a coastal sand desert that stretches from Angola in the north to South Africa in the south. As we'd already seen with the Kalahari Desert in Botswana and eastern Namibia the Namib Desert was far more diverse than the name "desert" might imply. The landscape changed constantly as we rode - sometimes different colors, sometimes different levels of vegetation and sometimes widely varying geology.
26) We ended our first day of primarily dirt riding at Sesriem in the lavish Sossusvlei Lodge . Alan was "Tail-end Charlie" for the trip and arrived in Sesriem covered in the dust kicked up by twelve bikes. Slapping his riding suit resulted in an impressive cloud of dust!
27) The cabins at Sossusvlei lodge looked out onto the vast desert plain. Just outside our cabin, behind Jonna in this photo, was a large camelthorn tree with a massive sociable weaver bird nest in it. We spent the evening (after showering off all the dust from our ride!) watching dozens of birds fly in and out of the nest.
28) Adding to the beauty of the lodge was the landscaping - the paths were lined with cactus, flowering trees and these stunning Desert Roses.
29) The lodge also had a four story high observation tower from which the sun could be watched as it set over the desert to the west. Afterwards we feasted under the stars with an incredible outdoor buffet dinner.
30) Our tenth day was another day off from riding. Instead, we took a guided 4x4 tour into the adjacent Namib-Naukluft National Park to visit Sossusvlei and Dead Vlei. The National Park protects a massive dune field with red sand dunes that rise over 1,000 feet high. We did a hike partway up the largest dune which is named Big Daddy. From the ridgeline you could see the giant mountains of sand extending off to the horizon in all directions. Wow!
31) From 350 feet up the ridge of a dune we ran down through shin deep sand into Dead Vlei: A 900 year old marsh that was cut off from water by the moving dunes. The acacia trees in the marsh became partially petrified by the heat of sun leaving blackened trunks standing in stark contrast to the hard white clay ground and the reddish-orange walls of the surrounding dunes.
32) Our eleventh day was another riding day and this one entirely on dirt roads. From Sesriem we headed southeast through the Namib desert, over Zaris Pass (pictured here) and then south to to the small village of Helmeringhausen. That evening half the group shuttled half the bikes down to Aus since the riding the next day would be more challenging that some were ready to tackle. That night we again ate dinner outside under a dark, clear sky filled with the Southern Cross and the Milky Way.
33) The morning of the twelth day was the "short cut" from Helmeringhausen to Aus - a challenging dirt road filled with deep sand, washboard and ruts. Mid-morning we checked into the hotel in Aus and then headed due west to the Nambian coast. Just outside Luderitz we stopped at Kolmanskop . Kolmanskop is now a ghost town that is slowly being engulfed by the desert sands but for 50 years it was a prosperous diamond mine run by the German colonial government. It was abandoned just after WWII and is now only open a few hours a day as a musuem. This was another place where we experienced mixed feelings...the history was fascinating but the glorification of the colonial powers (and the complete absence of recognition of the indigenous workers) was disturbing.
34) After our visit to Kolmanskop we continued to the coast at Luderitz and enjoyed lunch looking out over the Atlantic ocean. While we were eating the wind started to howl and a dust storm began to blow in. We jumped on the bikes and raced eastward back to Aus while being sandblasted by the desert sands.
35) Our hotel in Aus managed a refuge for wild Namibian desrt horses but also housed a couple of rescued Oryx. This one was hanging out by the parking area watching as we unloaded the bikes.
36) The lucky thirteeth day of the tour was also Jonna and Alan's 17th wedding anniversary! For the day's ride we left Aus and continued south on more dirt roads to the remote camp of Canon Roadhouse. We arrived mid-day so after check-in we went to the nearby Richtersveld National Park to visit the spectacular Fish River Canyon. This is the second longest canyon in the world (after the Grand Canyon). We spent the afternoon hiking along the rim and having a picnic lunch at an overlook. A worthy way to celebrate 17 years together!
37) The end of our second week on the tour started with a short ride from Canon Roadhouse to the Ai Ais Hot Springs at the southern end of of Fish River Canyon. We enjoyed a relaxing morning dip in their outdoor, spring-fed pool. Then it was back on the bikes for our final stretch on the dusty, dirt roads in Namibia.
38) By mid-day we were in the most barren desert environment we'd seen over the past two weeks. The southern part of the Namib Desert in the Karas region just north of the Orange River was stunning - a featureless grey landscape stretching to the eastern horizon. This panorama attempts to capture it but without the feeling of desert heat and without having ridden through it for an hour it just can't do the area justice. What is even more amazing is that the strip of land just a few miles south of here beside the Orange River is an industrial farming hotspot with lush grape vineyards stretching in a bright green swath for a dozen miles along the river.
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