Trucking in Nambia (and Interlude in the Valley)

Hey folks – sorry for the long delay in getting this update out. I’d like to report that I’ve been toiling in the face of terrible adversity but the fact is that I’ve been bigging it up at some local wine farms with Claire and the kids!

Anyway, here’s the news since I left you in Northern Namibia. Firstly, I was fortunate to meet a long distance lorry driver in the bar of a garden centre in Tsuemb (all good garden centres in Namibia have bars, it seems). He was heading up to the Angolan border with 32 tonnes of onions before picking up some cattle in Grootfontein and driving them, via Windhoek, all the way to Johannesburg in one session (that’s a 38 hour drive). Since I needed to get to Windhoek, he offered me a lift and we spent a couple of days hanging out doing Southern Africa trucking things – which mostly involved stopping at the roadside to make fires and cook meat, drinking beer (either by the fire or from the comfort of the cab!) and learning about ‘sails’ and ‘exhaust brakes’ and other truck-related things. As you can imagine, I now want to be a long distance lorry driver – any engine smaller than 14 litres is for pansies!

After spending a fascinating day at a huge cattle station watching the animals being branded and de-horned for export, I finally got to Windhoek and found Naartjie sitting outside the KTM dealer looking a bit sad and forlorn (okay, he’s only metal and plastic, but you’d understand if you’d seen him). Turns out that some of the parts in his carburettor have worn out (quelle surprise!) and they’ll need to get the bits from KTM in Austria. This left me looking at spending a week or two in hotels in Windhoek or, alternatively, taking some public transport to South Africa (my house is only 1200-ish km from Windhoek) and returning later to ride the last, fully paved, section of the journey. Having not seen the kids for 72 days by this point, the latter clearly won out.

The last few days have been strange – adjusting back to family life and starting to look around for some work. However, I’ve still got a section of ‘Into the Valley 2007’ to ride – and, anyway, it’s nice being home for a bit :-) Atb - Andy

PS. I’ve been to get a new camera, so come back in a couple of weeks for some Fish River Canyon photo action (hopefully!).

PPS. The first photo on this post is the last one I took in Congo before the camera died. The road is advertised on the map as a 'Primary Trunk Road', whatever that is, and there is no trick of perspective - the rut is 5 feet deep! The other photo is from Gabon and shows my GPS as we crossed the equator. Just thought I'd better prove that I haven't been making all this up!!