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Drumbeats from Africa - Week 7
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17 August : Lamberts Bay : THE LAST LEG
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After a lot of dune driving, the team made their way to Luderitz for a well-deserved break and a much needed hot shower! Luderitz is a nice little town on the coast. Our dune driving guides Jay Jay and Volker arranged a nice dinner for us at the yacht club.
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We had to say goodbye to JJ and UB40 (Volker) early the next day and headed for the Namibia-South Africa border.
Everyone truly enjoyed themselves in the Namib Desert; it is definitely a must do for all 4X4 enthusiasts!
The drive to the border was fairly easy but we had to be careful of huge trucks passing by at high speeds on very dusty roads.
Just before we entered South Africa, we camped on the banks of the Orange River. This river is basically the border between two countries and the views from our campsite of the surrounding hills and valleys at sunset and sunrise was magical.
We had a great dinner of Kudu stew and some of the best mashed potatoes I have ever tasted at the Grape Valley Farm.
The next morning we only had a few kilometers to go before we got to the border and after the normal formalities we were through into South Africa.
We headed straight for our next destination – right in the middle of a diamond mine! After some security checks, we were escorted to our chalets with a great dinner prepared for us.
As it was a Sunday, the team was not able to do a tour of the mine, instead we drove to the beach to visit some shipwrecks and then headed straight for Lamberts Bay.
It has been a long expedition and definitely an adventure the team will never forget. In two days we will be in Cape Town for the closing ceremony and two days later we will be back home in Malaysia.
For now the team is busy repacking their vehicles and making sure everything is in order before sending the cars to the port.
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Fish River Valley (Namibia)
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En route to the Namibia - South Africa border
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Diamond mine
security check
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Exploring shipwrecks
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14 August : Namib Desert : SKELETON COAST
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We left Eversip Fountain Campsite early as we had a lot of desert to cover. The desert stretched out far ahead of us; the team is really in the middle of nowhere. We have about 100 kilometers of desert sand dunes to cover today to reach our next campsite at Saddle Hill. The team has learnt quite a few things about desert driving and is putting it to good use today.
As we get closer to the Atlantic coast, the dunes begin to get bigger. Almost everyone got stuck in the sand at one time or another but with great team spirit we helped each other out and as we drove we warned each other of difficult spots and blind drops in the sand.
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Everyone is enjoying themselves – like kids at the beach they played with the sand and their ultimate 4X4 machines. But the team also had great discipline, making sure they kept within the tracks made by our guide.
Only the second convoy to take this route into the Namib Desert, the PETRONAS Adventure Team is truly honored. By the time we arrived in Saddle Hill it was already dark. Everyone was quite happy to hear that we won’t be camping out in the cold again as there is some accommodation. Sharing 6 to a room the team went to bed early after a long day of driving.
The next day the team got up early again to tackle more dunes, this time we drove around the Saddle Hill area, on the beach and some of the highest dunes in the world. We also visited some old mining town and had an interesting time seeing how the old diamond miners work against the odds to fulfill their dreams.
But for the team most of us have fulfilled our dream of driving in the dunes of the Skeleton Coast, called so because of the many shipwreck (and human) remains along the coast.
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Tomorrow the team has to tackle more dunes to get back to Luderitz and civilization.
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