The wonders of Namibia

Riding into a new country is always an exciting moment. Especially when it is my first visit. After the hectic diamond related adventures in South Africa, which you can read here, I was curious how the diamond situation would be on the Namibian side of the Orange River. After all, the Orange river and the diamonds that traveled with it, didn’t care about the national borders that people have drawn.

Crossing the border

It was my first border crossing with Savannah, and I was a little nervous. I wasn’t 100% sure that all the paperwork would hold, because when I bought Savannah in Johannesburg I couldn’t get her registered in my name because I entered South Africa visa-free as a tourist. So even though I am Savannah’s owner, the papers are still registered on the bike shop where I bought her from. In the meantime, some papers had been stamped by the police. With these legalized papers, it should be possible to travel legally with her to all of the direct neighbouring countries of South Africa. But, in reality things don’t always work the way they should. That is why I held my breath when I approached the border. 

Arriving there, nobody asked for my paperwork! They routinely asked me if I was the owner of the bike, and my answer ‘yes’ apparently covered any issues that might have been. I got the impression that border control was more focused on health screening and Covid-testing than ownership papers of motorcycles. I can’t be sure about this as I haven’t crossed the border between South Africa and Namibia in pre-pandemic times. 

With a negative test result from my PCR-test that I had done in the clinic of Springbok, and after going through the normal hoops one has to jump through when at a border crossing, I entered Namibia! 

Diamond craziness in Namibia

Namibia has less than 2.5 million inhabitants and is slightly larger than the state of Texas in the US.  Most people live in the capital Windhoek and in a few other ‘cities’ throughout the country. The rest consists of vast deserts, mountain ranges, and well… wide open landscapes. 

But as expected, I first rode through the Namibian side of the diamond craziness. At the ghost town of Kolmanskoppe, I was again stunned by the stories I heard of how things went down here a century ago, but still, it all seemed quite tame compared to what I’d seen and heard on the South African side of the border. 

The numbers were dazzling though. In the first six years of diamond mining at Kolmanskoppe, 5 million carats of diamonds were recovered. 5 million carats! That is about 5.000 kilograms! Not really a rare stone if you come to think about it. But with just a few mining companies, like De Beers, mining for diamonds, these companies are able to keep the influx on the world market as low as possible in order to maintain these high artificial prices. 

When riding on the Namibian side of the Orange river, I passed many small improvised camps where people were digging for diamonds. Those camps consist of a couple of tents, a small excavator, and piles of rubble, that was it. I decided that I had my fair share of diamond danger in South Africa and rode quickly past those camps. 

Geologist excitement

It was time to shift my focus to more ‘innocent’ and relaxed geology. Namibia has so many incredible geological features that I was looking forward to exploring them. Huge natural phenomena such as Fish river canyon, the second largest canyon in the world, but also poorly misunderstood features such as the Brukkaros Crater. Interesting fact is that the name Brukkaros refers to a piece of clothing worn by local Nama women. ‘Bruk’ refers to the Afrikaans (or Dutch) word for trousers and ‘karos’ is the Nama word for a leather apron. 

Somehow I managed to reach these geological wonders by conquering some seriously difficult terrain. Again, I was glad to have my lightweight Savannah with me. I wouldn’t have wanted to attempt this terrain with the much heavier Himalayan or even my Honda CB500x. A small engine / lightweight dual sport bike is definitely the way to go here!

Oldest desert in the world

Without realising it, I was already riding in the Namib desert, the oldest desert in the world. This area has been a desert for 55 million years. In its current form, it stretches all the way from Angola, through Namibia and into South Africa. To me, it is fascinating to see that even an area as inhospitable as a desert, with virtually no rainfall, is still teeming with life. Animals and plants have over time evolved in such a way that they can survive the most harsh circumstances. From the tiniest insects and lizards to desert adapted elephants in the north of Namibia, they all live in the desert. 

A large part of the Namib Desert is now preserved as the Namib-Naukluft National Park, which is fantastic. On top of that, there is a large private game reserve attached to it. Even though it’s privately owned, this reserve is still growing in size as its owner keeps on buying adjacent farms and turns them into protected areas. Giraffes have been reintroduced here after being completely wiped out due to poaching in the ’40s. Big predators, such as lions, were also all killed as they threatened the livestock on farms. The lions have not been brought back, making it a safe area to pass through on a motorcycle. There are some leopards but they rarely show themselves during the day, so you’d be extremely (un)lucky to see one!

Namibia’s winter

Without actually planning it this way, I happened to enter Namibia at the right time of the year. Winter time is the best time to travel here, as summers get scorching and unbearably hot. Nonetheless, temperatures still soar here around midday, but the mornings and evenings are surprisingly chilly! 

The capital of Namibia, Windhoek, situated at over 1000 meters altitude, has temperatures around freezing point (in Celsius) in the mornings. It does get cold in wintertime in Namibia! Wintertime is also the driest season of the year. The little rain that this country gets, all falls in summer time. That means I don’t have to check the weather forecast every day and worry about riding in the rain, like I had to do when I was riding in Norway and Iceland last summer! 

Climate wise, the temperature didn’t pose the biggest challenge for me, the wind did. Sometimes it came from the east, sometimes from the north and sometimes from every direction at the same time! This country is quite notorious for its strong winds, and I can confirm that for sure! 

Culture & Food

So far, I can’t say I have experienced the local Namibian cuisine. There are definitely several local dishes, but as it is the case in many other countries, most eateries only serve burgers, pizza, and steaks. I hope that further north, I will find some traditional Namibian food! 

So far, the locals that I’ve met have been very welcoming and the hospitality is warm, just like in South Africa. But meeting people here is generally rare, with its vast open spaces and few, very few people living here. I always enjoy meeting locals, but the non-existing traffic, the empty gravel roads and endless nature are what make me the happiest. 

I can’t wait to see what will come next. This was only just the beginning after all.