Namibia: journeys in the desert

On our way from Luderitz to the Namib-Naukluft reserve, about 350km away, we have the inevitable tyre puncture on those rough gravel roads. Our regular jack is too short to lift the high clearance Landcruiser on the sandy gravel road. Our high-lift jack breaks as we are in the process of lifting the car and now we are stranded on that deserted road.

It takes over an hour for the first vehicle to drive past and assist us with their jack. And a few minutes later, another vehicle (this is a positively crowded road by Namibian standards!) stops and joins in the rescue operation. With our rescuers, all Germans, displaying an almost genetically programmed technical prowess, we soon change the tyre and are on our way.

We reach the small Sinclair farm in the evening, driving through a freak storm which pours buckets of water on us, turning the roads into mud.  At Sinclair, a large cattle and sheep farm which thrives quite illogically in the middle of the desert, we are hosted to a hearty dinner by our host Hannelore, a third generation German-Namibian.  The next day we reach our camp in the middle Namib-Naukluft reserve.

entering the (clearly underpopulated) Maltahoehe district
it takes an army to change a tyre in the Namib
freak storm on the way to Sinclair’s
impromptu picnic
Duwisib castle, built by eccentric aristocrat, baron Hans Heinrich von Wolf in 1909…in the middle of the desert
finally pampered after a rough journey