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Top read too!
Let's mix it up and fill in some experience gaps: RTW 2015
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JohnM
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Thanks, mate. I was pretty amazed at some of the shots I captured by pointing in the general direction and hitting the button!
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Great pics regardless of the camera used!
craven morehead
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If this is the place I believe I have seen on TV it is run by a Lady.
Flying mermaid
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Love the Cheetah photos - they are definitely my favourite cat.
JohnM
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Correct - Laurie Marker.
JohnM
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Glorious drive S today through some magnificent country and on a mild-warm sunny day. About 600km, with about 2/3 on dirt. Repositioning to the famed Sosusvlei dunes area. Staying just N of there, so that's tomorrow's action.
The dirt roads are good - and don't have the gravel marbles of Australia, but the surface can be a bit loose in places. Some cattle grids allow for nearly getting airborne
and gullys can be a bit of a sharp bounce at times. All good fun . The Ranger is a pretty robust beast. The 6-speed manual is a cr@ppy gearbox, though. Gave it a bit of a working today.
Driving here can be a trap for young players. As Daver6 noted, the rental car companies at WDH endeavour to have you watch a video. Errr, don't try to teach me how to suck eggs. Clearly aimed at the vast numbers of German visitors who are not experienced at driving on the left and on dirt roads. They had no problem with me declining to watch the video. In fact, we had a bit of a laugh about who it was aimed at .
Was about 60km from my destination when I saw an almighty cloud of dust about 2km ahead. Then I see a chopper take off. Turns out someone had rolled their car and I presume it was the medivac. How the person managed to lose it on such a wide, flat and straight section I am darned if I know. Hope the folks are OK.
Pics to follow.
The dirt roads are good - and don't have the gravel marbles of Australia, but the surface can be a bit loose in places. Some cattle grids allow for nearly getting airborne
and gullys can be a bit of a sharp bounce at times. All good fun . The Ranger is a pretty robust beast. The 6-speed manual is a cr@ppy gearbox, though. Gave it a bit of a working today.Driving here can be a trap for young players. As Daver6 noted, the rental car companies at WDH endeavour to have you watch a video. Errr, don't try to teach me how to suck eggs
. Clearly aimed at the vast numbers of German visitors who are not experienced at driving on the left and on dirt roads. They had no problem with me declining to watch the video. In fact, we had a bit of a laugh about who it was aimed at .Was about 60km from my destination when I saw an almighty cloud of dust about 2km ahead. Then I see a chopper take off. Turns out someone had rolled their car and I presume it was the medivac. How the person managed to lose it on such a wide, flat and straight section I am darned if I know. Hope the folks are OK.
Pics to follow.
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Much traffic on that road? If you broke down, much of a problem?
Read our AFF credit card guides and start earning more points now.
JohnM
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Plenty on the road where I crossed the Tropic - a 'C' road leading to the Sossusvlei dunes (probably Namibia's biggest tourist draw and where I'll be tomorrow.) Less on a couple of sections I did on 'D' roads, but far from total isolation.
JohnM
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Sunset last night on the hills in front of the lodge where I'm staying, the braai for cooking the oryx steak.
It's isolated, so dinner&B&B. No meal choice and fairly plain 3-course dinner but it was perfectly acceptable. Washed down with a Stellenbosch Pinotage.
Oryx is very mild flavoured and I found it a little dry, even though cooked MR.
View attachment 58058
It's isolated, so dinner&B&B. No meal choice and fairly plain 3-course dinner but it was perfectly acceptable. Washed down with a Stellenbosch Pinotage.
Oryx is very mild flavoured and I found it a little dry, even though cooked MR.
View attachment 58058
JohnM
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Another sensational day today. Up at 0400h to be 50km S at Sossuvlei for pre-dawn pickup for a hot-air balloon ride over the world heritage listed Sossuvlei dunes (the Namid 'sand 'sea').
Absolutely perfect day for ballooning with the very light breeze going perfectly for a track towards, and then along the edge of the dunes. (Hot air balloon flights never go over attractions from which they could not get out of if the wind went wrong.)
That said, the pilot of the second of the two 16-pax balloons caught a little wind shift that took him slightly over the first line of low dunes. As you would expect, he was already at low altitude and went down to just touch the ground to prevent futher momentum into the dunes. After a bit of up and down juggling, he managed to catch some drift that brought the balloon out. If that had not happened, the ground crew had moved into the zone and the pilot would have lowered straps that the crew would have used to manually 'tow' it the few metres out.
Conditions were so perfect that our pilot landed the basket, with all pax still in, directly on the trailer used to transport it (of course with a bit of aligning by the ground crew.) But pretty amazing, nevertheless, given that the balloon unit weighs 2.7 tonnes - plus pax, which wuld be about another tonne.
The ride went for over an hour, rising to 350m and descending to just skim a tree at about 4m. The rise-and-fall routine was repeted a few times. Made it a really nice ride. The best hot air balloon ride I've ever had!
Followed by the typical 'champagne' breakfast. Back at park HQ by about 1000h to drive the 65km road into the dunes. The last 4km is 4WD only, running through very loose sand in the dry river bed.
Dune 45 (so named because it is 45km from the park HQ - which also probably explains Dune 7, mentioned upthread, and near Walvis Bay - although it was more than 7km from that town. Must use another landmark.) can be climbed. It's over 150m high and the sand is very fine but not overly cloying to walk in. I did the climb; fairly solid but not excessively so.
Being on the edge of the ridge was a strange vertigo-inducing feeling, although there was no prospect of falling off. Even those people who opted to go straight down the slope had to keep running to avoid coming to a standstill - ie. there was really no way you could fall and roll uncontrolled all the way down.
After the balloon ride, I enquired at the lodge about more extensive flights over the dunes. Was really happy to hear that four pax had provisonally booked the 5pm 1.5h flight all the way out to the coast. Registered as the fifth and last pax. Went back mid-afternoon to find the others hadn't followed up and couldn't be contacted. Flight cancelled - BUMMER!
Pics from my phone will gradually follow subject to vagaries of the app and internet access.
Absolutely perfect day for ballooning with the very light breeze going perfectly for a track towards, and then along the edge of the dunes. (Hot air balloon flights never go over attractions from which they could not get out of if the wind went wrong.)
That said, the pilot of the second of the two 16-pax balloons caught a little wind shift that took him slightly over the first line of low dunes. As you would expect, he was already at low altitude and went down to just touch the ground to prevent futher momentum into the dunes. After a bit of up and down juggling, he managed to catch some drift that brought the balloon out. If that had not happened, the ground crew had moved into the zone and the pilot would have lowered straps that the crew would have used to manually 'tow' it the few metres out.
Conditions were so perfect that our pilot landed the basket, with all pax still in, directly on the trailer used to transport it (of course with a bit of aligning by the ground crew.) But pretty amazing, nevertheless, given that the balloon unit weighs 2.7 tonnes - plus pax, which wuld be about another tonne.
The ride went for over an hour, rising to 350m and descending to just skim a tree at about 4m. The rise-and-fall routine was repeted a few times. Made it a really nice ride. The best hot air balloon ride I've ever had!
Followed by the typical 'champagne' breakfast. Back at park HQ by about 1000h to drive the 65km road into the dunes. The last 4km is 4WD only, running through very loose sand in the dry river bed.
Dune 45 (so named because it is 45km from the park HQ - which also probably explains Dune 7, mentioned upthread, and near Walvis Bay - although it was more than 7km from that town. Must use another landmark.) can be climbed. It's over 150m high and the sand is very fine but not overly cloying to walk in. I did the climb; fairly solid but not excessively so.
Being on the edge of the ridge was a strange vertigo-inducing feeling, although there was no prospect of falling off. Even those people who opted to go straight down the slope had to keep running to avoid coming to a standstill - ie. there was really no way you could fall and roll uncontrolled all the way down.
After the balloon ride, I enquired at the lodge about more extensive flights over the dunes. Was really happy to hear that four pax had provisonally booked the 5pm 1.5h flight all the way out to the coast. Registered as the fifth and last pax. Went back mid-afternoon to find the others hadn't followed up and couldn't be contacted. Flight cancelled - BUMMER!
Pics from my phone will gradually follow subject to vagaries of the app and internet access.
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