Overlanding Namibia: Conquering the Brutal Hartmann's Mountain Pass

Sunrise at Camp Syncro

Corné and his friends arrive safely at Camp Syncro. A three day trip to cover only 60km. In this episode, we're on our way to the Hartmannsvlakte, if you can call them roads, to reach our next destination. And the bakkie beating forces Stefan to start his own bush auto electric company, because out here there's no one to call when your vehicle inevitably takes a knock. Join us as we continue the scenic journey through Namibia, where paths begin and sometimes disappear. Welcome to Tusk and Tyre Overlanding.

Good morning. It's a wonderful morning out here at Camp Syncro. Woke up early to get the sunrise, although it's still behind the mountains, but always beautiful. Once you're in these remote areas, you feel so small. Sorry, I don't have my shirt on. I woke up and I was just going to take pictures, and we were going to make a video, but all the surroundings are so beautiful that I have to share it with you guys from here.

Yesterday, driving and driving into the Marienfluss, got a feeling of emotion. As I said in the video yesterday, you guys have to be here to experience it. The videos, the photos, the words will never, never describe what you feel when you're in this area. This is maybe as remote as it can be. Although Epupa Falls down the river is about 60km, to get here you've got to travel about two, three days.

The "Paths Begin" Philosophy

This is why I do overlanding, to get to areas like this. Yes, it is difficult. You get vehicle problems, and out here if you get vehicle problems you have to solve it, there is nobody to call to come and fix it. So today we are heading back into the Marienfluss, and then we're going to cross into the Hartmannsvlakte. Also an unknown area for me, I've never been to this area. But I heard there's a lot of dune sand on the Hartmannsvlakte. You just can't push north too much. But we'll play it as it comes.

It's just been an amazing journey, an amazing holiday with the family. I usually do this kind of thing alone, because the wife and the kids can not always come with. Amazing to be with friends and family. But most probably the next couple of episodes in my journeys will be me alone again. Just me, you, and the bush. Whatever it takes me to. I walked up a hill to come capture the sunrise. So go down to camp, make coffee, and see if everyone is awake, or somebody is awake. And packing up. And then we're going to head into the Marienfluss, and maybe today into the Hartmannsvlakte as well.

[An original Tusk and Tyre underscore plays over the drive.]

Entering the Hartmannsberge: The Trail Bites

We left Camp Syncro and took the western road out to Marienfluss, then turned in towards the Hartmannsberge. Not long after that, the trail started to bite. A few proper obstacles. And like I've said before, the camera never does these climbs justice. The ascents are far steeper than they look. Here I'm picking my lines through big boulders, and you can hear and feel Motsumi is working for it. She struggled a bit, but overall she did brilliantly.

We made it out. I stalled the vehicle a couple of times on obstacles like this. That's honestly the safer option. You don't want to throw too much throttle at it and snap something. I'd rather let it stall, take a breath and restart, than force it and pay for it later.

Near Disaster: Trailer at 40 Degrees

It's nerve wrecking, my panty is deeper into my bum than before. What, did your bum curl it up? Auntie Elsie can't say much, you are in the same situation. I can't get out here. Well done, Stefan. Hey. It was a difficult one, that one. Jooooo, we chowed rocks inside here.

I decided to walk the pass for a little bit, about a kilometre, to see if there were any serious obstacles, and also maybe for a place to turn around. There were these twists and turns just here in front. Stick with us, see if we can make it all the way to the top of the mountain.

These turns are so tight that at this stage the left hand wheel of the trailer climbed over the rock, and it was at about a 40 degree off-camber angle. That was very close to tipping. And my right front wheel. I was climbing over the rock here to get the trailer around, and I even had to reverse it a little bit to jackknife the trailer to get around the turn. So if anybody of you know how we can do this justice on footage, drop it in the comments.

That was the most difficult part, all behind us. From here we're just travelling up the mountain through the pass, very slowly crawling it. Then we're going to drive on top of the Hartmannsberge, where we are wild camping tonight.

Bush Mechanic: Emergency Soldering

We made it to camp. It was about 5:00 in the afternoon, and turned into a dry riverbed. Got stuck a few times. Had to deflate tyres, as the tyre pressures were still set for the gravel road and the rocks. As you can see, Stefan just deflated, getting unstuck. And he was complaining. He was just enjoying the playing. And then it was finished. An awesome night, wild camping tonight. I'll share some of it with you.

Swakop is nice, aunty. Bush repair. They say on your 18th. The bush electro automotive at work. Just hold it here for me. Did you get it soldered with that thing? Crappy, crappy result, but it works. Ah well, it's done. Did it rub somewhere? There, we went over the boulders, it hangs here under the frame. That knife is blunt, we must sharpen it. How blunt is that knife?

Why we Overland: Reflections on Namibia

Well, a very good evening here on top of the Hartmann's mountains, in the northern part of Namibia. We left Camp Syncro this morning at about 11:00, after doing some cleaning up of the vehicles, after a week and a half on the road. We went to the western part of the Marienfluss, and then we turned into the Hartmann's mountains. We did some serious off roading with Motsumi and my friends' Ford Ranger Raptor, in the mountains that took us about three hours over about ten kilometres. So it was some serious off roading, and both vehicles impressed us very much.

So tomorrow, doing the rest of the mountain. I don't know what is on the other side. I don't know if we're going to get to go down the mountain again into the Hartmannsvlakte, and then from there we'll see where we go. Well, the route is to Puros, but I don't think we're going to make Puros tomorrow. Maybe we do. That's what's so nice about overlanding. We didn't even plan to do the Hartmann's mountains. But last night me and Stefan sat and we checked the GPS, and I said to him, look at this road, it goes to the Hartmannsvlakte. Let's go see what the Hartmannsvlakte looks like. I thought it's a valley between mountains taking us to the Hartmannsvlakte. No, it was a mountain pass, a 4x4 mountain pass.

I want to tell you, actually, the theme for this trip, Where Paths Begin. Each and every one of us on this trip is at a point in life where we need to make decisions, life changing decisions. Namibia and the desert might not give you the answers, but it's certainly going to give you the space to think about it. Tonight's camp is a wild camp in a dry riverbed. No rain has been forecast. We are on top of the Hartmann's mountains. Just very quiet. Let me get back to camp.

The History & Geology of the Hartmannsberge

Tonight the team is wild camping up on the Hartmann's mountains, and it feels like they pitched their tents on the edge of a different world. No towns, no noise. Just wind across rock, big skies, and a deep Kaokoland silence that makes you speak softer without realising.

This range is named after Georg Hartmann, a German geographer and explorer who travelled extensively in what was then German South West Africa. He even led an expedition in the northern Kaokoveld around 1900, documenting the region's landscape and resources. The name lives on here, and also in Hartmann's mountain zebra, which was named after his wife, Anna Hartmann.

What makes these mountains so dramatic isn't just the shape, it's what they're made of. Much of this landscape is built from very old metamorphic basement rock, especially granitoid gneiss, heated and reworked until parts of them partially melted and flowed, creating that banded, swirled look geologists call migmatite. So when you see light and dark stripes running through the rock, you're looking at a deep time record of pressure, heat and transformation, stone that's been rewritten more than once.

And the setting adds to this. This area is mapped as cold desert climate, so water is rare and the land gets sculpted slowly by wind, occasional runoff and time. As for the name, on old German style mapping you'll see Hartmannsberge, literally Hartmann's mountains in German.

Wild Camping in a Dry Riverbed

Tonight, while camping up here, it hits you. These mountains don't entertain you, they humble you. They make you slow down, look longer, and feel how small a human timescale is compared to the rock that's been becoming itself for ages.