Where the Tar Runs Out: The Final Leg of Our Namibia Overland

The exhaust fix and goodbye to the coast

You're watching Tusk & Tyre, more specifically our 8-part series, Where Paths Begin. Our team is en route to Solitaire, but after a month on the road, moods can change, not to mention even more trouble with Motsumi. Will the train survive the last stretch, and what else can be found in what seems like a vast empty desert? Let's find out in part 8 of 8.

Welcome back to Tusk & Tyre Overlanding. I'm back at the mechanic workshop to fix Motsumi's exhaust leak where the turbo mounts to the manifold. Hopefully we can get it sorted today and then still head to Solitaire today. It's about four hours drive, and then from there we're going to head to Mariental, Stampriet and Gochas into the southeast of Namibia, where there are a lot of sand dunes and places I want to show Stefan and them.

The moment of truth. Let's see. Start this train, let's roll. Man, oh man, she's back! So we finally said goodbye to the ocean, and we decided to do that at the Walvis Bay waterfront. We saw some pelican and a small seal. Sad to leave, but we've got to go on, and when we turned, we're on the way home. So for the next four days we'll be travelling towards home.

The detour to Solitaire

We're aiming for Solitaire tonight. Tomorrow, most probably Mariental or Gochas or somewhere there, we don't know yet. We'll see how far we get, and then from there to Aroab, through that small border by Aroab, on the Van Zyl's Road to Kuruman, and from there home.

So we just turned off the C14 onto the D9182, as apparently for the next 40kms on the C14 the road is very, very corrugated. So this is a little detour, 11 kms longer, but a more beautiful gravel road to travel on. The tyres are deflated. Let's get this train back on the road. The first 60kms it's handling well. No issues, no problems. It sounds like everything is fixed.

Okay, so it's 20:30. We arrived at Solitaire. The C14, as always, corrugated. They really need to do something about that road. But we're going to have dinner at Solitaire's restaurant, as it's already late. We set up camp and we're going to enjoy the evening.

Morning at Solitaire

A very good morning here from Solitaire in Namibia. We had a beautiful sunrise, which was awesome, after the last couple of days in Swakop. In Swakop, if you're lucky, by 11 o'clock the sun comes out, the sun pushes the clouds away. And then, if you're not so lucky, by three o'clock the sun pushes the clouds away. But by five o'clock the cloud bank rolls in again. And in the last four days there was no sunshine in Swakop, only on New Year's Eve day, and we had a beautiful day where there was sunshine the whole day. So this is nice.

Reflecting on the trip

I think it's time to reflect on the trip a bit. Yesterday, when we left Walvis Bay, we started heading home. Although we're taking it slow, still on holiday, that was the turning point where we started heading home. So we made it to Solitaire, and from Solitaire we're going to the southeast of Namibia, so Stampriet, Gochas, Aroab, those areas. Also very remote areas, not much going on there, but beautiful scenery.

You know, Motsumi gave me a few headaches this trip, which never happens. There's always something small here and there, tightening a bolt or a bull bar coming loose, as you saw on the Mabua trip. That's to be understandable with the corrugations and everything. But we got back, we did some modifications, and these corrugations did nothing to the bumper, so it's learning as you go on.

And you can basically call me the trip organizer, as this is only Stefan's and his family's third trip with us, so they're fairly new in it. But they're awesome companions. A lot of people would have lost their cool and their patience and just said, we'll see you later, we can't go on like this. But they are also companions, so it's not self-inflicted, definitely not.

The turbo, the injector pipes that are gone, the trailer that we battled with. Eventually I found the problem: it was the bushes on the blade springs. Got some bushes at Cymot in Swakopmund, replaced that, and it's holding. After this C14, I'm sure it must have broken again if it wasn't the bushes, but it's holding. And we couldn't even find all the high tensile bolts, so we put galvanized bolts, as it's all we could find.

Being the trip organizer, everybody looks at you. What's next, how is this, how are we going to fix this? And you've got to stay positive, not just for yourself but for my family, for my friends. And you can't let these breakdowns get to you. It will strip the whole trip of its purpose. And that's difficult sometimes. That's really difficult sometimes. Being positive in a situation where things just keep going wrong.

But this is not my first rodeo. I mean, I've had new cars breaking on me. Cars with 10,000 kilometers, I broke a crank pulley on a Navara V9X. The crank pulley is rubber molded, and the rubber molding came off. And I also missed a few days of that trip. So I don't say I'm used to it, but it happens, and then you just sort it out as it comes. Luckily, Motsumi has never left me on the side of the road. I could always get to my destination, even if it was limping. She's never left me on the side of the road. But an awesome trip otherwise.

Looking back at the road behind us

It feels like months ago, Epupa Falls. I'm not even counting days. I don't know how long it's been, most probably about two and a half, three weeks. And then into the Marienfluss, over Rooidrom Pass, and then the unexpected climbing out of the Hartmann's Mountains. That was some serious off-roading, although most will call it a bad gravel road. But there were two spots where we had to pack rocks and build roads. And then the one-night wild camping on the Hartmann's Mountains. There were no community campsites there, so there was no other option than to wildcamp. That was awesome.

And then, once we leave the mountains, into the Marienfluss and into the Hartmann Valley, the sand dunes, down to Purros Canyon, and went to Twyfelfontein. And then went to White Lady Lodge, where we just missed the storm. I don't know if you guys saw it on social media, that at Uis and the White Lady Lodge the flash floods took some people away. We just missed it. We missed it by half an hour.

As we left White Lady Lodge, we saw clouds build up, big storms. And as we turned at Uis, you look left towards Uis, and that was covered in dust with that storm, with the wind. We turned right towards Henties, and that storm followed us. And I told my wife, I said to her, the rivers will flow with this. So afterwards we heard that Uis got 50 millimetres of rain, which Tannie Susan, who stays in Uis, says is about five years' worth of rain in an hour. So you can imagine what that looked like.

And then to Swakop, and Motsumi decided this turbo is not for me anymore. Luckily we could get that sorted out as well. And now we have Solitaire. It's really been an awesome trip. I will definitely be back to the north, as the north of Namibia and the south of Namibia are totally different. Totally. The south is more commercialized for me, although it is remote areas. But Hartmann Valley is as remote as it comes.

Apple pie at Solitaire

So let me get back to camp, start waking everybody up, so we can tear down camp and go have apple pie at Solitaire for breakfast. You cannot stop at Solitaire and not have apple pie. The late uncle McGregor became a legacy in this area, in the whole of Namibia, for his apple pie, and I'm sure everybody stops here for that. Let me get back to camp and let the day begin.

Checking in with the team

After we left Solitaire, I noticed the energy in the convoy had changed. Not bad, just quieter, a bit flat. And that's something I've learned the hard way. If you're organizing a trip, you don't only watch the road, you watch your people. So I pulled Stefan aside and checked in. Are you guys still good? Still enjoying this? Are you still up for the plan? We spoke it through, and together we adjusted. No drama, no blame, just honesty. That's how you keep a trip healthy. You talk before small things become big things.

So instead of pushing on to the southeast, we turn towards Keetmanshoop, spend time at the cheetah farm and the quiver tree forest just outside town. And then we set our sights on our last night, to Augrabies. Also considering we've been a month on this overlanding trip.

Augrabies Falls

This is Augrabies Falls. The Khoi called it Aukoerebis, the place of great noise. And you work out why pretty quick. You hear it before you see it. The whole thing comes down to rock. The Orange River runs into a wall of hard granite that won't wear away like softer ground would, so the water pinches in and drops. 56 meters straight down into a gorge that runs 18 kilometers and sits about 240 meters deep in places.

Look around the park and you'll see granite domes sanded smooth. Moon Rock is the big one. They form when the outer sheets of rock peel off in layers, bit by bit, like an onion. Heat, cold, pressure, a few million years of it.

Then the floods. Normal flow over the falls is 30 to 60 cubic meters a second. The highest ever recorded was in 1988, about 7800. That's more water than the Niagara has pushed at its all-time record. The next big one was in January 2011, around 4880. I wasn't here for either of those, and after standing on the edge of this gorge, I'm fine with that. Five people have gone over these falls since the park opened. The river doesn't care how good your photos are. It's the boss. Always was.

Stefan on the trip

Yes, Stefan, what an awesome trip we had. What was your highlight of the trip? I think when we left through Buitepos, through the border post into Namibia, I said this is where the holiday begins. From then it was one big highlight.

I love Etosha, the biggest salt pan in Africa, 22,000 square kilometres. And the fact that it rained. It was actually quite cool to see the pans wet, and to see the animals in the water, etc. Then going through to Kaokoland, what a place, man. Marienfluss, unbelievable. Seeing my wife very happy, lying, doing angels in the fairy circles, that was cool to see. I really enjoyed that.

And then, I mean, Namibia is such a place of contrasts. Damaraland, the hot spring was quite cool. Really enjoyed that. And then Swakop again, a lovely old German historic town. Isn't the weather in Swakop just not nice? We had a nice day, but it was New Year's Eve day. That was pretty sunshine, but otherwise it was just cloudy the whole time. That was the one good day in December we had, the last day of the year.

Yes, it was awesome. And yes, Motsumi's breakdowns, how did that affect you? It's something that we learn when you're on a trip like this, is to be flexible and to just go with it. I mean, shit happens. And you've got to adapt and you've got to sort it out, because there's no other way of doing it, right? Yeah, I always say adapt, improvise and overcome. Yeah, so all in all, I think I lost about 10 days, and you guys lost about 4 days with the breakdowns. But it was sorted out in the end, and she is running fine.

Beards, boundaries and doing it again

So all in all, what was your experience on the trip? And I know we said in the beginning, we've all got decisions to make in life that are life-changing. Does this trip help you in any of that? I mean, one of the things I thought I would never do is grow this thing. My kids asked me to do it, because they've never seen their dad like this. Aiden is 18 and Lyan is 16 now. They've never seen me with anything more than a 2 day stubble, so pushing boundaries, hey.

Looking in the mirror and not recognizing the guy you see is quite something. Yes, I've also joined the challenge, that's why I'm not shaved as well. Yes, we said that we are not going to shave until the end of the trip. I cheated a little bit, because I made it a little bit neater. It was good fun, I enjoyed it.

Okay, one last thing. Will you do it again? Of course. There's a sign that we saw at Shametu, up in the Caprivi, that said, take me to Namibia because my soul needs to breathe. This is where you experience it.

My hardest point and the most difficult was climbing that Hartmann's Mountains. Yeah, that was pretty hectic, although it was just one place that was very difficult, and then another place. I think that one obstacle you can call a five. There's a rating in the obstacles between a one and a five, five being very difficult. And the other one was about a three. But that number five, for me, I almost said, now, if this is what it looks like in the beginning, we have to turn around. We don't know what's going up there, because my F250 is heavy. But we made it in the end. We pushed through.

Yeah, that's, I think, the one place where I had only two wheels on the rocks for quite a big part of the uphill there. But it was good fun. Also, at one point I thought, we're not going to get up this one, but we made it, slow, steady. There was also that one place where we could turn around, and luckily we didn't, because from there it was smooth sailing. There were no obstacles further.

The Hartmann Valley, that dune part that you drive on, is just spectacular. Also, one thing: we went up the Hartmann's Mountains and we were driving on top of the Hartmann's Mountains. And then we were waiting for the way down the Hartmann's Mountains, but that never happened. They turned into a dune belt just after that. Yeah, it never came. It just was a gradual descent.

Goodbye to Stefan

Stefan, thanks a lot for joining us on this trip. Our roads are separating today. Stefan and them are heading home. We're going to head down to Kuruman and maybe spend another night. But awesome trip, awesome friends to be with, and great companions. In trips like this, when things go wrong, then usually it goes south, but on this trip it went north all the way up. We saw a very good quote at the village cafe in Swakop that says, when things go wrong, don't go with them. You also leave them behind. And that's something that you need to learn. When it goes wrong, you need to make a plan. Stefan, thanks a lot. Awesome trip. Looking forward to the next one. Very good, Corné, thanks for everything, and thanks for putting it together.

I don't know if the camera can pick this up, but all of a sudden, millions and millions of birds flying over Augrabies Falls. And it looks like swallows.

The last morning

Good morning, on the last day of our Namibian trip. It's just after seven o'clock, and I've been sitting here since half past five, alone, listening to the waterfall, watching the swallows catching all the muggies, and been sitting and reminiscing about the trip. It all started with a line, an idea in my head: where paths begin. When I decided that, I didn't know how much those words would test me.

I took a few bad turns, with breakdowns and plans falling apart, but you can't stop. You have to push on, you have to keep on going. And as I sit here, I realized, between the Kunene and the Orange, you will maybe not find your answers, but it gives you space to think. And what an awesome trip, with awesome friends. And it's actually sad that we have to go home today. The journey ends here today, but there's one thing that I know for certain. The next path is already waiting.

Closing thoughts

And that's the end of this 8 part series, Where Paths Begin. If this is the only one you have watched, go back to one and start there. One last word on the name, Where Paths Begin. It's the spot where the tar runs out and you are not sure what's coming next. Plans get looser, you stop checking so much. The road doesn't turn you into anything, but a few weeks of dust, bad corrugation and Motsumi idling cold every morning sorts out pretty quickly what you actually care about. For me, that's the people in the truck, a quiet camp, and not much else.

Thanks to everyone who watched, commented and shared their own stories under these videos. Some of you put more in than I can put into the footage. That counts for plenty. Stay safe, be humble, make a difference. I'll catch you guys on the next one.