Comments on: Kaokoland Aborted. Swakopmund Instead.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 23 Nov 2022 17:30:09 +0000

In reply to Willem. I'm very glad to hear you like the blog AND that it is useful. The Mother Of All Trips sounds great! Enjoy, as you know it is very special up that way.

By: Willem

Willem — Sun, 20 Nov 2022 22:17:23 +0000

A great read Andrew – a distinct lack of waffling, combined with a perfect nuance of story-telling and factual information sharing! Happy camping! Although I’ve been to Damaraland & Kaokoveld a few times, your blog is off immense value in helping me and my mate planning the Mother Of All trips for May ’23.

I now just need to find a way of sharing with my non-camping partner (and our cat and 2 dogs) that we’d be away for 30+ days… 🙂

Thank you!

By: Kaokoland: The Cost of Entry to Hartman's Valley: Tires

Kaokoland: The Cost of Entry to Hartman's Valley: Tires — Sat, 24 Sep 2022 22:03:12 +0000

[…] the rest of the conservancy road wasn’t as steep and technical as the short stretch we’d done the day before. It plodded downward across the shoulders of rocky ravines and through sandy riverbeds at […]

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 01 Sep 2022 16:54:52 +0000

In reply to Alpesh.

So glad you liked the post, thank you! I would love to chat and swap vehicle notes and hear about your build, I’ll get in touch. It’s all a bit hectic now, in the last week of the trip now! But when we’re back. When do you start your shakedown trip? Don’t worry about your canopy. Ours has over 250,000 km on it, and when I got in touch with AluCab they said, “oh, that is an old design” – which I always take to mean they changed the design for a reason.

By: Alpesh

Alpesh — Sat, 27 Aug 2022 06:09:17 +0000

Andrew

Man you are one hell of a story teller. I read this feeling I am there right with you. No exaggeration, but this took me nearly two hours to read through because I keep looking at T4A, zoomed right in to guess where the road you mention is.

As you know I am also getting the same car as your and nearly done with a shakedown trip in Sept, Now you have added to my worries on the canopy.

I see you head home in Sept. Would love to do a video chat and share stories. Especially my car build.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 27 Aug 2022 05:21:57 +0000

In reply to Katrin.

Thanks for the spelling, fixed! At times this area was pushing our comfort zone as well, but I suppose that is part of what makes it an interesting place to travel. We always assume that as long as we can keep the vehicle right side up we’ll be okay in the end. There are more people out there to help than it appears, and with the Sat phone, plenty of water and food, we could wait for help for quite a while if need be. Not that it would be cheap…
I will take a look at the namibia ch forum when we’re back in the states and dreaming of Africa again, and with a better internet connection.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 27 Aug 2022 05:17:46 +0000

In reply to Walter. You are welcome! I will send my track data to T4A, though I'm fairly sure our guide directed us on an even more minor track (if that is even possible) for one section, so I will advise T4A to corroborate that section as I don't want to steer others wrong. This is truly one of the most remarkable places we have ever traveled. Thanks for the spelling tips, fixed! ;)

By: Katrin

Katrin — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 21:43:36 +0000

Hi there you intrepid explorers!
I can help you out with two German words you have spelled incorrectly.
1.Schlucht not Schulcht and it means canyon. We have a another common words that starts like that namely Schlepp, from Yiddish.
Also Camp Aussicht, not Ausich means indeed View.
Regarding Delia Owens book “Where the crawdads sing” someone mentioned that isn’t it interesting that they had a real life unsolved murder while in North Luangwa and evidently “they” got away with it and in the book an “unsolved” murder and she got away with it. Hmmmmm
On the Nam CH forum, there are lots of self-drive Swiss and Germans who cruise around in Kaokoland. There is a translate feature, if you are interested. Some have great pictures.
https://www.namibia-forum.ch/
It’s nice to follow you guys along and the pics are great, but this last area Would be a lot past my comfort zone.
Happy trails,
Katrin

By: Walter

Walter — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 21:14:04 +0000

Andrew, great story telling once again.
Thanks for this part in particular, so many memories of my own explorations from Hoarusib, via Moddurib valley into Skeletion coast out through Uniab.
6 months later our tracks were still the freshest when we did it the other way round.

Maybe send your track data to T4A and we find them in the next update package, articulatly the new way into Marienflusstal.

By the way, Khowarib Schlucht (gorge) is easier to pronounce when the letters are in the correct order 😉
Believe me it’s German and one of my home languages.