{"id":4031,"date":"2022-09-24T15:03:04","date_gmt":"2022-09-24T22:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stuckinlowgear.com\/staging\/1919\/?p=4031"},"modified":"2026-01-10T09:59:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T17:59:40","slug":"kaokoland-marienfluss-hartmans-valley-cunene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stuckinlowgear.com\/staging\/1919\/kaokoland-marienfluss-hartmans-valley-cunene\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaokoland: The Cost of Entry to Hartman’s Valley is Tires"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

July 10th – 15th, 2022<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: We have finished our trip and are back home in California. I will continue to update the blog through the end of our trip. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morning came to our wild camp with warm yellow sunlight and distant sounds of livestock and people. There must have been Himba living nearby. Though we never saw them it\u2019s further proof that you are rarely alone in Africa, even when you think you are. To us this camp was deep in solitary wilderness on an unmapped and barely known road, but to the Himba living here this is of course home. Before packing up we were careful to burry our ash and leave no trace of our campsite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"wild
Wilderness camping off an unmapped road in Kaokoland. Out there!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Thankfully the rest of the conservancy road wasn\u2019t as steep and technical as the short stretch we\u2019d done the day before<\/a>. It plodded downward across the shoulders of rocky ravines and through sandy riverbeds at mostlypolite gradients. The rest of the route was easy to follow, with obvious tire tracks and it became particularly picturesque towards the end for the final descent into the Marienfluss. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"marienfluss\"
One of the rougher sections from the day before<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Along the way we were thinking that maybe Mr. Van Zyl kinda\u2019 blew it, since this route seems to have a lot less up and down than the famous Van Zyl\u2019s Pass, and requires less technical driving. I still can\u2019t believe he did that in a Model-T ford, though he had a team of Himba laborers to clear the way for him<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"new
The final stretch into the valley, stunning<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Right at the very end of the track there are two short steep sections, off camber and barely more than a car length long, but manageable. Afterwards we joked how embarrassing it would be to roll the car just 20 meters from the end of the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just like that we were into the southeast corner of the Marienfluss. It was hazy and the rocky hills flanking the sandy floor of the valley faded in the distance, creating an illusion of the valley going on forever. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a good track we proceeded until we finally were back on mapped roads, joining just below where Van Zyl\u2019s Pass enters the valley. We have been to the Marienfluss before so we decided to drive west to the more remote Hartman\u2019s Valley first, and then hopefully take the formidable \u201cshortcut\u201d road from Hartman\u2019s into the Marienfluss. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This would cost us more fuel, but when exploring remote places we figured it\u2019d be best to start with the most remote part and work towards the more traveled areas, should we have any problems we\u2019d at least accomplish the furthest reaches of our goals and\/or if we did get stuck, we\u2019d have the greatest amount of supplies to wait for help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is some vagueness about how much of Hartman\u2019s Valley one is actually allowed to visit. Part of Hartman\u2019s is a private concession held by Wilderness Safaris. I had a vague notion that approaching from the west might allow us to see more of the valley before encountering any \u201cDo not enter\u201d signs. We were careful to not trespass on the concession.See route notes in Nitty Gritty section. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once into the valley we zoomed along sandy tracks, very happy to find golden grass. In our previous visits it had been parched desert, just red sand and the Himba had abandoned the area due to lack of fodder for their animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two spoor tracks in red sand wove through an attractive carpet of yellow grass and it was wonderful to finally be here. The sharp contrast between the steep and rocky roads to get here and the easy cruising along flats of valley makes it feel like a proper arrival, not just a gradual change. Cutting southwest we headed towards the famous landmark of Rooidrom (Afrikaans for Red drum). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The road became more rocky here, though not technical, and I noticed the vehicle was riding strangely. We stopped and found the left rear tire flat, with a bad sidewall tear, unrepairable with tire plugs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Note on Tires and Preparation for Remote Travel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Kaokoland is famous for being hard on tires. Our tires, Cooper S\/T Maxx\u2019s (265\/75\/R16) are excellent tires that have brought us through Kaokoland two previous times with nary a whisper of complaint. This particular set of tires was getting tired and we contemplated replacing them prior to coming here, knowing they\u2019d be tested. On the other hand, getting all new tires is expensive, and with only a couple months to go on our trip we\u2019d rather wait until the next trip for a fresh set. This in mind, we resolved to milk this set for all their worth. It would be their third run to Kaokoland, more than any tire deserves to be asked. This turned outnot to be a good plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might recall that we got another unrepairable puncture way back in Uganda. Since then we cruised around with only one spare, the other just riding along on the wheel carrier waiting for replacement. This is all well and good when we weren\u2019t traveling anywhere very remote. We made a couple half hearted attempts to find a replacement earlier, but their costs in Zambia was so much higher than further south we deferred until Botswana. In Maun I failed to find any brand of tire in our size at any shop. On a second pass through Maun we finally found a replacement for the tire damaged in Uganda, a BFG KO2, Coopers being unavailable. Our brand loyalty to Coopers was based on them being the best off-road tire we\u2019ve ever used. Mind you, they\u2019re also the only off-road tires we\u2019ve ever used, so that isn\u2019t much of a sample size. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This meant we had five tired Coopers and one pristine BFG as a spare. Well, now we had four tired Coopers, one destroyed one, and one good BFG. In the months preceding this I have spent many an hour on the road telling Jenny (a captive audience) that we need to figure out how to shave more weight from the Land Cruiser, and the most obvious way to do this is to go to a single spare tire. I went on at length about the benefits of a single spare, about how tire technology has improved such that two spares was now overkill, etc. I can tell you that now that we were way out in the hinterland of the Kaokoland down a tire that I was mum on that subject, two spares now seeming like an excellent plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lest you think us idiots for heading to Hartman\u2019s valley with dodgy tires, I assure you the rest of our preparations were up to snuff. We carry: a Satphone and emergency phone numbers; medical evacuation coverage for even the remotest of regions; an extensive first aid kit; Jenny has wilderness first responder medical training; 210 liters of fuel; numerous spare parts (filters, belts, radiator hoses, alternator brush kit, Chilton\u2019s repair manual, engine manual, extensive tool kit, epoxy putty, various lubricants for oil, brakes, gearbox, etc.); paper maps, two sets of electronic maps (offline phone maps and GPS); and plenty of food & 85 liters of water, enough to wait quite a while for help if need be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to the story\u2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Why this tire survived the torture of the previous day\u2019s rocky ravines and this morning\u2019s rugged trail only to give up the ghost on this relatively sedate section of gravel road is a mystery. Regardless, the even terrain made it an easy place to change a tire so I\u2019m not complaining. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Springing into action we changed the tire, no big deal. Except now we were only on Day 2 of our explorations and we were down to one spare, but what are the chances that we\u2019d get another? There was some discussion of aborting, but we decided to wait until we\u2019d used our good spare before calling a retreat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This brought us to Rooidrom, an old 50 gallon oil drum placed as a landmark, painted red. Also an ideal lunch stop. During our meal a Himba woman, toddler on her hip, appeared out of nowhere and offered to sell us some bracelets. After we declined she put down her child and disrobed him, showing us his alarmingly inflamed penile tip. She spoke no english, and us no Ovahimba, but clearly she was looking for medical assistance. This was outside our training for sure, but Jenny hazarded a guess at a post circumcision infection, though we don\u2019t know what the Himba traditions are on that front. Careful not to offer anything that could be overdosed, such as painkillers, Jenny instead gave her a tube of antibiotic ointment and pantomimed daily application. The Himba woman was extremely grateful and sat down right there to do the first treatment. The child was admirably stoic, it looked very painful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"himba\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As we set off she kept trying to sell us bracelets, and only later did it occur to us that she might in fact have been offering them as a gift for helping her child. After this realization we felt bad for rejecting her offer. In the book Life is Like a Kudu Horn <\/em>author Jacobsohn recounts how her Himba friends in Purros chided her for always \u201cbeing so high,\u201d meaning she would help them some way and then decline when they tried to help her in return. Jacobsohn hadn’t wanted to take advantage of their friendship, but inadvertently made them feel forever in debt.* We wondered if we were now guilty of the same thing with the woman we helped. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

*I hope I have characterized her nuanced story accurately<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

West from Rooidrom there are other drums to mark various crossroads. Bloudrom (Blue drum), which has some amusing signage, Oranjedrom (Orange drum), and finally the most remote of all, Groendrum (Green drum). Here there is a notebook where people have signed their names and where they come from as well as a dropbox of sorts. Jenny signed us in and we inspected the box. It contained offerings to the next travelers, a couple cigarettes and some other odds and ends. We contributed a can of Windhoek lager to some future traveler with a thirst. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>
\"green<\/figure>
\"orange<\/figure><\/div><\/div>
\"blue<\/figure><\/div>
\"groendrom\"<\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The sign at Blue Drum is a South African joke. “Load shedding” is when the power company lacks enough capacity and turns off power to various neighborhoods. The satellite dish is also fake.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Somewhere on this route Jenny called a stop, noticing a plastic piece on the side of the road. On these rough tracks it\u2019s not all that rare to find the odd piece of car, a shock absorber, a number plate, a muffler, or most commonly a cracked off plastic cowling from near the bumpers or fenders. This time Jenny had spotted a hubcap matching ours, aha! As we\u2019ve lost two of our own on previous rough roads it only seems fair that we gain one. You know you have a common car when you find a spare part by the side of the road and can just pop it on your vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Green drum we turned north onto the most western road to Harman\u2019s valley. A stiff breeze was blowing, whipping sand into the air and making it pretty inhospitable, causing some concern for where we would camp tonight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heading north towards Hartman\u2019s valley is committing to wild camping, for there are no formal campsites up here. Our criteria for wild camping in this setting is most importantly to leave no trace, i.e. pack out all trash, burry all human waste, burn any toilet paper, and burry any ash if we have a fire. We also do not make any new tire tracks, not wanting to add any additional ecological impact, and we use campsites that have been previously used, so the area doesn\u2019t just end up with campsites all over the place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"corrugations\"
Ugh. A rough ride.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With this in mind we headed north. The road was very wide and corrugated, previous travelers having sought relief from the violent corrugations at the verges of the road, thus contributing to its ever widening swath. We resolved to accept our punishment and not further the widening, shaking and shuddering our way north. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"namib\"
The edge of the Namib desert abuts the western flank of Hartman’s valley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The vastness of this area was hard to grasp. Wind had stirred up a dusty haze, but still to say this is \u201cbig sky country\u201d is an understatement. In the distance dunes flanked us to the west, the inland edge of Skeleton Coast National Park. To the east craggy rust red rocks formed a formidable ridge that is the western edge of Hartman\u2019s valley. This western road, north of Green Drum, is actually not in the valley, but on the shoulder between the valley and the coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"dunes\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Other than the overly wide corrugated track, I was impressed that up here, where there are no rangers, supervision of tourists or rules posted, that people seemed to have mostly stuck to the main road and not made a zillion side tracks. The land is mostly flat and off-roading would be easy. Sticking to the road we headed north and started looking for a campsite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Normally our wild camping criteria include \u201cnot visible from the main road,\u201d but here we felt it was more important to not make any new ecological impact. With that in mind we followed some tire tracks to a wonderful crescent shaped dune not far off the road that sheltered us, mostly, from the brisk wind and provided a very atmospheric spot. Out here at the end of the earth the evening was magical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"dunes\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Having worked hard to come all this way we didn\u2019t want to rush onward, so we had a slow start to the morning, savoring our desert isolation. The wind had died. Now it was still and the silence complete and absolute, so rare in our world these days. The remote vastness was hard to comprehend, forbidding and foreboding, an agoraphobic\u2019s nightmare. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heading out in the morning we found that our footsteps from exploring the dunes the evening before had been entirely erased by the wind, and even our tire tracks were on their way to disappearing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Our footprints from the night before entirely erased<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This western road proved to have plenty of nooks and crannies to explore. Several side tracks not on our map let us wander north and make our own private discoveries, such as some some improbably located trees; one of the lone men of the Kaokoveld and a spot who\u2019s geology looks similar to the famous Spitzkoppe. Five springbok appeared, hearty antelope that are able to live in this environment. Wildlife is rare out here and seeing springbok, so common elsewhere, was just as special as seeing a lion in Moremi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n