THE ROAD TO KHOMAS
Khomas Highland Safaris is only 62 km from the shop called "Namibia Motorcycles". A short easy first day. I didn't know how long the rental arrangements would take, transfer from the airport, and such. Getting out of Windhoek traffic, riding on the wrong side of the road, and being up all night on the flight from Frankfurt made for an unsteady start. Namibian drivers are not the fastest or the most dangerous drivers to share the road with. But they are in the top 10. We left the tar road and hit the gravel 20 km out; tension fading a bit with the lite traffic, low speed, and pretty scenery. Then we plied the C-28 westward.
Riding a bike in a foreign land is an experience unlike most others. You smell the dust, the sweetness of hot vegetation, feel the coolness of the air in the road dips, and just have a heightened sense of vigilance and awareness. When whisked away in an airconditioned cab by your PH, mindless of where the night will catch you, and knowing it is all prearranged, you can mentally detach. Top Gun will not allow that to happen.
The bike shop I had originally dealt with went TU. They stopped responding and their website shut down. Without a word. Shop and motorcycle changed. The Royal Enfield Himalayan is called an adventure bike. It was. It really was.
Ours was not a tour. I arranged it and planned the route. I knew where I wanted to go....approximately. But I didn't know how long each day would take, or how fatigued we would be, I could not find anyone who had ridden the back roads, and I didn't know their surface condition or exactly how far we could go on a tank of gas. Everyone I talked with in the biker community either wanted to sell me a group tour from Capetown to Windhoek, or give me a tattoo. I had never ridden a Himalayan before, and needed to plan for the inevitable "AWA".......as always.
We arrived at KHS about 3 PM. Philip was busy with other clients, but still gave us a warm welcome. He runs a hunting operation, not a motorcycle rest-stop, but he kindly made an exception for me. Here we rested and hunted two evenings. We also met up with BTB Joe, CMK, and friends from Finland. Tim and I watched waterholes two evenings, but nothing exciting filtered out of the scrub at twilight. A full moon and a recent rain spared us any trophy fees.
Next morning, we planned to leave for Swakopmund. 295 km of gravel, sand, steep grades and crossings. There are only 3 places to spend the night between KHS and Swakopmund: Harmonie, Donkerhuk East and Donkerhuk West. They were all full. We needed an early start to make the longest leg before dark. I can't see well enough to ride at night and dodge hyenas, ardwolfs, and cattle. I arranged for a young man from the shop to meet us early, ride with us to Swakopmund, and bring spare fuel and a tire kit for the journey. Since the six men originally agreeing to this bike trip had winnowed down to just Tim and me, we wanted help for the toughest day. But he did not arrive, and we left at 1PM without him.......FWB
(Tim and I leave the desert camp.)