What to do next, the end of Namibia…

This was the point of the trip where I had to work out if we were ahead or behind schedule. I have booked the return container for Dogger from Duban so we have a date and destination to aim for.

we are roughly 5 days ahead and so now sitting at the bar in Ai-Ais hot springs campsite in the sun I am looking at South Africa.

we have met loads of people on the way and the South African are very friendly, we have to visit a few and conveniently they are close to places we wanted to visit.

I now realize just how much planning I put into this trip, it’s hard to find two weeks of things to do in SA, not because there is nothing but because there is so much, but we are big 5 animals tired and now time to find other stuff.

Milly suggests visiting Vineyeards ,Vineyards and some wine shops, but there is only so much she can drink…well she then said we can fill Dogger and bring lots home. doh

we set off down the orange river canyon heading for the border crossing at the pontoon.

but it was closed!! so luckily I always have a contingency plan and that was we could carry on on the north side of the river for another 90kms to the next border post.

we crossed with no fuss, in fact, no one but us, and as usual, we had to explain the CDP carnet de passage to the customs man and explain to the police women that the car was from the UK and didn’t need South African tax disk, she shrugged and said ‘OK, have a good trip’.

The coast road down from the Namibian border is boring , nothing to see.

oh wait there are 10 shipwrecks…but they are all in the forbidden diamond mining zone..oh well we move on.

but one fantastic surprise was that we just hit the desert at the right time the Rietveld desert blooms for a few weeks every year

good pictures of the vast colour are hard to take you can only come and experience it,but here are some close-ups from where we wild camped at that night.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-45449388

after the wild camp we head for Cape town via the Cederburgs wildlife park and then onto Karoo NP and pleasantly find all the shops are now 1st world and the campsites amazing and only £10 a night. and what a campsite.