By the time we approached the Namibian border, we had spent over a month in South Africa and covered around 5,500km. It’s a big country with some stunning scenery, a good mix of paved/dirt roads and friendly people - a motorcyclist’s dream. But it was time to get move on, Namibia awaited. The welcome wasn’t exactly what we expected however. The Namibian immigration official must have been having a bad day, because when Iza asked him to squeeze his stamp on a particular page of her passport and save the few remaining blank ones she has left, he told her that if she wants to save space in her passport then she should go back home! The lady collecting the US$10 road tax also seemed very aggressive, throwing the receipt across the counter and mumbling something under her nose. It obviously wasn’t ‘pay day’

Just after the border we turned off the main highway leading to Windhoek and headed for Fish River Canyon along good gravel roads. Riding at a 100km/h was not a problem, you just had to stay alert when negotiating the small dried out river beds ‘flowing’ across the road. It’s officially the rainy season in Namibia. Although we’re yet to see a drop of rain and the roads are mainly dry, evidence of recent rainfall is clear. Fields and mountains are covered by fresh radiantly green foliage, creating a fantastic contrast of colors when set against the dark reds of the earth and ridiculously clear blue of the sky. It really is impressive, a travel photographers dream!

The rains and flood waters flowing from neighboring Angola have also had an impact on our route. They have forced us to turn back twice when the small ‘D’ rated tracks we were following ran straight into overflowing rivers. We checked all possible routes across but the rivers were just too deep and the current too fast for us to ride across. Another factor Kamil only remembered once in the river were - crocodiles!!

These unplanned detours meant we spent more time than anticipated in south-western Namibia. We didn’t regret one minute though. The terrain is an off-road riders paradise. Route D707 is especially scenic, where wide open plains give way to red sand dunes and quiver tree dotted rocky cliffs. We stopped at a farm and asked for permission to camp under one of the quiver trees. Sonya, the owner of this 22,000 hectare paradise, was a bit surprised at first but finally agreed warning not to leave the tent at night because we might get snapped up by a leopard or hyena. We survived the night but did hear hyenas in the area the following morning…

We continued on to the Namib-Naukluft Park and the famous Sossusvlei sand dunes. The dunes themselves didn’t make a huge impression on us, but the surrounding vistas were out of this world!

We visited the most interesting dunes at both sunset and sunrise. The 70km road leading to the dunes is paved with the last 5km only accessible to 4×4’s. Officially bikes are not allowed on the deep sanded section but of coarse this is the most interesting and we would not be denied.

We’re now in Windhoek, the Namibian capital. Here we’ll apply for visas to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and The Congo.