After a brief photo stop while crossing the Tropic of Capricorn, we travel onto Namibia’s Atlantic coast and the adventure capital, Swakopmund. Just before we arrive in Swakopmund, we stop at the Walvis bay lagoon en route, where there is often flamingos to be seen. You will be briefed on the many optional activities available here and there is time to explore the town before dinner out at one of the local restaurants.
Optional Activities: Dinner out
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
30th December 2013
Everyday is different in Africa and it's an adventure, so you better expect the unexpected and today was one of those days!!!
It started off as every other day in Southern Africa, up early, pull the tent down, shower and then breakfast. Pack up the camp, jump in Marilyn and hit the road, the only exception was Boesman brought a venomous scorpion over to our campsite for us to look at. It was black with small pincers and a really large stingy thing (of course that is the technical name) at the end of it's tail.
We drove for a while and saw lots of animals and got to see lots of animals running about, Martina and Christoph (Swiss brother and sister) were really excited as they have been during the entire trip. As we drove, our first stop was a viewing point that looked over part of our road ahead and the hundreds of rock hills. It looks desolate but as we now know it's filled with life, thanks to Boesman.
As we continued on our journey down a typical Namibian gravel road, Dipti made her way to the front of the bus to let Zenzo know that there might be a problem with one of the rear wheels. Zenzo pulled Marilyn over to check it out, it was a great call by Dipti as the drivers side rear wheel had a problem. 6 of the 8 nuts had left the scene and the remaining 2 were barely hanging in there, "Houston we have a problem"!!! It was about 45 degrees in the shade and it wasn't midday yet, our prospects weren't too bright.
Plan A
Zenzo and Shingi swung into action as us tourists disembarked from Marilyn. The first plan was to remove some wheel nuts from the other wheels and then evenly distribute the wheel nuts, problem solved, not quite !!!
Plan B
Closer inspection revealed that all the thread on the 6 wheel studs that lost their nuts had been stripped during the process of the wheel rolling around. This is where I got involved because I could see we were getting nowhere fast, I suggested that we could put 2 wheel nuts in the wheel brace and use a hammer to hit the nut onto the stud. Great plan and it was going to work!!! Wrong again. We gave it a go but the thread on the studs was too far gone. It this point I was thinking if PJ (Paul James) was around he'd know a solution, but he wasn't so I came up with another one.
Plan C
Remove some (3 to 4) of the wheel studs from the rear passenger side and put them on the rear drivers side. Another great plan, that I knew would work it would just take time and effort, but alas the Nomad office said they didn't want us to fix Marilyn and then drive her to Swakopmund because if anything went wrong it was on them. Instead they would organise a bus of some sort to come and get us tourists and Zenzo would drive a crippled Marilyn to Swakopmund very slowly.
So we decided we would make lunch and just wait for the cavalry, once again I showed I'm the man - people just grabbed chairs and tried to huddle under the half extended awning. Whilst they were doing that I started to setup the tent fly's around the rear door of Marylin to provide more shade. I looked at them all sitting there trying to remain in the little shade available at the front of Marilyn, pointless !!! So I suggested that if they wanted to stay in the shade for any length of time they might want to grab some tent flies and do the same, they saw the logic and started putting one up but it would appear that on their own they wouldn't make it. When I finished the one I was working on I helped them get the front end to function.
Once that was done I setup some string lines inside Marilyn and then sat back and conserved some energy...
We did have a funny moment which was provided by Johanna, she said to me that seeing all this space made her want to go for a run and with that she was off for a run in the sun and I do mean a run, she did okay. She covered a fair distance and then did the downward dog in the middle of the dessert, crazy I know but my kind of crazy... But I suggested that she might not want to do that in an Australian desert or on the Serengeti.
We ate lunch and continued to wait for the cavalry, it eventually arrived about 4 hours after the call was made to wait. When the cavalry did arrive it was a 44 seater coach with airconditioning and super comfortable seats that reclined, it was a smooth ride into Walvis Bay lagoon where we got to see the Pink Flamingos. From there our comfy coach took us to our new abode. I have to say I didn't like the comfy coach with airconditioning...
Later most of us went out for dinner together, it was a nice thing to do but I have to say we waited forever to get food and drinks and by this stage it was freezing cold.
Everyday is different in Africa and it's an adventure, so you better expect the unexpected and today was one of those days!!!
It started off as every other day in Southern Africa, up early, pull the tent down, shower and then breakfast. Pack up the camp, jump in Marilyn and hit the road, the only exception was Boesman brought a venomous scorpion over to our campsite for us to look at. It was black with small pincers and a really large stingy thing (of course that is the technical name) at the end of it's tail.
We drove for a while and saw lots of animals and got to see lots of animals running about, Martina and Christoph (Swiss brother and sister) were really excited as they have been during the entire trip. As we drove, our first stop was a viewing point that looked over part of our road ahead and the hundreds of rock hills. It looks desolate but as we now know it's filled with life, thanks to Boesman.
As we continued on our journey down a typical Namibian gravel road, Dipti made her way to the front of the bus to let Zenzo know that there might be a problem with one of the rear wheels. Zenzo pulled Marilyn over to check it out, it was a great call by Dipti as the drivers side rear wheel had a problem. 6 of the 8 nuts had left the scene and the remaining 2 were barely hanging in there, "Houston we have a problem"!!! It was about 45 degrees in the shade and it wasn't midday yet, our prospects weren't too bright.
Plan A
Zenzo and Shingi swung into action as us tourists disembarked from Marilyn. The first plan was to remove some wheel nuts from the other wheels and then evenly distribute the wheel nuts, problem solved, not quite !!!
Plan B
Closer inspection revealed that all the thread on the 6 wheel studs that lost their nuts had been stripped during the process of the wheel rolling around. This is where I got involved because I could see we were getting nowhere fast, I suggested that we could put 2 wheel nuts in the wheel brace and use a hammer to hit the nut onto the stud. Great plan and it was going to work!!! Wrong again. We gave it a go but the thread on the studs was too far gone. It this point I was thinking if PJ (Paul James) was around he'd know a solution, but he wasn't so I came up with another one.
Plan C
Remove some (3 to 4) of the wheel studs from the rear passenger side and put them on the rear drivers side. Another great plan, that I knew would work it would just take time and effort, but alas the Nomad office said they didn't want us to fix Marilyn and then drive her to Swakopmund because if anything went wrong it was on them. Instead they would organise a bus of some sort to come and get us tourists and Zenzo would drive a crippled Marilyn to Swakopmund very slowly.
So we decided we would make lunch and just wait for the cavalry, once again I showed I'm the man - people just grabbed chairs and tried to huddle under the half extended awning. Whilst they were doing that I started to setup the tent fly's around the rear door of Marylin to provide more shade. I looked at them all sitting there trying to remain in the little shade available at the front of Marilyn, pointless !!! So I suggested that if they wanted to stay in the shade for any length of time they might want to grab some tent flies and do the same, they saw the logic and started putting one up but it would appear that on their own they wouldn't make it. When I finished the one I was working on I helped them get the front end to function.
Once that was done I setup some string lines inside Marilyn and then sat back and conserved some energy...
We did have a funny moment which was provided by Johanna, she said to me that seeing all this space made her want to go for a run and with that she was off for a run in the sun and I do mean a run, she did okay. She covered a fair distance and then did the downward dog in the middle of the dessert, crazy I know but my kind of crazy... But I suggested that she might not want to do that in an Australian desert or on the Serengeti.
We ate lunch and continued to wait for the cavalry, it eventually arrived about 4 hours after the call was made to wait. When the cavalry did arrive it was a 44 seater coach with airconditioning and super comfortable seats that reclined, it was a smooth ride into Walvis Bay lagoon where we got to see the Pink Flamingos. From there our comfy coach took us to our new abode. I have to say I didn't like the comfy coach with airconditioning...
Later most of us went out for dinner together, it was a nice thing to do but I have to say we waited forever to get food and drinks and by this stage it was freezing cold.
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