Part three of the 1984 tour

Going through my diary of the tour I read that we left Grunau just after 08h00, I do remember that it was getting very warm by then and as we rode further north the hotter it became. We were heading into the Kalahari desert scrub, 78kms to the little village of Keetmanshoop where we filled the tanks and then decided that our next stop would be Marientaal, 166kms further where we would find cold beer.

I noted that it was 12h30 when we pulled into Marientaal so we must have been travelling very slowly although we did have a roadside stop for Eddie to carry out some repairs to his intercom set which had packed up.

Two bitterly cold Windhoek Lagers each at the hotel and then back on the road after topping up the tanks, next stop Windhoek. The road is dead straight for mile after mile, you see the road disappearing into the distance, you top a rise and again see it heading straight to the far horizon, quite boring and very hot, we sat and rode on and on.

With 187kms to go my bum was sore and I could feel Janet shifting around behind me, we stopped for a leg stretch but also I could hear a faint squeaking noise coming from my front wheel which I wanted to check. The axle and hub were warm to the touch but not overly so.

Back on the road and just at the small settlement called Rehoboth the noise becomes quite loud, we decide to take it easy the rest of the way and reached Windhoek just around 17h00.

Windhoek is a beautiful, clean cosmopolitan city where you hear English, Afrikaans and German being spoken alongside the African language. We found accommodation in the Thuringa Hof hotel on Kaiser street and settled down happily.

A couple of beers, a delicious meal in the beer garden and early to bed after a tiring day.

We spent the next day in Windhoek and my front wheel bearings were replaced at the bike shop, we had a pleasant relaxing day and another good meal at the hotel that night.

 Windhoek to Swakopmund, our destination on the west coast is only 300kms so no great rush, then it was proper desert riding, especially as we neared the coast.

Sand with a ribbon of tar running through it, our accommodation was the 'A' frame cottages just outside of the small town, very comfortable cottages but no shade or lawn at all.

We make ourselves comfortable and an evening braai was excellent, as the sun sets it gets quite cold there. We arrived on Friday evening and only planned to head back to Windhoek on the Monday morning so we had plenty of time to relax and explore, Swakopmund and Walvis Bay, about 30kms down the coast are very interesting places so we had plenty to do.

 Playing on the sand dunes between Swakopmund and Walvis Bay the next day, there are some very nice restaurants and interesting pubs and we spent a very pleasant weekend.

 Sunday was hot but we were determined to have a braai anyway and it turned into quite a piss up, we weren't going anywhere until the next day so we enjoyed ourselves. Besides it was only 300kms back to Windhoek, we watched the sun set over the sea and stumbled off to bed.