Heart Of The Namib

Our Namibian trip started in earnest at our first camp at Norotshama on the Orange River.

- Richard Van Ryneveld

In the July issue I had taken you along on the first part of the adventure, ending at Aus, with side adventures including the wild horses of the Namib and the lovely, small seaside town of Luderitz.

Two highlights for me were the Fish River Canyon at full moon and the eerily deserted mining town of Kolmanskop.

The usual travel ‘magic’ had already kicked in – a bunch of relative strangers at the start of the trip were now a happy, tight bunch of friends as we turned off the main B4 Luderitz/Keetmanshoop onto the C13, a smaller subsidiary road heading north for some 105 kilometres towards Helmeringhausen.

Turning left literally just before Helmeringhausen, we turned left again on the C27 for another 100km to Betta.

As usual I was in my place as the tail end of the convoy, and wondered why the others had stopped next to four guys on massive BMW touring bikes.

Serendipity was in overdrive. Eldor Smit – who, with her husband Willie, has been living overseas for many years – recognised one of the riders as a friend she hadn’t seen for many years.

It took a journey from Zurich to southern Namibia for a friendship to be rekindled, out amongst the vast red sands of the desert.

I keeping flipping from this script to my pictures to try and describe the haunting beauty of these vast desert landscapes. A picture of two miniature dots on a vast red sand plain with some round hills on the far horizon gives you an inkling of the Big Sky territory that awaits the intrepid traveller in Namibia. The two dots are Eldor Smit and Ansu Rykaart, friends since university days. I noticed the two, both with broadbrimmed hats, one white one blue, always walking out into the seeming nothingness whenever we stopped.