The first 3 hours of the drive from Solitaire were through spectacular scenery: first through enormous dry grassy plains with millions of small birds lifting as we rumbled through; then through weird rocky hillocks leading to a steep windy pass. Unfortunately no pictures were taken because the road was truly dreadful - rock hard corrugations with deeper ruts in the dry river beds. By the time we got through the pass we were ready to stop for a rest and coffee and pulled into a car park/ viewpoint. Other vehicles were doing the same. A number of vehicles had problems. The hasp on one of our big heavy storage drawers had popped all its screws out and was hanging open: Barney had fixed that with much longer screws by the time I had our coffee made. Outside a chap was rummaging around under his landrover with spanners etc. B offered help, but he didn't need it. This couple gave us some very useful info about travels further north, which was great. A tour minibus had shattered its windscreen with the vibrations. After about an hour of fixing and chatting, we set off, but very soon encountered Franz and Hennie who had a very broken wheel. We stopped to see if we could help, it turned out that their front suspension had broken - the lower ball joint having been wrenched out of its socket. We tried to jury-rig it to get them moving but without luck. As we were wondering what to do next a car pulled up and out jumped 3 guys - it turned out that Franz is a pastor in a church and two of the newcomers were pastors in the same church! The third person was apparently a famous South African rugby player (their equivalent of Johnny Wilkinson? - but we obviously had no idea whatsoever but had a long chat with him about our trip) - they had contacts back in Walvis Bay and organised a rescue mission. We said our farewells to Franz and Hennie who are absolutely charming and set off West again towards Walvis Bay, the road improved but the scenery gradually became very very bare and desertic. As the light faded the colours of the desert and the road all started to blend into a single monotonous creamy-grey and it became difficult to read the road surface, but after a couple of hours we passed Walvis Bay airport and finally hit tar again. We quickly(!) zipped up to Swakopmund to find the Alte Brucke campsite who luckily still had a place for us - this campsite was another good find - it's like an oasis in the desert with green grass to camp on, individual ablution blocks for each site and good security - just what we needed after the last few days.
We quickly got to know Steve and Connie(sp?) - a Scot/German couple camping in the spot next to us who are spending three weeks touring Namibia with a rented 4x4 camper and who have given us some useful information on the north. As we were late arriving we decided to treat ourselves and eat out - we chose "the restaurant that the locals would recommend" (the Tug) and went straight there - we must learn to read between the lines of guidebook comments as the service was poor, the price expensive and the food only average. Ho hum. As we were waiting for our food we got a call from Franz and Hennie to confirm that they had got back to Walvis Bay safely and were with their friends - we were glad to know they were safe.
We quickly got to know Steve and Connie(sp?) - a Scot/German couple camping in the spot next to us who are spending three weeks touring Namibia with a rented 4x4 camper and who have given us some useful information on the north. As we were late arriving we decided to treat ourselves and eat out - we chose "the restaurant that the locals would recommend" (the Tug) and went straight there - we must learn to read between the lines of guidebook comments as the service was poor, the price expensive and the food only average. Ho hum. As we were waiting for our food we got a call from Franz and Hennie to confirm that they had got back to Walvis Bay safely and were with their friends - we were glad to know they were safe.