Solo motorbike ride through the Namibia deserts Episode 4

In this episode, there are more fun tracks to ride. I ride past some unique mountains. I stop at an old fuel station, maybe a bit too old. I come across the famous Namib desert horses and end up in a ghost town consumed by the desert. I woke up before dawn so I could see the sun light up the canyon. Morning. Looks like it might put on a little bit of a show here. I watched the different phases of light over the landscape. Then I thought I should really check out what it looks like from the bed. And yes, it looks good from here too. I eventually got everything together, put my gear on the bike to head off. Today, I was going to head north to get out onto the main road, then start heading west towards the Atlantic. Obviously, the best thing this morning was going to be riding the track that I'd come in on. They do have their own dirt runway here. I rode towards these unique looking hills, the remnants of how high the surface used to be. I dropped down to the next section of track, which was a lot tighter, running through what was more like a channel and had a lot larger rocks, like riverbed rocks, but they just hadn't been worn down over time. I rode back up the concrete single track, but this time I wasn't able to stay on it the whole way. I made it back on to the main track. I'd come in from the left, but for something different, I was going to head out on the track to the right. The dirt road was definitely reminding me of central Australia. Flat, minimal vegetation, gravel, rocks and sand. A really harsh landscape. The track had sections of softer, looser gravel and sand, slowing me down a bit as I had no idea what to expect. Ahead of my left, I could see a mountain by itself in this vast open plain. I couldn't find any reference to it on most maps, but one map had named it. It is so visually striking, being the only one in this empty landscape. I know there's nearly a guarantee there's not a train, but you know Murphy's Law, the first time I blow through a crossing, there'll be one. I've just pulled over where the track meets one of the main roads here, one of the 10% of tarred roads. That way is Keatmanshoop, my great pronunciation. It's probably about 70km. That's where I filled up just after the Quivertree. So I'm not sure, I'm going to have a quick look, see if there's anything that way, but that's the direction I'm going to go towards the beach, well the Atlantic. Won't get there today, but that's where we're pretty desolate out here. Not a lot of cars around for a main road. I checked the map and saw there was a marking for an old German Ford just down the road, and apparently somewhere to get fuel. As it wasn't that far, I thought I'd check it out. These hills look like the same makeup as the one I passed that was by itself, where you can clearly see the different layers of rock and sediment. Once again, I was crossing the Fish River. It must have been a lot of fun crossing that old bridge during the rainy season. I took a turn off to where it said there was fuel. I pulled up, I think it was a hotel, but I couldn't see any fuel pumps. Oh well, I had the extra jerrycans on board, so I headed back. I had missed the sign to the old German Fort Ruins, but saw it this time, so I pulled over. There wasn't much here, and not keen to hike with all my gear on in this heat and leave the rest of my gear and bike on the side of the road, I gave it a miss and continued on. I found out later I hadn't missed much, just the walls of an old rectangle building made with local stone in 1898. There was really nothing out here as far as the eye could see in any direction, just this black strip of tarp. Finally, I'd come across the first vehicle I'd seen on the road for days. I was getting hungry when I saw a sign that said food, so I turned on to the track. The property's name roughly translates to old limestone oven. There are two limestone ovens on the property, believed to be the oldest in the country. They were used to produce lime for construction and agriculture in the early 1900s. They do have food here, and cold drinks too. The lady was like, do you want a beer? I was like, it's probably a bit early, and I've got to ride a fair distance still. It's like a little bit of an oasis in the desert along the train line. They had seating inside, but I chose to sit outside. I'm surprised you could get that good of food in the desert. It looks really good. See how it tastes. Rated. It's really good. I walked back to my bike and parked it in the shade. Although it has fuel bowsers that are probably 50-60 years old, obviously there's no fuel, but I'm on empty. We're just below it, but I do have the slow jerry cans, so instead of riding a bit further and then having to pull over on the side of the road in the heat, direct sunlight, while I've got shade, I may as well do it here. That'd be sensible, wouldn't it? Job done. So that will stop me absolutely melting on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. I'm not sure, I think it's got to be between 200 and 100 kilometers still to go, so I'm glad for the tin roof. This vehicle definitely has seen better days. There was a dirt track that ran along the train line, so I followed it for a bit. Ahead was a lot of construction work, so I decided to turn around instead of getting in the way. A sneaky canyon to my left that would be easy to miss in this landscape. A random herd of goats. You always see them in the middle of nowhere. Only the heartiest trees survive out here. Well, at this point it wasn't looking good for the bee. I want to take this opportunity to apologize to the queen. Sorry mate. Now this looks more like the edge of a desert, well a sandy desert. I don't know if it is yet, but we're getting close to the Namib Desert which is the main one, and I think it's the oldest too. That road comes from the town I camped nearby two nights ago. Seeing that it's still a sealed road, I'm glad I went the long way around. I pulled into the small town to fill up and get supplies. I saw a dirt track that ran beside the train line. I was going to take the main road, but it looked like the track was roughly heading in the same direction. I was looking for the Klein Alswister Lodge. My German's pretty bad, but I think that translates to small outer view. I'm probably way off there. There was a turn off to my right, but no sign to where it led. I came across a campground. I guess I could use that as a backup if I can't find this place. I continued along the track which headed towards an open plain. I ended up at a place called Eagle's Nest Chalets. So obviously I had missed a turn. I doubled back along the track. There was the sign I was looking for. I checked in, then rode to the room. Well, I eventually got here. When I took the random back dirt road to get here, they don't have a sign that says reception because obviously normal people would come in the easiest access. Not me. So that meant I wandered five, six kilometers down into the... Anyway, I made it and they have air conditioning and that's what the noise is in the background. So now it's unpack and west is this way, so hopefully there might be a sunset shot tonight. Actually, there's a really cool picture here. Some horses, but in the desert. I think that's a pretty cool shot of wild horses. Apparently, this could be wrong, but what I was told, the horses in this area were let loose after World War One. The sun's just about down. It's cool right off, which is nice, and everywhere in the desert is really peaceful. It's really good and I like that they've got a driveway just the right size for a motorbike right at the front door. Right now I'm going to go up and try and find something to eat. I am rather hungry. Hopefully it's good. Everywhere I've been it's been pretty good, unless I organize it like the How cool is this sculpture? I watched the sun drop over the ridge from my vantage point on the restaurant deck. Then soon after I got to watch the moon rise. Dinner, well it didn't disappoint. So good. There was even dessert. It's got really cool, like this is the coolest I've had the whole time. Not quite needing a jacket just yet, but it's getting there. Obviously as I'm heading to the coast of the Atlantic, it's going to cool down and that's where I'm going to head tomorrow. I think it's pronounced Ludovic. I'll work it out to you tomorrow, but that's about it for today. Another good one. We'll see what happens tomorrow. Morning. Another perfect day for riding. Starting a little late this morning, about nine o'clock, as it's only under 200 kilometers to the coast and it's I'm pretty sure on a sealed road, so it's not going to take long. So we're going to have to check out that and then there might be a couple of spots along the way. We'll see what we can find. In some situations it would be nice if bikes had a reverse gear. I'll have to remember to look back at signs from now on. I wanted to get a photo of the range to my right, then I saw my first Namib desert horse, so I took that as a sign to pull over. I pulled over to get a photo and the horse decided to randomly come up and say hi. Actually wandered further away for the picture. It seemed friendly enough. I won't get too close. I'm not sure how wild they are. Well, back on the road. It's wild how there's range on this side. I mean it's not real tall mountain range on that one and then it's just flat down into this basin. Coming down just off the last hill, the temperature change was drastic. I'm talking 10 degrees maybe. It was like do I need to puff a jacket on? Within the space of a few hundred meters. In the distance I could see a train making its way through the desert. Thinking that might be a good photo, I pulled over. Now could I get the camera out in time to get the shot? Luckily it was a slow-moving train, so I had enough time. Another Oryx. There were a couple of buildings to my left out in the middle of nowhere beside the train line. So I turned around and pulled over to investigate. To my left looked like structures that held water. Although they looked old, they didn't look old enough to be here when the last steam train came through. Maybe they were used for something else. There was also an abandoned house or maybe an office. I checked for vehicles. Nothing coming. I then saw an Oryx on the train tracks. Another photo opportunity if it didn't run away. No running. It stood there. Well, really it posed for the photo. Looking at me as if to say I know I'm magnificent. You can take the photo. This time I saw a group of ostriches. But ostriches freak out over anything, and they took off running further into the desert. I'm not sure what animal this sign represents. Well, the sign is obviously correct. There is sand here. What I think it is actually indicating is that there could be sand drifts across the road in front of me, blown by the wind. I could see my next stop ahead of me on my left in the desert. Hello sir. Thank you. This is Kolmanskog, a ghost town in the Nenad Desert. It was a diamond mining boom town that's now slowly being reclaimed by the desert. Inside one of the restored buildings are photos that tell the history of the town. So diamonds were discovered here in 1908, attracting thousands of people to the area. By 1912 a town had sprung up, producing a million carats per year or 11.7% of the world's total diamond production. Prospectors were becoming rich overnight simply by picking diamonds up off the desert floor. But it wasn't to last. Intensive mining depleted the area by the 1930s, and in 1928 with the richest diamond fields ever discovered, found on beach terraces to the south, people left in droves, abandoning the town. And by 1956 Kolmanskog was completely abandoned. Dunes that were once held back burst through the doors and windows, filling the houses and buildings with sand. So far this room has the most sand. Trying to get under the door is a little bit of a bend. They also had displays of what the homes would have looked like in that period. Dining rooms, desks with phones that require operators, a washing machine without the machine part, what they cooked on, bedrooms. Basically a world away from today. It was a very interesting look into the past, and maybe a glimpse into what every town thousands or hundreds of thousands of years into the future may look like. In the next episode I reach the Atlantic Ocean and explore the trails around Luderitz. I ride back into the desert and wander down some random tracks. I then ride into a green valley where I find a magical place to camp.