Day 11, 9 February - Swakopmund to Twyfelfontein (350km)

The aim was to leave EARLY. Anyway, by 9am we were heading to the internet café. A cyber nightmare. The need to be and stay connected is now a major consideration. I do miss the unconnected world when one simply disappeared for months at a time. Now we schedule time, poll the GPS for internet café's etc. By 12, we were again ready to leave. I managed to stop by the Toyota folks to bypass Bigfoot's heater (defunct for at least 12 years anyway), to avoid water leaks ahead.

At very long last, having done the e-thing, we finally hit the road to Henties, where we stopped for a last look at the Atlantic before hitting the beautifull and endless dirt road ( which Malicious Margaret sanctimoniously refers to as 'unpaved') to Uis. Those who have joined a taxi or combi tour around Mpumalanga (or Zanzibar) know that taking these less traveled roads (and especially in a rental car!) are one of life's little pleasures for me. The stretch from Henties across the 'Sands of Hell' was heaven. Portuguese sailors referred to the skeleton coast as the Sands of Hell because they had neither a road nor even a Bigfoot to get around in, so basically they were stuffed. In some areas, all the horizons merge into mirages and without a road, it would not be possible to keep one's bearing (or marbles). Nevetherless, we bowled happily across the Sands of Hell to the strains of Andreas Bocelli (with Michelle) and Dire Straits (with Noah).

We stopped over at a community campsite, Abu Huab, near Twyfelfontein. Michelle and I stayed over here many years ago (15, to be precise), also in Bigfoot. Aba Huab has developed much since then, and we have not (nor has Bigfoot). This was our first night camping 'out' in bush. It was dark when we arrived (never a good idea), and it has been raining (unlike our previous visit which was in autumn). The number, variety and size of flying and crawling insects, the dark and the humidity made for an entirely new experience. Also, this was our firat encounter with the mozzies. Now we will need to spend probably as much energy avoiding the irritating and deadly little beasts as we do faffing around for internet access!

Ah, yes, "Africa is tough!" (some dope-taking backpacker assured some of our Gardens Commercial pupils many years ago). So it seems. Dean assured Michelle passionately that he is a city boy. I am not, but a few comforts a-la the Arabella are never to be sniffed at.

10 February - Twyfelfontein to Outjo

Another early start, and at 9 we were on our way. 15 minutes later, after commenting that the car sounds a little like a puffing steam train, we realized that we had a puncture! Unbelievable as it may seem, this has been our first puncture in Bigfoot (ever!). Great as that sounds, it means we have also never changed a wheel. Changing the wheel was not a problem (10 mins), but getting the flat wheel to go back into the strangely engineered, chain mechanism on the bakkie was another story (60 mins)! Fortunately , a kind local, Jan, who was tending to his goats nearby, came to our assistance, and with much sweat, we got the (flat) tyre back. Sweaty and dirty, we continued to Khorixas where electricity was out, but had a swim and lunch at a lodge there. When we got to Outjo, we dicided to call it a day at any place with a pool, and got here to the Buschveld lodge. I got the tyre fixed, and we have tme for our blogs. Noah has battled to get everyone connected to his site due to a little HTML editor problem, which is now fixed (his link should work).