I felt a good bit better this morning but decided not to have breakfast before heading off and to just stick with water until later.
The first hour or so was a lovely hilly stretch and made for very pleasant motorbiking. I had passed a police speed trap as I was leaving Windhoek and that set the riding tone for the day. It was going to be a long spin but would be much longer if I was done for speeding.
As I came down off the hilly stretch a vast desert stretched out in front of me. It’s really hard to describe this country, either in words or photographs, other than to tell u it is most remote and barren place that I have ever been.
I have driven through Death Valley in the United States and other such places but this one is out on it’s own. For some reason the image portrayed by a line from Shelley’s “Ozymandias” stuck out in my mind – ” Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert” etc. It is a poem that describes a post apocalyptic desert scene and it’s peculiar how the mind can dig into deep recesses to come up with with such a distant memory.
There were only two small towns along the five hundred kilometres, one of which I did not feel comfortable stopping in. There were several large groups of young guys just sitting around and I wondered what hope these guys had of finding work, or even anything to do. For a country with such a small population there seems to be a lot of unemployment.
The day passed slowly until I arrived at Keetmanshoop and checked into a really quirky motel/guesthouse….
ZIGZAGGING AFRICA BY MOTORBIKE 