We eat, pack and leave by 8:15 AM. We make good progress all the way to Twee Rivieren but try not to stop to look at game.

(On the road to the Twee Rivieren Gate: a blue wildebeeste -- all of the Park animals we saw were very robust and healthy)

A picnic lunch there under a camel thorn tree and we then check out of the park. The ranger at the gate spots a flat tire on the front left tire caused by 3 -4 inch thorns penetrating the tread and sidewall. What tough thorns! Initially the tire is thought to be unrepairable but we have two spares. A group of park employees arrive at the gate and offers to change the tire. An argument takes place amongst them as to whether the tire is repairable. The dismounted tire is returned about 30 to 45 minutes later freshly repaired (the plugs clearly visible protruding from the sidewall. The ranger also points out a leaking shock absorber on the front right side – a repair we will have to make in Windhoek if possible or Tsumeb if not. A good impromptu lesson on the hows and whys of our trusty Toyota; a distribution of some rand for all the help; and we are on the road again.

The drive to Keetmanshoop spectacular for its length, sheer loneliness and stark, empty landscape. The road now completely paved all the way to the turnoff to the Rietfontein border post (R31) except we must choose between the old dirt detours or risk peppering the truck’s paint with freshly laid tar (we are flagged down by an Afrikaner farmer concerned about this). Renata warned us about a bad section on R31 and it punishes our vehicle for the 15 to 20 kilometers leading up to the Namibian border. Otherwise we made good time on the tarred section (from the junction with R360). We make the border just before closing time: Will amused by the contrast between the spiffy RSA office and the Namibian office: sleeping dog; dominoes; etc. We must pay the road tax separately in the next town – Aroab. The tax office is a small reed walled enclosure on the covered terrace of a store. The toll taker a very young, very slight but very décolleté woman under the disapproving gaze of an old nun. 140 Namibian dollars later (Will disapproving of this tourist tax) we set out across a geography that is empty except for an occasional “ranch” house every 30 to 40 km. No other vehicles except an Afrikaner family changing a tire: they signal “thumbs up” as we slow down to offer help so we press on. This is an arid, beautiful land of tawny tan to brown with tufts of prairie grass about 8 to 12 inches high: no telephone poles; a wire fence alongside the road; 360 degree vistas and a vastness of sky and land with distant cone shaped mountains on the horizon.

We reach “Keetmans” at dusk but Will’s prayers for pizza at Ushi’s Kaffe Stube go unanswered. Closed. We have reservations at The Quiver Tree Forest Lodge outside of town http://www.quivertreeforest.com/index.htm Too late for dinner there we make our way to the Central Hotel for dinner where Will wants me to try the game “espatado” and I make short work of the skewered meat hanging from a chain. The sauce is very rich and old-fashioned as is the entire setting. Again we are welcomed and tolerated tho’ Will orders a vegetarian meal and we are both dusty and seedy from the long road.

Labels: Aroab, Keetmanshoop, Quiver Tree Forest Lodge, Rietfontein, Twee Rivieren

¶ 1:00 PM