Bethanie

I set my alarm for 4.45am as I wanted a shower before other people got up. In the event, I didn’t need the alarm. I woke up just before 4!! I was first in the showers, and we had packed up and taken our tent down well before the 6am deadline. It was drizzling throughout – you know, the fine stuff that gets you wet! 😂 We chatted to Henry as he prepared French toast for breakfast. He’s been doing the job for about 12 years and absolutely loves it. He always chooses to do the long trips if he can. He then gets a longer block of time at home with his seven-year-old daughter between trips.

Most people were up and organised on time – apart from the usual suspects who complained that we were already packing breakfast away when they hadn’t had anything! Which part of 6am breakfast, 7am departure did they not understand??

Anyway, it was still dark and wet when we set off, but, thankfully, the sun soon appeared and it was shaping up to be a lovely day. We were in for a long travelling day today, with 518 kilometres to cover to get to our next camp. We are now out of the comfortable westernised South Africa and into the wilder part of our trip. We can now expect ‘bushy bushy’ toilet stops! 😂 Our first came a couple of hours in to our drive at a picturesque spot near a bridge over the Fish River. There was little cover, so we had a long walk to find a bit of privacy! Welcome to the world of overlanding!

Back on the truck, I went to get my diary to make a few notes, only to discover that it was sodden! The rain must have got to it overnight. Because I’d written a lot of the entries in fine point felt pens, the colours had run and everything was illegible!! All that effort gone to waste! I was gutted!! Usually, I keep my travel diaries to look back on in future years. I guess I won’t be doing that with 2023’s!

The scenery as we continued our drive was very stark and barren, but we did see several springbok galloping along the side of the road. They are so graceful! They were the only sign of life in this largely uninhabited area. We did come across one small settlement called Bethanie. We filled up with fuel here and took the opportunity to use flushing toilets! We bought a couple of bits in the local shop and got our first Namibian dollars in our change (you can use South African rand everywhere here).

At lunchtime, we stopped for an hour on the roadside and set up a temporary kitchen. We had salads, grated cheese, and cooked meat to make our own sandwiches. The weather was warming up nicely with plenty of sunshine – very welcome after the wet, cold conditions we’ve been having.Read more