South Namibia
30.1– 23.2.2016
The Technique
Start with Globi in Africa
Finally we got Globi ready for travelling. Loading food, cloths, water, petrol, tidy up the cupboards – without problem an entire day is gone. But it’s definitely great fun. We enjoy that.
As important as loading is staying in contact with the world. Hence our router needed a local SIM card. So we took Ernstli to drive to the local provider MTC. We discovered that our ATV Ernstli evoques even more admiring views than Globi. People just love it!
In the MTC office we had to wait for about an hour until our number was called. Unfortunately they don’t sell their own SIM cards. They told us to get them from the next Pick’nPay. Funny thing, but obviously we followed the recommendation, bought an empty SIM card and went back to the MTC office, where they loaded the brand new card with enough data balance for the next month. So far so good. It took us though another hour to convince our router to accept that card and release if for usage. We weren’t sure if our router hates Pick’nPay?
The desert is alive
Great feeling to be on the road again with our own home. On our way we had to learn that the desert is full of life. There are millions of pollen around which Peters immune system didn’t know. His eyes turned red and started itching like hell. It was getting worse over time so that we had to drive back to Walvis Bay to see a doctor. We parked in front of a pharmacy waiting until the opened after lunch. In the meantime we spotted an optician on the other side of the road. The lady didn’t convince just with professional advice and good range of affordable sun-glasses, but also with a really superb plunging neckline (Peter’s feedback). We learn from her, that the UV protection of our sun-glasses is not good enough and that right now some plants are blooming which causes this reaction. So we buy some glasses for Peter and a funny old fashioned clip for Gabi. In the pharmacy though we got some medicine to calm down the irritation of our eyes.
Baboos are dangerous and attracted by food
Everywhere you can find these warning signs. Baboons are extremely naughty and not at all shy. They come in bigger groups and the teenagers are keen to demonstrate how brave they are. Baboons are pretty skilful and learn quickly from human beings. Therefore it’s for example easy for them to open doors.
Peter prepared the breakfast and stood in front of the open kitchen window, when one of the youngsters jumped on the window. As it is a top hung window it got smashed down through the weight of the monkey. The loud noise spooked Peter and he ran to the door and shouted at the youngster. The baboons decided to leave. For the time being.
Dinner in the Desert
In the middle of the Desert Peter took me out for Dinner. Of course not with Globi – our home stays where it is – but with Ernstli. We get Oryx, very nice – as well as the rest of the food and drinks. After dinner it was already dark. We managed to find our way back – Globy wasn’t too far away – but we were somehow a bit disappointed from Ernstli’s lights. We found them quite dull. Arriving at our campsite we had enough light to find out, that there is a special position called “night”, which is designed to give proper light for night drives. Knowing that we were so excited, that we were seriously thinking about doint a night drive.
Challenges with the technology
The whole that was done by the shipping company in Antwerp needs fixing. We’ve ordered the material with Ruben and after one week we could drive back to Walvis Bay and Ruben’s team did repair everything perfectly. Though the result was really good it took time to do it: 2.5 days in the workshop. There are more charming places to stay overnight.
The generator is quite loud these days. We notice that one of the fans is somehow stuck. In Lüderitz we find a car electrician, who mounts a fan from a bus to our system – not really a bargin!
The dismantling of the fan is less easy than originally thought: all the pieces were trapped. The exhaust pipe of the generator needs dismantling as well to reach the fan. After that the rest was easy and without any testing we drove on.
The entire month driving through the south of Namibia we’ve tried very hard to get our GPS system running – even with the professional help of an IT guy in Germany. We’ve dismounted the entire cabling; fixed and glued it to eliminate any loose connection errors. Updating and re-installing the software several times, deleting any old tracks, and so on and on and on. Nothing helps: our software QuoVadis is not running anymore with Windows 10; we don’t have any GPS anymore.
