In Namibia 85% of the roads are dirt tracks, which (we think)
is much better suited to the surroundings.
The route to Fish River Canyon (something like the Grand Canyon)
is in such a terrible state; varies from washboard to huge
boulders, that we start to worry about the Enfield’s undercarriage.
Caramba! What a struggle – we don’t get past 2nd gear,
oil and sweat pour out of all seams, wire and tape begin
to win terrain. Even so, the views are of a glorious calibre
and are followed by nights spent sleeping (or better said, lying awake)
under the sort of star-filled skies of fabled beauty,
which shed so much light in this climate that you would think
it was cloudy. You soon see that it is in fact whole shrouds
of star – clouds – phew – another one! – Just as if someone
has dropped a cigarette end into a sack of fireworks.
Now and again you bury yourself deep in your sleeping bag
so as not to get hit by a shooting star. Apart from that
there is a deadly silence. At night the temperature falls
to round about 0 degrees centigrade. In the day time this
rises to between 25 and 30 degrees. Even the crickets and
locusts avoid this place. The Enfield gets on well in these
temperatures. The nightly temperatures are especially beneficial.
At the end of the day everything seems to rattle more, to have
more play, from the undercarriage to the depths of the engine,
but when the morning arrives all its muscles seem to be taught
and the Enfield struggles bravely on again through the dust.