Namibia (1)

	Crossing into Namibia it was impossible not to notice the not-so-subtle differences from Angola. Immediately we left the border we were onto perfect roads, passing stretches of retail shops, to the blessed relief of Jools and co. The first town we reached was a very industrial little place going by the name Ondangwa, we could see a little tent pitched above the name in the National Geo map but looking around we didn’t have our hopes raised too high. When we finally rocked up at the Ondangwa Rest Camp (S17˚54.711’ E015˚58.470’) we were more than a little surprised. Nestled in amongst industrial units was an oasis shielded away and superbly set up for camping. We planned a single overnight then onto Etosha, but the truck had plans of its own. The continuing starter motor problems had finally reached their nadir and the prospect of push-starting the truck in a wildlife park offered new incentive to make some repairs.


	The rest camp owner recommended the garage over the road and so we were introduced to Johan Dressler. Having discussed the nature of the problem, Johan was on a mission to find a new starter and spent a whole morning on the phone, with the result that there wasn’t one available in Namibia or South Africa. Our last hope was a man called George near Windhoek who after prolonged tracking down professed to have one available but a price that prompted Johan to tell him to ‘Get ******’.

							After a little, very nifty, engineering in the garage we managed to sort the starter, but the truck still refused to go. This left us with only one option, go to the bar with Johan and co. to drink copious amounts of Jagermiester. I was instructed to ‘knock on the bar’ before throwing the fowl tasting liquor to the back of the throat, because, you can see, feel, touch, smell and taste Jagermeister but you can’t ‘hear’ it.

	The next morning we dropped the gearbox out and rotated the flywheel to improve the starter motor problem but for the rest of the trip we were always going to have to sleep on a hill.

Etosha National Park was brimming with game, and for the two days safari we really started to enjoy being regular tourists. We even treated ourselves to one night of luxury at the newly renovated Okaukujo Camp, scamming a free breakfast into the bargain.


	At the waterhole during the night we saw 30 elephants, 13 giraffes, 5 rhinos, 2 black-backed jackals and a hornbill in an acacia tree. In fact, after spending most of the evening at the waterhole and the rest of the wee small hours round a camp fire talking to fellow overlanders Graham and Rosina Everett, we barely graced the hotel room before an early start to get out of the park to avoid paying an extra day.




				As we motored along pristine tarmac and finely graded tracks through empty wilderness we started to feel the relief that the difficulties were now behind us.

	We picked off a few tourist attractions along the way to the Skeleton Coast, the Petrified Forest, Finger Rock and most impressive Twyfelfontein with its amazing rock engravings.