I love that the cattle are right by the cow sign, and how the sign on the fence warns of cattle on the road.

This is the best photo I've gotten of a baboon so far. I'll keep trying!

Me and Falconer

From there it was about 120km to Sossusvlei. We all remarked at how much better this road was. It was gravel, but it was pretty flat and compacted. Nonetheless, about halfway into our drive, we heard rocks wildly circling about under my vehicle (much louder than normal). We went back and forth with a casual, “Should I pull over?” “We should probably pull over.” And within 30 seconds of the start of that noise, I pulled over. We all opened our doors, hung our heads out, and looked for any sign of a problem. Linda found it, “OH MY! This tire is ruined!!” Indeed, it was shredded to the core.

By this time, I knew how to get the jack out. We started preparing the other parts to remove the tire, but soon a Land Rover stopped to help us. Two of the friendliest, happiest men I’ve ever met jumped out and instantly went to work. They had the tire off and replaced in no time. We offered them some money as well, but they also wouldn’t take it. We loaded back up, headed once again towards Sossusvlei, and not 5 minutes later they were on the side of the road with a flat. We rolled down our window and offered our useless services. They replied that they were fine and waved us on, still smiling their big, sweet smiles.

We entered a town called Sessreim. There was a new Engen station there, complete with nice and clean bathrooms, yummy sandwiches, and even a couple of computers with pay-as-you-go internet. They also sold, repaired, and replaced tires. I definitely needed to purchase a new tire and this place was my only option, being that we were in the middle of nowhere. N$1840 later, we were back on the road with a new tire on, and the “repaired” tire back as my spare. (That’s around $245 US!) At this service station we ran into our two German friends once again, and also the family of 5 from our first flat tire! It’s a small world, especially when you’re--as I’ve already said--out in the middle of nowhere.

After our little reunion, we paid for our permit to enter Sossusvlei or the national park or whatever the reason we had to pay for a permit, and drove the rest of the way (PAVED! Praise the Lord!) to Sossusvlei. We finally reached a parking area. I’m quickly realizing at this point that Sossusvlei is a destination--a tourist attraction--and not any type of town. Seriously, going into this trip I/we knew nothing about the area. (Remember, we planned this trip pretty much the day we left.) Cindy and Kitty braved the disgusting worse-than-an-outhouse toilets and then we decided to drive in. The sign said, “4x4s only”, my vehicle has a switch enabling 4-wheel drive. A man had asked Linda if we wanted to hire a lift in (there were safari type vehicles that were driving people in and out). Not knowing what we were getting into, I suggested I just drive so that we have more freedom to stop and take pictures along the way. Oh, what I would give to turn back time. (I seriously considered naming this blog “Hindsight is 20/20”.)

I made it quite a ways. The sand was compacted for a while, and then it turned into loose sand, at least a foot deep. It was actually a bit fun to drive on. You just had to take it slow and stay in the grooves previous vehicles had already made. Then I guess we stopped to take a picture or something, and that’s when trouble began. It became more difficult to get going again, and eventually, it pretty much stopped altogether. I had everyone get out, and I managed to turn it around and we were just going to head back. Unfortunately, that never happened. By this time, we could smell something burning. Kitty has a lot of experience driving in snow, so I let her take the wheel. Key difference between driving in snow and sand… snow will melt and more than likely not damage a clutch… sand doesn’t melt. Eventually the clutch went out altogether, never to be revived. Several people stopped to help. Including our German buddies once again! Their car wasn’t powerful enough to pull us out so they wished us the best and drove on. I didn’t even see them leave because at this point, I’m sitting at the back of my car, head down, and starting to cry. It was the first time I’ve cried in a long time, definitely the first time I’ve cried in Africa. Up until now, I’d made the best of every situation. We laughed at the first tire. We laughed at the second tire, and how I was becoming a pro at really trashing tires. But the comedy stopped here. I realized that this was going to be a much bigger issue.

Long story short, eventually one of the safari vehicles pulled my car out.

Once we got it out, they offered us a free tour so we could still go in and take some photos. Very kind of them! So we took a nice, relaxing ride. I tried to enjoy it though so many questions were flooding my mind. We ran into our German buddies at the end, and they offered to give us a ride from Sessreim back to our lodge in Solitaire. We gratefully accepted. We made it back to my car, and they ended up being the ones to use a borrowed tow strap and tow us back to the Engen station. I rode with Michael who was behind the wheel of my car. We were just a few feet behind Ali who was pulling us. Thankfully, Michael was a pro at this, and I felt pretty safe. I found out that Michael was a geologist and we had some pretty interesting conversations.

Once we arrived at the Engen station, I discussed my options with Thys (the owner) and he said I basically have one of two options: 1) Have the car towed back to Windhoek (yikes!) or 2) Bring a clutch back down from Windhoek, and have the mechanic at the neighboring lodge replace it for me. See, the problem is… being out in the middle of nowhere… there are no parts. So no matter what, nothing can be done quickly (or inexpensively) since there are no parts within a couple hundred miles. I left the car with Thys, checked that the mechanic would be available for Tuesday or Wednesday (if could get the part to him by then), and we loaded into the Land Rover with Ali and Michael and were on our way. Important to note: I didn’t actually talk to the mechanic because he was out, but the lady at the lodge ensured me he could do it.

About 20 minutes from our lodge, we stopped at their lodge. Apparently they were late for some kind of car club meeting. So the next thing we know, we’re sitting in on this meeting, all spoken in German, but we amused ourselves by watching a live edition of meercat manor behind the lodge. After the meeting, we waited a few minutes to leave, Ali brought us Coke Lights, and we loaded up with Michael for the ride back. He said his leader was very angry with them for being late, but he straightened everything out. We felt even worse for taking up their time and making them get in trouble. We thanked them and apologized multiple times. They continued to refuse any offer of money to pay for their time and petrol. The two of them will be coming back through Windhoek next week before heading back to Germany, so we’re hoping they’ll call us because we offered to take them out for a delicious dinner… it’s the least we can do!

Oh, and I left out one funny part… when we arrived at the Engen station and were waiting to leave with Ali and Michael, we noticed that Ali was randomly putting stickers on my car. A big racing type sticker on my front hood, and a bumper sticker for Michael’s off-road company on the back window. I don’t know what in the world that was all about, and us ladies got a huge laugh out of the fact that he didn’t ask, he just did it. So, I’m going to have to figure out how to get that big one off the hood without ripping the paint off. The joys never end!

Back at the lodge, we let Walter (the owner of the lodge) know that we wouldn’t be eating dinner there that night. We weren’t really hungry and knew it would be way too much food. We did, however, want to go up on the hill and watch the sunset. A popular event for all who stay at the lodge. Cindy and Linda had already walked back to the house while Kitty and I waited to talk to Walter. As we left the lodge towards the house, Bokkie was eating grass out front. We played with her for a while. She was especially frisky and kept trying to ram my leg. I found it endearing. We walked with us and another couple towards the house and sunset hill. The other couple wasn’t so fond of Bokkie. They were quite timid, and I can’t really blame them. She’s still a wild animal I guess, and even with the rubber on the tips of her horns, I’m sure a ramming in the wrong spot could be pretty painful. So we kept her near to us. Springbok are so fast! They also hop around with all four legs straight and coming off the ground simultaneously. It’s so entertaining! I managed to get a pretty good video of her hopping around.

I don’t think I’ve said this yet, but Bokkie was my absolute favorite part of the lodge. I really enjoyed walking with her, talking to her, petting her (although she doesn’t really like to be touched) and just watching and taking pictures of her. Kitty and I got to the split where you could either go to the sunset hill or to our house. Bokkie started to follow the couple heading for the sunset, but we called her towards us and after pausing a moment, she followed us. I felt very special. :) She happily grazed in front of our house until we were ready to walk to the hill, and then she happily walked with us to the hill. I got some amazing photos of her with the sunset in the background. I took way too many pictures of her actually, but I tend to be obsessive with my photo-taking if you haven’t noticed already.

After the sunset we enjoyed another fun game of Phase 10. Kitty whooped our tails (Cindy won the night before), and it was off to bed. We were all pretty exhausted by this time. Kitty discovered the biggest spider I’ve ever seen in our bathroom! We both screamed and Linda came in and killed it. She’s so fearless and I love her! (Though she admits she does not do snakes.) Then, not one minute later we hear, “Come here! I found another spider. This one is even bigger!” I’m terrified of spiders, but was still very curious. I couldn’t believe a spider any bigger than the one we’d just sent down the tube. But indeed, it was even bigger! Yikes!! Again, without blinking an eye, Linda killed it. I went back to the bedroom, pulled my bed as far from the wall as possible, and finally managed to go to sleep!

Speaking of screaming, I forgot to mention one other funny detail. When we first checked into the house, the power was off. I went down and told Walter’s wife and she got it working again. Later that night, while playing Phase 10, it went out. It was 10pm so it was pitch black. I wasn’t about to walk down and tell them to switch it back on. So I got a flashlight and started signaling through the distance to the lodge. I added a “HEY!” and “Power’s out!!” While I was shining the flashlight up and down, a bat flew into my light, not 6 inches from my face. I screamed. It was scary and hilarious all at the same time. Within a few minutes, they switched the power back on for us. Around 5:30 that morning, I heard the power go off again. I got up and tried to flip the breaker. No luck. Even though it was getting light outside, I tried the flashlight trick out the bedroom window. Nothing happened so I just went back to sleep. About an hour later the power came back on. At breakfast Walter was smiling and said he saw our signal. In his great German accent he said, “I saw that the ship was going down!” He actually had to go “to town” get something to fix the breaker, and that was why there was a delay in getting it going again. So I felt good about myself. I felt I’d saved the day, because without my signal, the power would have come on even later, creating a problem for many of the guests. The first two times, it was only our house without power, but that morning it was the entire property. I’m so resourceful! :) I get that from my dad.

Walter gave us a ride in his safari vehicle to the service station where we were to get a ride back to Windhoek. Unfortunately it was freezing cold that morning and we nearly froze to death the 7km to the service station! It was miserable. I was the only one that even had half of a jacket. The combi (taxi van you could call it) never showed. So we pleaded our case to a tour company from Windhoek. The driver finally agreed to drive us back. There were only 3 other passengers, so plenty of room for us.

It’s good to be back in Windhoek, but of course the “fun” is not over. My car is still four hours away, in a town in the middle of nowhere. I bought a clutch today for N$2550 (around $340 US). After I bought the clutch, I got a call from the “mechanic” in Sessreim. Apparently he’s more of a welder and cannot repair a clutch. And… since my car is in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE… there are no other qualified mechanics with proper tools anywhere around. Seems to be that I’m left with Thys option #1, having my car towed back to Windhoek. That will cost me around $700 US. So adding that to my grand total so far (not counting what it will cost to replace the clutch), I’m up to around $1,256 US. Remember my request to the ladies to keep this trip under the cost to go to the Himba village? Well, I’ve surpassed that figure by about $1,123...

In hindsight, I would have rather have stayed home. And right now, I really really want to GO HOME! But… to look on the bright side… I really enjoyed spending time with my girlfriends. The lodge was fantastic. The scenery was incredible. I got some once-in-a-lifetime photos. And God sent us angels at every moment of need. I will just continue to trust Him to sort out the issue of retrieving my car and finding a way to pay for all of these unexpected expenses.

I will never again drive in loose sand. Never.