Blowhole at the waterfront of Xcaret Park near Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Toluca on December 24th!

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Yee-haw, what a drive!

We've done a lot of road trips. And so we've been on a lot of roads, and some of them have been a little hairy!

Well, we finally got ourselves onto a road in Namibia that was pretty interesting. As in very steep!

We were doing the drive from Windhoek to the Namib Desert Lodge. looking at the map with our couchsurfing host Willa, she says "oh, this is an interesting route...and what a view!".

Well that certainly piqued our interest. Besides, it looked like the most direct route anyhow, except that it was all on dirt roads.

So off we went.
Here's our route. 256 kms (159 miles), almost all of it on dirt roads!

Only a few kms out of Windhoek, the road turned to gravel.

Things started out with no problem. Beautiful day, and a little cooler as we actually drive with the windows open. It would warm up though...we're headed for the desert!

Here's our Daihitsu 4x4 from Namibia Car Rental.

Turned a corner and saw this sign. Good thing we weren't driving our motorhome. Sherman would not have liked this road!

Again, it started off okay.

And then we rounded a corner and saw this magnificent view!

And, we saw the road down!

We stopped and had a bite to eat before heading down. Check out that guy's house. What a view he's got!

Heading down Spreetshoogte Pass. Did almost the whole thing in first gear to save the brakes!

Besides, the speed limit is only 20 km/h (13 mph)! Ruth took a video of part of the drive down, but again, it will have to wait until we have much better internet to upload it for you to view. Some day, we'll get around to doing that.

Looking back. I'm sure that's the steepest road I've ever taken down.

At the bottom, it was nice and flat. And much warmer!

We pulled in to Namib Desert Lodge. We're going to tell you more about it in another post, but here's a preview!

A rosy cheeked lovebird. He was sitting in the tree outside of our room.

And this is the view from our front porch!


12 comments:

  1. I had down grades with a passion, almost get physically ill. the view from your porch almost looks like Arizona. Be safe.

    ReplyDelete
  2. And where the heck are you getting this internet signal? Neat countryside.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Just wondering if that guy's house is his home or a vacation home? Love the view and no neighbors. It does remind me of AZ, too!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wild ride:) I cannot help but wonder what passes for road service there?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sure does look like a wild ride, glad you made it safely!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Whew - I'm glad it wasn't my car but it looks like the beauty at the end was definitely worth the ride! That's SOME view!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wonder what it must be like to drive that road in the snow??? ;c)

    ReplyDelete
  8. I wonder who lives in that house? Looks like it's in the middle of nowhere! Imagine the night sky!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Love those kinds of roads. I went out of my way to drive mountain passes in South Africa. Sure hope I can make it up that far on this visit.

    ReplyDelete
  10. The rosy cheeked love birds look a lot like the Lorikeets in Queensland Australia and they wake us up every morning around 4:30. Beautiful birds but very noisy

    ReplyDelete

There are more comments on our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TravelwithKevinAndRuth

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.