First time off road in Namibia

Namibia is a large country, despite what some of its inhabitants think of it, and that means travelling tourists. Both a large number of tourists, and a lot of distance to cover.

Today, we have to travel about 350kms from Windhoek to Sesriem, which is the gateway to Sossusvlei. Of that 330kms, only a small portion is tarred, and the rest would qualify as off road. It’s the first big test for our Renault (Dacia) Duster, whose name seems a lot more appropriate over here than it does back home. 🙂

With an estimated average speed of about 50km/h, it would take us about 7 hours to go there, so we had an early breakfast. As Sesriem is pretty far from everything, it also does not have a supermarket, so we went shopping in Windhoek for water, soda, fruit and lunch. Packing 15 litres of water, some lovely bread and apples, we embarked on our maiden voyage in daylight in Namibia. And it was great!

Scenic views around every single bend of the windy road, 75km of tarred road and the rest untarred, it lead us through vast ranges of emptiness, with only very scarcely dotted houses and villages. And only 3 gas stations. Luckily, we drive a diesel, so we’re good for about 850kms. 😉 

Tomorrow, another very early start as we will go to Sossusvlei National Park. They say it’s at its best right after sunset, so we’ll try to get there by that time.