Firstly I need to apologise for not updating this blog sooner. The reason for this is that not long after the last post the Van broke down and stayed that way for weeks. That pretty much destroyed my enthusiasm for a while.
But never fear I’m back at it and can’t wait to tell the story of what happened in detail.
But never fear I’m back at it and can’t wait to tell the story of what happened in detail.
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Before we even left the fish river we noticed that the van had lost power, she just wasn’t pulling right and our top speed was greatly reduced. We stopped in a little town called Keetmanshoop in Southern Namibia to see what the problem was. The mechanic quickly figured out that the air filter cover had broken and the engine was sucking in loads of sand, dust and small rocks through the carburettor. This was bad news, it meant that for the last few days all kinds of nasty stuff had been pulled into the engine. In hindsight what we should have done was drop the sump, drain all of the old oil away and completely flush the engine before we moved off again. The thing is non of us are mechanics and didn’t realise just how bad this little problem was to become. It was a piece of ignorance that was going to cost us dearly later on.
The work the mechanic did seemed to improve the engine performance somewhat but not fully. We pressed onto to Windhoek hoping it might sort itself out. Very Naïve and very stupid.
When we got to Windhoek we knew we couldn’t let it lay any longer, we had thousands of kilometres still to cover and we’d have been very stupid to carry on without getting it sorted.
You’d think this would be easy, you take the car to a mechanic they tell you whats wrong and how much it’ll cost, you agree, they sort it out and off you go.
Not in Windhoek, it just doesn’t work that way. I have to say that the people we met in Windhoek were the worst people I have ever had to deal with. They were unfriendly, unhelpful and would tell you bare faced lies just to make a quick buck. Outside the city it was a very different story, people were friendly, enthusiastic to meet you and loads of fun!
The work the mechanic did seemed to improve the engine performance somewhat but not fully. We pressed onto to Windhoek hoping it might sort itself out. Very Naïve and very stupid.
When we got to Windhoek we knew we couldn’t let it lay any longer, we had thousands of kilometres still to cover and we’d have been very stupid to carry on without getting it sorted.
You’d think this would be easy, you take the car to a mechanic they tell you whats wrong and how much it’ll cost, you agree, they sort it out and off you go.
Not in Windhoek, it just doesn’t work that way. I have to say that the people we met in Windhoek were the worst people I have ever had to deal with. They were unfriendly, unhelpful and would tell you bare faced lies just to make a quick buck. Outside the city it was a very different story, people were friendly, enthusiastic to meet you and loads of fun!
It took us half a day of phone calls just find a mechanic who was willing to take a look at our beloved van. He utterly wasted our time. He took one look at her, didn’t even open the engine bay and told us he had too many other jobs on and we’d have to go elsewhere. What a prick! Why didn’t he just say that over the phone? | 
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I’ve never really felt discriminated against but in Windhoek I did. We were 3 young dudes in an old hippy van and to the conservative people of Windhoek, we weren’t worth the time of day. There were a few exceptions, the people who run the Cardboard Box backpackers are awesome, the DJ’s at Radio Wave and a couple of ladies who ran a little take away were incredibly kind. Everyone else we dealt with in Windhoek can rot for all I care.
We must have stopped at half a dozen mechanics that morning and all of them either span us a bullshit line about what was wrong or just refused to help us. One big fat stinky grease covered oxygen thief tried to tell us it was the clutch and that he’d sort it out for us but at a big cost. I couldn’t handle this prick and lost my temper. He got told where to get off in a combination of Victorian royal navy and my best Mitchells Plain. He didn’t quite expect the violent tirade that flowed from my mouth and after my detailed comment about his mothers birth canal he turned his back and walked away. At that moment it was the last thing I was hoping he’d do. I was in a mood to bust his face and was just looking for the excuse to do it.
We eventually found a mechanic who after an incredible amount of begging agreed to fix the van.
The van has an engine modification, instead of running on the original air-cooled flat four engine it runs on a water cooled straight four. It’s a more modern engine with a greater output, better fuel economy and is less likely to blow in hot weather. In theory it’s a great modification however the work was carried out by bush mechanics in the old Transkei and there were plenty of things that they just botched or did poorly. One of things they botched was to put a plastic covering over the accelerator cable, the cable runs the length of the underside of the van. This plastic cover runs right next to the exhaust pipe at one point and the heat generated had melted the plastic and prevented the accelerator cable from moving correctly. It was an easy fix but an expensive one, the mechanic was the VW main dealer and not too keen on dealing with the van in the first place so they made us pay dearly for the help.
We must have stopped at half a dozen mechanics that morning and all of them either span us a bullshit line about what was wrong or just refused to help us. One big fat stinky grease covered oxygen thief tried to tell us it was the clutch and that he’d sort it out for us but at a big cost. I couldn’t handle this prick and lost my temper. He got told where to get off in a combination of Victorian royal navy and my best Mitchells Plain. He didn’t quite expect the violent tirade that flowed from my mouth and after my detailed comment about his mothers birth canal he turned his back and walked away. At that moment it was the last thing I was hoping he’d do. I was in a mood to bust his face and was just looking for the excuse to do it.
We eventually found a mechanic who after an incredible amount of begging agreed to fix the van.
The van has an engine modification, instead of running on the original air-cooled flat four engine it runs on a water cooled straight four. It’s a more modern engine with a greater output, better fuel economy and is less likely to blow in hot weather. In theory it’s a great modification however the work was carried out by bush mechanics in the old Transkei and there were plenty of things that they just botched or did poorly. One of things they botched was to put a plastic covering over the accelerator cable, the cable runs the length of the underside of the van. This plastic cover runs right next to the exhaust pipe at one point and the heat generated had melted the plastic and prevented the accelerator cable from moving correctly. It was an easy fix but an expensive one, the mechanic was the VW main dealer and not too keen on dealing with the van in the first place so they made us pay dearly for the help.
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A few hours later Ezan fetched the Van and it seemed to be running better than ever. Everyone was pleased to death. The van was running correctly and we could be on the road again.
Our original plan was to head from Windhoek to the Botswana border stopping in Ghanzi, the Makgadikgadi and the Okavango Delta before heading up to Vic Falls.
The problem with this was that the best information we had said that the Bots border post closed at 6pm and we weren’t going to make it that day. We had to get across the border that day in order to make our trip into the delta. That wasn’t going to happen it was just too far in too little time. We called the old bridge backpacker’s in Maun and rescheduled our trip for the following Monday, this meant we had a couple of days to kill.
Our options at this point were to either head west to Spitzkoppe and do some climbing or North to Ethosha and check out the wild life and the salt flats. After a powwow we all decided that we’d prefer to head north to Etosha and check out the salt flats there.
Great except that the info we had wasn’t reliable. We were told we could make it from Windhoek to Etosha in 4 hours. It’s just over 400 k’s so this should have made sense, but for some reason it didn’t work out that way for us. It took us more than 6 hours to get there. This meant that we arrived too late to do anything in the park that day and had to do the park and get to the Botswana border all in the following day. Remember that the best info we had said the border post closed at 6 pm. Turns out this information is wrong and the border posts are actually open much later!
We had about 1000 k’s to travel before 6pm the following day. We chatted through a few options and all agreed that we’d be up before sunrise to make sure we were the first vehicle through the gate in the morning. If we were on the road by 6.30am we figured we could cover the 1000 k’s in just under 12 hours if we pushed hard. The problem was that in the park the speed limit is strictly enforced and for good reason. You really don’t want to hit a Rhino or an Elephant at any speed let alone high speed. We had to average 100 k’s an hour for 10 hours. With the speed restriction in the park forcing you down to about 60 kmh we needed the full 12 hours without any delays at all.
Our original plan was to head from Windhoek to the Botswana border stopping in Ghanzi, the Makgadikgadi and the Okavango Delta before heading up to Vic Falls.
The problem with this was that the best information we had said that the Bots border post closed at 6pm and we weren’t going to make it that day. We had to get across the border that day in order to make our trip into the delta. That wasn’t going to happen it was just too far in too little time. We called the old bridge backpacker’s in Maun and rescheduled our trip for the following Monday, this meant we had a couple of days to kill.
Our options at this point were to either head west to Spitzkoppe and do some climbing or North to Ethosha and check out the wild life and the salt flats. After a powwow we all decided that we’d prefer to head north to Etosha and check out the salt flats there.
Great except that the info we had wasn’t reliable. We were told we could make it from Windhoek to Etosha in 4 hours. It’s just over 400 k’s so this should have made sense, but for some reason it didn’t work out that way for us. It took us more than 6 hours to get there. This meant that we arrived too late to do anything in the park that day and had to do the park and get to the Botswana border all in the following day. Remember that the best info we had said the border post closed at 6 pm. Turns out this information is wrong and the border posts are actually open much later!
We had about 1000 k’s to travel before 6pm the following day. We chatted through a few options and all agreed that we’d be up before sunrise to make sure we were the first vehicle through the gate in the morning. If we were on the road by 6.30am we figured we could cover the 1000 k’s in just under 12 hours if we pushed hard. The problem was that in the park the speed limit is strictly enforced and for good reason. You really don’t want to hit a Rhino or an Elephant at any speed let alone high speed. We had to average 100 k’s an hour for 10 hours. With the speed restriction in the park forcing you down to about 60 kmh we needed the full 12 hours without any delays at all.
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The plan was for me to take first shift behind the wheel while Ezan took photos of the animals as we drove. Then I’d sleep for a bit, while Ezan drove and we’d continue to swap driving and sleeping until we’d chased down the 1000 k’s. We spoke to a couple of over-landing guides and they thought we were nuts!! We knew it’d be hard but figured if we worked hard as a team we’d make it! For the first 400 k’s we made it!
I’ll let you know what happened next in my next post.
I just want say thanks to everyone who’s reading this for keeping patience with us and for all of the encouraging comments you sent us when we were down and out. It was those little comments that kept us going at times!
Next post coming soon, I promise!
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