Good Luck Turns Expensive - Namibia

As we travel North through Namibia, we are slowly encountering more people one the road. Namibia has an interesting road system. There are 3 types of roads. B roads, which are tarred(around 5). C roads which are gravel, but hard packed. And D roads, these you really shouldn’t drive on unless you have a good 4 wheel drive car. That’s it, nothing more.

After 4 days in Namibia we encountered some small crowds at Namibia’s #1 tourist destination, the Namib Sand Dunes. This 32,000 sq kilometer sand sea contains the worlds oldest and highest dunes, and more importantly, Sossusvlei the most assessable of these. We rolled up to the national park once again hoping in wouldn’t be full, only to find they had camping available and even better yet the Namibia Wildlife Resorts were charging half price until the end of March. Excellent we thought. Then they told us the cost, the equivalent of 30 USD a night to camp plus 17USD to get into the park. Pricey, and that was half off!!!!!! We were told from multiple people in SA that we had to see Sossusvlei at sunrise and the only way to do that is to stay inside the park, so we grudgingly paid and we were rewarded The camp site was pretty impressive and we awoke the next morning at 5:30am to see the sunrise. After an hour drive out with some crazy sand off-roading and a 25 minute hike, we arrived to magnificent views of sand for days with the sun rising and the reflecting colors of the sand changing.

After our hike down the dunes it was back to break camp and head back out onto the gravel. About an hour out into our drive we heard a loud “ping/pssffff”. First thought was, “that was an odd sound” immediately followed by “that odd sound sounded like a tire blow out”. A quick stop and glance out the window by Colleen confirmed our thoughts. As we changed the tire in the dust and dirt of the gravel road our mood was almost upbeat. We had made it 5000+ kilometers on mostly unpaved roads and this was our first incident with the rental car. Immediately it was evident the flat was a sidewall blowout and the tire was not patchable and would need to be replaced. We had a quick tire change with the full size spare and we were on again on our way.

We arrived in our much anticipated destination of Swakopmund early that afternoon. It had been nearly a week since we entered a city of any notable size and we were immediately energized to see a Pick & Pay Supermarket and multiple choices of accommodation. We settled on a low key backpackers that had camping available for $15 USD and headed out into town to get some much needed supplies and do some tire browsing.

Swakopmund is one of the largest cities in Namibia with 25,000 people. The local economy is heavily weighted toward tourism feeding off the German heritage and architecture of years gone by. Given the large size relative to most Namibian towns, it is a center of commerce and offers internet, multiple supermarkets, a small shopping mall and even a beach with a light house. Out first task was to hit up the supermarket and some internet followed by some hand laundry and tire shopping.

And so the great tire odyssey began…Swakopmund has three main tire shops. The first was the name brand tire shop that we needed but required one week to get the tire and at a cost of $280 USD. The second shop had claimed to have the tire in stock but quoted the price at $365. The third and final shop actually had the tire currently in stock (turns out the second shop was actually buying from the third) at a cost of $290. Who knew spare tires cost so much in Namibia? Turns out the Land Rover Discovery 3 that we are driving is the only model using a 27035R17 tire and not too many people in Namibia drive Land Rovers. After a quick couple calls to tire shops in the capital city of Windhoek 4 hours away and no leads, we settled on biting the bullet and going with the third shop. We figured we could gamble and look more but the one shop actually having the tire in stock could sell the one it had and the thought of having another blowout on a dusty Namibian road with no spare was not too appealing!

We spent 3 days in Swakopmund walking the beach, catching up on to-do’s, drinking happy hour pints of AfriBeer(a new beer that was on special) and recharging out batteries. We are currently in the capitol city of Windhoek, a relativity new town, with nice shopping and sights. We are spending a few days here before we head into Botswana. After much debate we have decided to take the Trans-Kalahari highway through Botswana and back to South Africa. We are reluctantly skipping out on the highly popular Etosha NP and the Okavango Delta to the North. We are saving our money to spend on a safari in Tanzania and hope we will be back to this beautiful and intriguing country again in the future.