I address you all tonight for who you truly are: wizards, mermaids, travelers, adventurers, and magicians. You are the true dreamers. - Brian Selznick

11 May 2019, Ondangwa to Oshikango, 61,6km
Piscas Motel N$400

The corpses of cars lie abandoned on verges and in fields and junk yards along the B1 north of Oshivelo. On many occasions over the last couple of days we have taken to the verge in self-defence, quite often our evasive action forced on us and not simply caution on our part. We have, of course, wondered if the numerous bars and shebeens that line the road contribute to the bad driving. Perhaps they do, but in the end we concluded that the percentage of stupid / careless / impatient drivers is probably the same as elsewhere in Namibia, only here, with far more cars on the road, the number of incidents escalates. When I am mulling this sort of question over, Charl likes to remind me to “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity”.
This morning the young woman who had served us breakfast, seeing us leave on the bikes, asked where we were headed today. We said: “Oshikango”. Eyes wide she asked: “With the bicycle?” We said we were going on to Angola. Eyes wider she asked: “With the bicycle?” We explained we had begun in Cape Town. Eyes with whites showing she asked: “With the bicycle?” I think by the time we mentioned our final destination, she no longer believed us, or merely thought we were nuts!
One barman from whom we bought a Coke and with whom we chatted while consuming it, wanted to know if we would “get a prize” when we reached our end destination.
It would have been a relatively easy run to the border town of Oshikango, but a relentless wind turned our ride into a dusty trial. Such a pity on our last day in Namibia.
Young Martha at our motel, like others before her, believes we are “too old” to be travelling still. In communities where life is hard, people age more quickly and at our age (62 and 69) are in fact “old” and have little health or funds for travel.

Punctures 3
Bribes paid 0 (zero requested)
Cycle tourers met 0
Total kms 1,796 

For today's route see below photos
For overview route, click on ROUTE tab above…

For South Africa (previous country), click HERE
For Angola (next country), click HERE 
For Africa overview, click HERE