NAMIBIA - Adventures in Driving

"How big is your fuel tank?"  

Ok, when this is the first question that a girl asks you after you ask for desert driving advice, you know that you're talking to the right person!
"100 litres"
"You'll be fine. The gas stations, here, here and here reliably have fuel. This one doesn't always have fuel - my brother was stuck there once for three days!"
Kayla, the receptionist at our hotel in Windhoek, knew what she was talking about. The two  young German engineering students who were in line in front of us at the Hertz counter did not!
"The roads are not paved! They are terrible! It will take you forever to get anywhere!"
Well, the roads are not paved - by the end of our trip, we will have driven about 2,000 km on gravel - but most of them are excellent. We could usually do 120 kph but there were often twisty sections where we slowed to 60. 

The scenery of Namibia is astounding, and driving is really the only way to see most of it. 

You do have to plan ahead a bit - even though we were on relatively major roads and on the typical tourist circuit, we could go hours without seeing another vehicles. We bought four big jugs of water and we filled up at every station that we passed. 

Some of them looked like scenes from the old Mel Gibson Mad Max movies. 

At one little hole in the wall in the middle of no where, I commented on how hot it was (42C). 
"Mon, you just need to hangout in the sun a little more. Then you get nice a black like me!", responded the rotund station attendant. 

Along the road side women had little curio souvenir) shops. They were dreesed in tradional costumes. Some people still dress in Victorian Dress wearing lacey full length Victiorian gown with frily hats. 

The others a complete contrst, Kalahari Bushwomen with very little on.

Two pieces of advice that we could not follow:
Carry two spares ( rental only came with one)

NEVER get out of your vehicle in a national park - sound advice, but how do you change a blown out tire if you don't get out of the car? The roads in the national parks varied between good and truly awful. I figured they were natural speed bumps. Suddenly, our car started making even more noise than usual. I was only doing 50 kph, but by the time I coasted to a stop the tire was shredded. When I looked at it, it appeared that a previous renter had almost ripped the interior sidewall out of the tire. Time and heat resulted in the blow out. 

Not sure if all Toyotas have the same system, but the spare on our SUV was attached to the vehicle with a taut chain. Several minutes of head scratching preceded the realization that the jack crank could be inserted through a small hole in the bumper to crank down the chain and liberate the spare. As Steve hoisted the vehicle and replaced the blown tire, Jackie kept a conscientious watch for wildlife. We saw 6 lions and a leopard in the next three days - glad that she didn't spot any of them while we had the flat!

The National Parks are copletely surrounded by fencing to keep the livestock out and the wild animals in. To keep yuo safe while lunching or using the facilities the privide a gated enclosure for your safety. Kind of feels like being in the human zoo, but it made bathroom stops way more relaxing 

Overall, our driving experience in Namibia has been fantastic! It has been great to have the freedom to go where and when we please, and it is a very safe and organized country.