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Way back in April we’d heard of a tour run out of Luderitz into the dunes of the Namib, through the forbidden diamond area north of the city. A fitting end to the trip we decided and booked up. We turned up at Coastway Tours and they took one look at our bashed up, lived in and decidedly worse for wear Landies and wondered what on earth they’d agreed to do.

Cape Town - 4th July 2001

Pam.tom
2005-10-15 19:07:44

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Way back in April we’d heard of a tour run out of Luderitz into the dunes of the Namib, through the forbidden diamond area north of the city. A fitting end to the trip we decided and booked up. We turned up at Coastway Tours and they took one look at our bashed up, lived in and decidedly worse for wear Landies and wondered what on earth they’d agreed to do.
25km out of town we turned off onto a dirt road and into the world’s oldest desert - the Namib. With our tyre's lowered until they looked flat we hit the dunes almost immediately. “Go faster…go faster” our guide Lufie screamed down the two-way radio as Russell slipped sideways down a dune. It took a real leap of faith to follow the advice but it worked. Traveling faster over the sand gives the car less time to slide. We passed remains of diamond mining – rusty machinery rotting away under the glare of the sun and abandoned shacks where the miners who made overnight fortunes lived.
With some very hairy moments and a lot of digging, pushing, pulling and towing we finally made it to camp feeling very pleased with ourselves. “It wasn’t getting here that I was worried about,” said Lufie with a sigh “it’s getting you out again.” The next day we toured ghost towns where the sand was slowly reclaiming the buildings, shipwrecks now the home to thousands of seals and collected black mussels on the beach for our supper. The driving was amazing – launching ourselves of the top of mountainous dunes and hurtling down pristine beaches.
Lufie was right we nearly didn’t make it back – the slip faces of the dunes towered above us and it was only with a lot of luck that Russell didn’t end up being another piece of rusting machinery in the dunes.
Back on tarmac we decided we’d pushed our luck enough over the past three days and decided a Saturday night out in Cape Town was on the cards. After another marathon drive we pulled into the city at 9 in the morning. After 8 months on the road, driving more than 50 thousand km through 22 different countries we felt like celebrating. As we cracked open the bottle of champagne on Table Mountain we really did feel on top of the world! .