AfriCar

Happy new year 2026! For the first time in our adult lives we slept through New Year’s Eve. Thankfully there is no big time difference to adjust to and we just need to shake off the 10 hour flight. We have set ourselves an ambitious goal to start off: Four days to the coast on a gravel road with no opportunity to resupply and very few points to get drinking water. We will be wild camping every night and are thus carrying a lot of extra water weight.

After a frantic packing session, dropping off some European goodies for Ellie (another cyclist), going shopping and fixing an issue with Lina’s bike we finally set off… way too late! It’s supposed to be an easy day to get back into the rhythm: 30km on tar and 30 on gravel. No biggie even in the midday heat. Or so we thought. We quickly conquer the biggest elevation gain on the tar road. The surroundings are greener than expected. New grass and yellow flowers cover the rocky earth. Apparently Windhoek has had lots of rain over Christmas.

Then, with our signature can-doesville-babydoll attitude we hit the gravel road. At this point it’s 3:30pm and the heat is scorching. Our average speed drops to about 7km/h. On the uphills desert slugs overtake us. Even the downhills aren’t much faster since the gravel is often loose and we risk slipping if we’re too fast. We suspect that some confidence would go a long way here, but that’s not really our style. At 6:30pm we have to call it quits for the day. Our daily goal is still 8km away but by that time the sun will have set.

We spend the evening facing up to the hard truth that we’re not really fit/tough enough to do four to five days of 10+ hours of riding. There are people who cycle the entire way in 24h, but they have better bikes, no luggage and support vehicles. In addition Namibians have steel reinforcing their muscles, while for us it’s Nutella. In any case we have to tuck that tail in between our legs and cycle back to Windhoek the way we came.

Thus one plan fails and we have to figure out something else to see the sights west of Windhoek. After contacting different rental companies all weekend we finally sort out a car for Monday morning. We are going with AfriCar since this is the best rental company pun we’ve seen so far. Also they were the only ones who answered on a weekend. The employee implores us to “never swerve for animals or people on the road” since our insurance wouldn’t cover the resulting damages. We make a mental note to always run over people and off we go.

The kilometers almost fly by as soon as our Toyota Hilux gets going. In a flash we’ve covered a distance that would have taken us at least three days on the bikes. Everyone around us is speeding and prone to risky overtaking maneuvers. Yet a speeding ticket would be doubly as expensive for us as for the locals. So we have to strike a delicate balance between lawful and safe driving. In the end we settle for “just fast enough to get a ticket and just slow enough to piss off the other drivers”.

At first we are relieved to turn off onto the gravel road leading to our first stop Spitzkoppe. Then the car starts sliding around on the corrugated sand track. Lina gets quite sweaty hands from reigning in the bucking bronco and we begin to think that we’re not just fair road cyclists, but also drivers. The landscape gets drier and drier. Rocks poke their noses out of the sand every now and then and in the distance the massive granite boulders of Spitzkoppe come into view.

The afternoon is quickly whiled away by clambering over the red boulders of Spitzkoppe. Ben makes a start on his new sketchbook and Lina identifies birds with our new binoculars. We set up the tent under a sky with a generous sprinkling of stars. The next morning we head down to the coast. The gravel feels easier to handle today and Lina has headspace to marvel at the hills pretending to be clouds by floating on heat mirages. The eerie effect almost completely obscures the Atlantic Ocean.

All along the coast we are overtaken by eager fishing enthusiasts. To identify themselves as such, they mount their fishing rods on the front bumpers of their 4x4s forming a sort of trident shape. We drive past salt mines where the mining process has formed pink lakes and rivers. In suspicious proximity we find flamingoes on holiday. On the sand dunes by the sea we spot a caravan of camels probably bound for Cairo or Marrakech (or just around the next dune and back since it’s a tourist gimmick).

Our visit to a seal colony at Cape Cross (“discovered 6685 years after the creation of the world”) is quite a sensory overload. Thousands of fur seals and their young pups flap about on the rocky beach and in the surf. We are overwhelmed by all the cuteness, but also by their struggle. Mothers are crying for their pups and vice versa. Lots of grunts, snores, nose clearing and yawning. The noise is deafening. Here and there we see dying or dead seals in various stages of decay. It’s the circle of life in all its forms, beautiful, sad and especially smelly.

We make the most of the touristy towns and go for lots of nice meals and artisan coffee. We stroll along the harbour fronts and try to evade the curio sellers. After a little scare about Lina’s missing phone (not stolen, just forgotten in the car) we head onwards and towards Windhoek again. One last sunset at a beautiful rock formation in the desert and a long drive later we are back in town. The damage report lists two dead birds and one bit of missing plastic that will cost us €125. Not too bad all things considered.