5000 km throught Namiba and Botswana

November 1998 - January 1999

In two and a half months, we traveled 5000 km through Namibia and Botswana. The idea was to get to know the huge variety of landscape and vegetation zones in the two countries. Starting in Windhoek, we first traveled east to Botswana. There we mainly only visited the Okavango Delta and continued our tour north to the Caprivi Region of Namibia. From the Caprivi Strip we traveled to Grootfontein, the Hoba Meteorite and the Waterberg Plateau. There we did some hiking and then continued to Khorixas via Otjiwarongo, and Outjo. From Khorixas, we took the gravel road to the Skeleton Coast and down to Swakopmund. From Swakopmund we again rode inland to visit Spitzkoppe and the Ameib Ranch. From Usakos we traveled back to Windhoek via Karibib and Okahandja. Back in Windhoek, we took the train (over night) to travel south to Keetmanshoop.


Namibia/Botswana 1998 on a bigger map

By taking the train we saved a lot of time we would have had to spend on a straight paved road with a lot of truck traffic. In Keetmanshoop we visited the Quilvertree forest and the rode on the the Fish River Canyon. From there we took the gravel road to Noordoewer at the South African boarder. From Noordoewer we took a small gravel road along the Orange River to Rosh Pinah. These 160 km along the river were among the nicest impressions we got during the trip. From Rosh Pinah we again traveled north to the town of Aus. From there we rode back to Windhoek taking the sand-gravel-road along the Namib Desert via Helmeringhausen, Sesriem, and Solitaire.Before reaching Windhoek we had to cross the Gamsberg Pass, the road leading to it definitely was the worst we rode on. After two and one half months we were back to civilization...

On these 5000 km the Rohloff SpeedHub was an excellent substitute for the regular derailleur shifting system. Shifting during standing (when stuck in the sand and at steep hills) was an excellent function during this extreme tour. For sure, the SpeedHub is going to join us on further tours.