Friday 23 May 2014

Desert more desert and thick fog

Day 21 The first part of this day is only 1.21 km, we drive to a museum where we see the rock carvings of ancient man. Fascinating, its only 8.00am and its already very hot. 
We then drive across the desert to a place called Uis which is a mining town. This was only a shortish distance of 142 Km but it was a real problem for some of the bigger engined cars. There should have been petrol at Twyfelfontein but there wasn’t. This meant that the big cars just could not get to the next petrol stop, many ran out but with the help of other competitors and Greg and Jenny in their 4x4 everyone was able to beg, borrow and steal enough petrol to get to Uis and the next petrol stop.
In Uis there was an amazing cafe called the Coffee and Cactus a truly beautiful establishment with fantastic coffee and cakes all in the middle of nowhere.
We have two time trials today both of which Molly and her ever so slightly knackered driver and navigator managed to clear, that means no penalty points Hurrah !!
The day finished at the coast in Swakopmund. This is a relatively big town and right on the Atlantic coast. The desert meets the Atlantic and this stretch of coast is know as the Skeleton Coast because of all the shipwrecks caused in bad weather.
The temperature dropped from about 35 to 10 in a matter of a few km, very refreshing but actually a bit too cold. We even have to put the heater on in Molly.
Some very bad news today, Andrew and Gina have had to call it a day, the Crossley has terminal mechanical problems and can be driven no further. The car and crew have done remarkable well to get this far. Lets hope Andrew and Gina can hire a car to finish the trip.
Molly's still going but the petrol is giving us problems. We have just realised that the higher the grade the worse the actual petrol. To get a higher grade someone adds all sorts of chemicals (ethanol) and in these very high temperatures this evaporates before it gets to the engine and causes the car to misfire a lot.
Never mind we carry on and enjoy the journey.
The anticipated weight lose in these high temperatures is definitely not going to plan. The food and odd glass of wine has been exceptional and a little too freely available. Think some serious work in the gym will be needed when we get back. Well that’s what we say now.

Day 22
Off into the desert again past huge sand dunes to a place called Solitaire. The scenery on this drive starts as one long dead straight road straight through the middle of the desert. At 9.00 its damn hot and we try to keep Molly cool by dropping our speed and just cruise along at about 90kph. Suddenly the landscape changes into one of breathtaking beauty. Mountains, sand coloured grasses, blue skies and fluffy white clouds in all directions. The road suddenly turns into a gravel based Alpine road with stunning views at each turn, we have never seen landscape like before. There was meant to be a time trial today. Luckily it was cancelled due to road works. I say luckily because it gave us the chance to really see this amazing countryside and stop and take pictures as we passed the Line of Capricorn. 
We arrive at Solitaire and unfortunately my mechanic demon comes out to play and I decide it would be a good idea to air hose the engine bay and get all the sand out of it.
I finish doing a really professional job, go to start the car and no matter what I do Molly will not start. This is very serious for two reasons 1 we can’t go any further and 2 I may need to get help from the mechanics and lose the battle to see which car can go the furthest without their help.
I chat through what I have done with Rob (one of the mechanics) who suggests I look in the distributor and see if I have blasted dust into it.Once I have identified what a distributor is I take the cap off and find the desert in there. I give it a clean and another gentle blast with the air gun and lo and behold Molly starts and we are back in business, still untouched by a mechanic. I am now beginning to consider myself quite a bush mechanic, I changed a brake light on the South America rally, changed a petrol filter, tightened the exhaust and now fixed a distributor. Think that all deserves a beer.
Bit of a problem for one of the other cars today, the Jeepster driven by Ernie and Jeanne had a spindle give way and their wheel came off. They are OK and hopefully they can trailer the car back to town and get it fixed. It gives you an idea how hard these roads are if a Jeepster has this sort of problem.
We really like Namibia, full of contrast and lovely people. 
Sorry again for lack of pictures. The internet in the middle of the desert is a bit slow :)

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