Riverbeds and Craters
The Road Chose Me Volume 2 OUT NOW!!
The Road Chose Me Volume 2: Three years and 54,000 miles around Africa
With the titan and the extra 5 gallon container full to the brim, we strike out and drive along dry riverbeds recommended to us by locals, aiming directly for coast. Because water is scarce, all the animals eventually come to the dry riverbeds because of their occasional small pools of water. These are the best places for wild animal sightings, we’re told.
Actual water in a river! It didn’t last long
Campsite showing the shower hanging off the J30 roof
The riverbed in the foreground
The landscape is stunning, and the varied terrain keeps me concentrating hard. The surface constantly changes from deep sand to mud to rocks and back to deep sand – in the space of a few hundred yards.
I am utterly speechless when we round a bend to see a herd of wild elephants clustered under a tree seeking the shade. I am in awe of their bulk and how easily they move around in spite of it. I feel so happy to be out here with completely wild elephants – they’re not fenced in and this is not even a National Park.
They just live out here.
Elephants on the side of the riverbed
How close? close.
We continue on for many days and nights, traversing riverbeds and finally across into the lower section of the Namib Desert.
Aiming directly for the coast we drop into the mighty Messum Crater, extremely beautiful and unbelievably remote and rugged.
There is nobody out here
The extremely barren desert
Looking into Messum Crater
Across Messum Crater
As we near the coast, the temperate plummets.
It’s freezing here!
Another wild camp
-Dan
Will have to look up this crater! I’m wondering if it’s volcanic or extraterrestrial in origin. Stay safe and keep it up!
To be honest Anthony, I have no idea!
-Dan
That’s so remote. If you had a mechanical failure, how long do you think you’d have to wait or walk to get help?
Hi James,
That’s a great question. Because of the heat I would probably sit still for a few days and hope for a passing vehicle. If that failed, I would walk at night, rest during the day. Hopefully only a few days of walking…. not certain.
-Dan