15 hours, 15 minutes, 500 kilometers (300 miles)

The map is not the terrain, dummy.

It started out as such a peaceful and enjoyable day and quickly descendent into one of the hardest rides of my life. Although the salt road makes it to the top of many lists (https://www.dangerousroads.org/africa/namibia/4801-skeleton-coast-road-c34.html) this was nothing compared to the one in Bolivia – remember, Alex? The hardest part would come much later for the idiot (myself) who decided to cut back across the desert.

Daily Diary

BTW, it’s the Skeleton Coast you moron. That’s what 3 hours of sleep does to your brain.

Had a tiny banana and some tea for breakfast and got on the road….

Salt road was nice, actually!

Yeah, nothing could prepare me.

Started tracking range for some reason, like I had an innate fear of what was coming.

Ok, just enjoy the ride with me, this one in 4k!

Hyena!

Skeleton Coast

Old, well not too old, shipwreck.

Did some metal detecting nearby, came up with nothing.

On to the C39

I departed the Skeleton Coast salt road because I had to continue on my route towards Angola.

Ostriches

Leaving Skeleton Coast National Park

Oldest Plant in Existence?

Got my pic with Welwitschia Mirabilis. I am a new man.

Ride into the Unknown.

Sun starting to set.

Nightrider?

To make a long story short, that was a 15 hour and 30 minute ride from start to finish. In the end, I ended up dumping my bike in the “parking lot” because I rolled over a large boulder and it kicked my rear tire out. Absolutely typical. Make it 500kms without a single dump (100 oh-shit moments for sure), and my legs just didn’t care. No worries, it was more of laying my bike to rest than a hard dump.

It was 2AM before I made it to bed, had to be up at 8AM for packing and departure. I didn’t want a repeat of the day’s ride.