Ready to move from Ai Ais towards the South African Border the team discovered that Lipsticks right hand back tyre is flat and all attempts to pump it up fail. The spare tyre cannot be retrieved as the hole to attach the nut for the lowering of the tyre is solidly blocked….by red African mud…
With Lipsticks luck there is a mechanic workshop 60m away from the chalet where it is parked and a friendly mechanic proceeds to have the tyre repaired whilst team Lipstick is having breakfast. What a relief!
After breakfast Lipstick is again standing on 4 fully inflated tyres and can be driven to the close by repair shop where the mechanism for the lowering of the spare wheel is properly cleaned by means of water and an airgun. The spare wheel is then properly pumped up (it only showed 1.4 bars) and all other tyres are also properly pumped to 2.3 bars. This was the first flat tyre of Lipstick during the road up north in 2011 and since starting the road down south in 2014. And itnow happened at the wrong time at the right place.
So off towards the great Fish River Canyon which is indeed a great site to see:
The Fish River is Namibia’s biggest river but runs almost dry by September . Hikers can be seen in big groups as they attempt to walk from Hobas ( 70km north of Ai-Ais) back down to Ai=Ais and the normal group does this in 5 Days.
Lipsticks brakes are still working – a few more meters and the canyon would have swallowed the car
The rocky mountains of Africa…
One day hikes are not allowed – great pity
Team Lipstick unfortunately does not have this amount of time on hand and so decided against the hike
Of towards Gruenau with a stop at a nice roadhouse for Coffee (Irish) and towards the South African Border.
Shortly after Kalkau a road sign appeared of the Kleinbegin Guest house and a turn to the left and 5km onwards the team was welcomed by the Farmer’s wife and offered a nice chalet to stay over.
Kindly enough she also defrosted 3 big T-Bone steaks and the team lit a fire and had a great steak with J&B and Baronne as vegetable substitutes..
Great Braai on a farm in Namibia
The next morning 2 farm labourers were employed to give Lipstick a makeover and the 2 guys did a great Job cleaning and polishing Lipstick both on the outside as well as from the inside.
De-dusting and polishing of Lipstick
With a great looking Lipstick the border between Namibia and South Africa was reached shortly before noon time and the procedures were painless and smooth and not to be compared with other border crossings up north on the West Coast of Africa.
…the bucket list gets ticked off – whats next Russia? South America ? …. Wait and see……………….
From there another 550km until Kimberley where Lipstick was parked right next to the big Hole in the parking ground of the Protea Hotel.
The team went to a local steakhouse and celebrated their return to South Africa grounds and are looking forward to reach East London the next day as previously planned on the 8th of August 2014.
The famous “Halfway House Pub”of Kimberley Barnato , Rhodes ,Andre and Willy drank there already…
… and in 2014 lipstick parked at this institutions and team Lipstick salutes the great men of times gone past……………..
