Day 6: Swakopmund to Twyfelfontein

Cullinan says: 345 km / 214 mi, 6 hr
Google says: 332 km / 206 mi, 4 hr 21 min
Actual: 423 km / 263 mi, 7 hr (gravel roads 268 km / 167 mi)

Not quite sure why the distances are so far out today – but it was our biggest driving day. And it felt like it!

We left Swapokmund after breakfast at 9am and headed out on the tarmac road towards Henties Bay, which was probably the best road we’ve driven on so far. The first town we came to was Wlotzkasbaken, which appeared as if it was a mirage. Hundreds of brightly coloured buildings but, apparently, only 6 inhabitants.

We stopped in Henties Bay to get some water and snacks, and headed towards Uis. The tarmac stopped after half an hour, and we ended up on a gravel road which was like driving through a construction site – it might have been the worst one yet. After 30km of this we went on good gravel for the last 15km to Uis and we made it there at about 12pm.

Uis is the former home of the world’s largest tin mine and there were a few shops and cafes scattered about – we stopped for half an hour in the White Lady cafe which is a tourist cafe rather than a locals cafe, but still wasn’t too bad.

The C34 from Uis up to the C39 junction – about 100km – was another gravel challenge. Once we reached the C39 and headed to Khoraxis for our last stop did things improve, as we had 12km of very good tarmac road.

We filled up with diesel at Khoraxis but couldn’t seem to find anywhere to stop. About 20km further up the road we found Leddy’s Cafe (also known on Google Maps as the Petrified Forest cafe and the Arsenal FC toilets cafe!) The hosts Eddy and Letty were really nice and we sat and chatted for half an hour.

The last part of the journey was deceiving. It took an hour and a half – the gravel road didn’t seem too bad but there were a LOT of dips and a lot of these had been worn out by recent rains. We did get to see an elephant though, about 20 yards from the main road!

We finally made it to the acccommodation at around 5.30pm – Twyfelfontein Country Lodge is built into the rockface to blend in with the scenery. It looks like a very nice place but other than a bar and restaurant there’s very little to do here.