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Trailer Troubles
The fact that our offside trailer wheel was going faster than the Landrover struck me as somewhat strange, particular as it was supposed to be attached to the axle and supporting 1500 kilos of metal!
Whilst executing an unplanned emergency stop I watched, fascinated, as the wheel left the road and in almost slow motion bounced 40 metres up the opposite hillside. It was soon apparent that the duct tape and jubilee clips were not going to get us out of this one, the axle had snapped off just behind the tyre!
You'd think that we'd be used to it by now, given our tyre blow out in South Africa and our radiator gasket problems in Etosha, but the feeling of desperation when you get a mechanical failure in a foreign land doesn't get any easier to stomach. As usual good luck follows bad, we had a mobile signal and we were a mere 5km from Palmwag Lodge and a fully equipped vehicle workshop.
Within 4 hours the Palmwag mechanics had removed the broken axle, welded it back together, remounted it and we very slowly towed our trailer to the lodge campsite. Within 6 hours we had a new axle being shipped from Cape Town to Windhoek.
On reflection we realised this breakdown could have happened along the Kunene River or up at Epupa Falls, with no communications, atrocious roads and days from help so we counted our blessings and ordered a second double gin & tonic at the Palmwag poolside bar!
Our journey from Epupa Falls south via Epuwo to Fort Sesfontein, an old German fort dating back to the early 1900s had been uneventful apart from some terrible road conditions, which probably didn't help the axle.
After sharing wine and stories with a Swiss couple in the grounds of the fort we headed south again and were pleased to have seen giraffe, oryx, ostrich and mountain zebra in the semi desert scenery. We were just wondering if we might be lucky enough to see a desert elephant on this trip when the axle went!
Our enforced stay at Palmwag had other benefits besides ice, cheeseburgers and gin & tonics; we got to see our desert elephant. Far from needing to search the desert dry riverbeds to spot it, it walked past our tent one morning as we were making breakfast!
We ended up spending 8 days at Palmwag. The new axle completed the journey to Windhoek in 4 days, and then was sent by courier to the nearest depot for us to pick up. The word "nearest" is misleading in Namibia, the collection point was a town called Otjiwarongo, a mere 352 kilometres from Palmwag. It is perhaps a measure of how used to Africa we are becoming that driving over 700kms to pick up an axle didn't strike us as unreasonable! An advantage of the early morning start that day was that we saw our second desert elephant, in a riverbed next to the road.
Michael, the Palmwag mechanic, used all his welding and engineering skills to fit the axle, which turned out to be slightly shorter and narrower than the previous one. We also no longer had trailer brakes, a braked axle would have been a 3 week factory order and we'd have been in danger of our visas expiring before we could leave Namibia.
Whilst at Palmwag we went on a sunrise game drive and were lucky to see 9 lions just as they were leaving a Kudu carcase. It seems amazing that lions, black rhino and elephant as well as a variety of antelope inhabit this semi desert area of Damaraland. It is one of the few places in Southern Africa where game and predators can be seen outside designated and fenced national parks.
On our last night in Palmwag we were woken at 2am by something tipping our bin over. By torchlight we could make out the unmistakable shape of a large porcupine, a first for us in Africa.
We were not sorry to leave Palmwag, despite the stunning desert location and the best campsite shower view we've ever had, it was feeling like Groundhog Day. The stay there was enlivened by meeting Stuart and Danielle from Pietermaritzburg, who know our friends Pat & Roger De La Harpe. We will be taking them up on their offer of fly fishing in the KwaZulu Natal Midlands!
We left Palmwag and headed via Otjiwarongo to Farm Hamakari, near the Waterberg Plateau. It was recommended by our friend Heike Evans in Somerset West and it didn't disappoint, a lovely shaded campsite to ourselves with views out over herds of springbok and impala.
Our hosts, Sabine and Wilhelm, are 5th generation German farmers and they welcomed us like lost friends. We were even invited to toast the end of a hunt, a French shooting party had returned with a majestic male impala.
Pleasure and pain seem to come in equal doses on this trip, the trailer tyre that had gone off on it's own journey over a week ago was looking sadly deflated as we were about to leave Hamakari for Tsumeb. We changed it for the spare and sped towards Otjiwarongo to get to a tyre place before the usual lunchtime Saturday business close down.
On the way I had to do another emergency stop (I'm becoming an expert on these!) to avoid running over a 2 metre green/black snake that was crossing the road. In gratitude it reared up nearly half it's body length and threatened us before turning around and slithering back in to the grass verge. From the size, colour and particularly the aggression it could have only been one snake, the infamous black mamba, and we thanked our lucky stars we were in the vehicle when we saw it!
At Otjiwarongo it was confirmed that the tyre had a big cut between the tread and was declared u/s, a new one was a mere 100 pounds and we were just grateful they had one available. We also got the wheel bearings checked on the trailer as the other wheel was wobbling slightly! For the latter the Afrikaans mechanic who did it re-opened his workshop for us and refused to accept any money, for the tyre our first choice company were out of stock but rang around the other tyre places in town, reserved it for us then directed us to their rival!
Now back in Tsumeb for a couple of days we are getting the trailer and car checked by Autotec, the guys that got us out of Etosha when we broke down!
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