Day 2
Vioolsdrif Border Post to Kings Camp, Windhoek
Distance: 900 km
Learning is fun, right? The entire Put Foot Rally crew learned a brand-new nugget of information on day two of the rally, but more on that later. First, I’d like to start off by saying that Namibia is flat … bloody flat, well the parts I saw anyway.
We woke up to (and by to, I mean way before and then proceeded to bump into each in the dark) sunrise over the Orange River. I wish I had taken a better picture to do it justice, unfortunately I was too blurry-eyed and still a little confused as to why I had woken up in Mike Sharman’s tent. By the time it all came back to me, we were already on our way, so here’s the sunrise I did manage to catch.
Sunrise at Umkulu Base Camp, Orange River
We headed for the Vioolsdrif Border and breezed on through with enough time for a little bit of Border Post parkour a quick interview with our two drivers, who had never left the borders of South Africa before and they were lank excited.
Parkour at the Vioolsdrif Border Post
Dan Nash & Mike Sharman chatting to our drivers
I then spent the next few hundred kilometres looking out of the window at exactly the same thing. I can say this with some certainty because I took quite a few photos of the scenery before I realised that I didn’t have a memory card in my camera. Journo fail. I put it in, took a few more photographs and they looked exactly the same. It’s not that it isn’t pretty, it’s just incredibly consistent. Perhaps that’s why the Germans moved here. Anyway, big thanks to Namibia for being so inexorable with your scenery, you saved me some serious journalistic integrity.
The inexorable scenery
Luckily (and I use that term very loosely) the Project Rhino KZN crew broke up our journey with a well-timed, albeit mysterious puncture. We stopped to give them a hand, and from my perspective it almost seemed as if they coudn’t find out exactly where the puncture was, I took some photos to explain.
Quick game of spot the puncture
Can't seem to find it, let's check the bonnet
Maybe it's under the boot?
Some of crew got a little bored and resorted to doing hipster gymnastics.
Hipster gymnastics at the roadside
Now here that nugget of information you’ve been waiting for. Apparently, according to our drivers anyway, if you shake your car while you’re filling it up you can get close to an extra fifty bucks of petrol in it. Rallyers, please don’t quote me on this, I’d hate for you to miss the Checkpoint 1 Animal Kingdom party because you took my advice and are now stuck in Etosha surrounded by elephants. Anyway, it’s called ‘Skud skud’ and it looks like this:
'Skud skud!'
I learnt a few other things on day two of the rally:
- Mike Sharman sometimes can’t tell the difference between the brake and the accelerator
- Dan Nash can pull a rocking five-hour playlist out of thin air
We finally arrived at Kings Highway camp, about 60 kilometres outside of Windhoek at around 22h00. It’s an awesome little spot. We pitched our tents and there was still enough gees going around for a little braai. We even bumped into rally crew Plan B at the campsite.
Put Foot crew Plan B at Kings Highway camp
Today, day three of the rally, we head to Etosha for the first Checkpoint Party. Teams will start arriving at 15h00. I’m being dropped off at a one-horse town a few kilometres away to get some shots of the teams making their way to the checkpoint.
Follow the rally on Twitter: @PutFootRally, @BangersandNash, @MikeSharman, @TysonJopson find the Put Foot Rally on Facebook and visit www.putfootrally.com
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