After a good, too long breakfast.
Good in the way that it is so nice beeing with people around you. Too long in the sence that the dessert is 110 km long on a dirt, no sand road. Which you dont know the conditions or difficulties of. I set of at 11! It is hot. Soon one of my self made water holders fall off from the bad road. And the water supply gets more limited. I drink one and leave one.
The last thing I do after saying good bye I go and wet my shirt. It is dry within 5 minutes.
I cycle. But I am not alone. I have great warm thoughts and memmories as of recent so I go on my own. I love it. It is a challenge within reach and I have been looking forward to this sandy flat landscape soo long. It is so simple and nice. The wind is cooling but it is fairly hot. Probably 30-35 degrees. The road is all sand road and at times it is non cycleable. Others it is pretty good. I meet a man digging for crystals and I buy a bag of "maybe" diamonds from him for 10 USD.
Ha ha, it is not like I believe it is diamonds but I dont think he sells so much and maybe it would be nice to find a stone for some future special one and maybe I could learn how to polish it myself. After all the price for giving him some real food on the table is the price of having a coffee for two in a good café in Stockholm.
I leave him and sand and blue sky surounds me and the mountains get smaller and fade away in the distant. I listen to a couple of podcasts and I have to strugle a bit to get through this landscape before dawn. But as sun starts going down I see the dusty grey silhuette of industries and the town by the sea. Yes! I made it. The whole day has felt like, I can do it. Once a pick up truck stoped and offered me a ride. Another one offered me a ride but when I declined we shared a coled beer.
After the the grey view of the town evolve to be more then seal product industries I role in to a retirement house town with many new villas or well kept houses and gardens.
80% of this town is retired. I try a B&B which is full and after asking some locals I decide to camp on the beach. By the time I put my tent up it is allmost dark. And now I sit here before break of dawn writing this, still in the tent but everything else is packed together in the dark. I will soon take a photo of my spot. Then put the tent down and leave no trace.
I am tired and feel so unfresh. I did not want to swim. I have three small breakfasts trying to get in to a happy mood after eating. I also have a hard time deciding if I should go north or south.
It will be at least one day extra if I go north looking at the great seal beach and maybe two days if going to the sceleton coast park. I count the days left and go south in the end. My plan is to be home around mid of may. When I role out of town it feels pretty good and I sit down and post on this Facebook, Namibia sight about my path so hopefully I will meet some people again. This is when I put my local phone in the back of my bike. And soon or during the day it falls out. I go allmost all the way to Swakopmund, about 70 km before I realise my loss. And it does not feel great going back checking all places.
But I did have a half nice day. This shipwreck was nice to see and I also took a refreshing swim.
But the phone got lost. A lot of extra cycling. So that is how to make a short day long. But in the end, I dont find it. Now I can see it as a test of acceptance and I dont feel so bad about this. It is getting late because even if I started early I have had a strong head wind against me for half the day.
This town which I pass is stranglynot on the map.
I hitch hike with a cattle farmer and fall asleep within minutes in to the conversation. I get a ride to Swakopmund and I role through town and ask someone who directs me to an ok backpackers place. It is pretty chilly here as the sun goes down. Feels good to sleep in a bed again.
