Day 104 Wednesday April 24 Helmeringhausen to Alte Kalkoefen

by Henry

128 km, 217 m gain, 31°C maximum. Sunny without any cloud cover.

 

Riding out from camp this morning, the sunrise was starkly beautiful, as usual. 

But  equally majestic was the full moon setting over the horizon.

For the first time in many days, we saw standing water holes in the desert.

 

This was punctuated with swaths of green, suggesting there was a significant water table or aquifer underneath.

 

We had a very gentle downslope basically all day, the gravel was compacted and made for very smooth riding.

 

Lunch was situated 1 km before we reached the town of Bethanie, site of the oldest church (1859) in Namibia.

In Bethanie’s Coffee Shop, I ordered a strawberry milkshake, and delighted in the best carrot cake on the Tour so far.

After 80 km of smooth and easy riding gravel, the road was paved from Bethanie onwards. We traversed another 45 km of tarmac before turning onto a dirt road leading to our campsite.

In the middle of the desert past Bethanie, we saw a settlement of the Nama tribe. Although they have electricity and a village water tank, they somehow eke out an existence in a very desolate and unforgiving landscape. 

For most of the day, we benefited from a healthy tailwind, which turned into a slight crosswind towards the end of the day.

We camped at Alte Kalköfen (Old Lime Kiln) Lodge. Frikkie and his wife Hilde resurrected this property 15 years ago to create a beautiful oasis for travelers in the middle of the desert.

We had a relatively early 1:30 PM arrival to camp. After pitching a tent, I took a quick shower, and spent some time cooling off poolside with a beer.

At the lodge itself, we could see springbok and ostriches from the deck.

  

In three sizable greenhouses adjacent to the lodge, they also house the officially registered “Lithops Research and Conservation Foundation”, containing all 53 species of Namibian and South African lithops, unusual succulents that at first glance could pass for camouflaged rocks in the desert.

After dinner, we welcomed our friend the moon rising back up over the horizon from its sojourn to the other other side of the world.

As darkness fell, I remembered I had to scrub and re-lubricate my chain because it has been squeaking from all the sand glommed onto it from riding the gravel.