Day 99 Friday April 19 Weissenfels Guest Farm to Solitaire

by Henry

Friday, April 19

122 km (100% gravel), 533 m total ascent, 33°C maximum.

Busy day with lots of info crammed into the whiteboard. There were four listed Coke stops, with the first two being closed. We did not stop at the third or fourth one, but there was actually an unlisted fifth one that we did stop at. More than that later.

 
The desert winds suspend micro-particulates in the air, making sunrise and sunset always spectacular. 
 

The sand can get deep, causing schizophrenic consternation as we try to find a good line to plow through it.
 

Geographic milestone reached at 30 km today.
 

Completely cloudless sky today. The desert heat was on us by 11 AM.
 

The lunch truck was situated at 76 km just up and over the hill at the pass, affording us . . . 
 

. . . this view of the valley below with the Namib Desert laid out in all its glory. The picture does not adequately show the vivid colors that we could see in person. We would be dropping down into the valley immediately after lunch, to continue crossing the desert. 
 

The road leading down into the valley was short and very steep with up to a 17% grade. The drop was approximately 400 meters over 3.5 km. No trucks were allowed on this road, which was solidly fortified with pavers.

The 4th Coke stop at 93 km was a little bit too far off the road, and I made the difficult decision to ride past it. Jeff did stop there and told me later that it was a great place. As luck would have it, there was a new 5th stop that had opened in September 2023 at about 100 km.
 

Louis and his wife were the proprietors. Their drinks were very cold, and they supplied ice cubes to chill our water bottles.
 

The facility is solidly built, and I believe Tim would have been impressed with the build quality.

They have 21,000 hectares, with an orange grove. They distill an orange liqueur, which I’m sure is fantastic, but their orange crop this year was ruined by an untimely sandstorm.
 


The road they are on is frequented by a lot of tourists, and they had a kitschy outer space theme to draw in visitors.
 

As we approached our final destination for the evening, I could have been riding through the Nevada desert near Las Vegas.

The entrance to our campground was straight out of the storyboard for the Pixar movie “Cars”. 
 

Besides an adjoining lodge, there is Moose McGregor’s bakery (famous for apple pies), café, gas station, and general store.
 

We settled in at Solitaire Camp, busy because it is at a crossroad in the Namib Desert.

Rachel, one of our medics, gave us a talk at the daily rider meeting to remind us of healthy habits as we ride through the hyper-arid desert.

Finally, Justene and Sarah had us all draw names and a weapon to play the game Assassin, which will start in two days.
 

A golden mongoose strolled past our campground, no doubt scrounging for food scraps. We heard barking geckos after sunset and through the night.