Welcome to NAMIBIA ! Ep279

A big moment today Frenchie, another milestone in Grizzly and Bear's overland journey around the world. I know. Welcome to Namibia. That better be straight I'm coming to zoom in. Hello and welcome to a new episode of Grizzly and Bear Overland with Leigh and Steffi in Namibia. Previously we crossed the land border from South Africa into Namibia. We booked a campsite in Osunkur valley, 50 kilometers from the border. As we arrived Leigh went straight to sleep as he was dealing with some bad food poisoning. We were very grateful for the air conditioning unit. I went outside to make myself a lazy dinner testing our new induction cooktop and this is what I made, a cheese and vegemite toastie with The resort is located on the banks of the beautiful orange river. It has a big swimming pool and this was a lifesaver. The resort offers a variety of cute little rooms and chalets. The next morning we went into the town. Osunkur is named the grape valley. Apparently it is home to the largest export table grapes farm in the southern hemisphere. We went to the local supermarket to do a little grocery stop up. Good for you some chicken feet. The bread is still warm. We've got some cheese, avocado, meat, bread, crackers, meat. From there we made our way to the nature park. Leigh found this gorge via a rock climbing website but when we arrived we were so disappointed as we came across a locked gate. Back to the spa we went. So luckily just as we left that nature park I saw the sign fallen on the ground and asked if you have a quick look at it and on the sign it says you can get a permit at the spa. Two lovely people here are helping us out with the key and the permit. I promise you, I promise you, I will bring this key back to you. Now this one here I have been informed is this gentleman's master key. He's asked me about four times now please do not lose this key. Opens the padlocked gate into the nature park. We were just discussing on the way here what are the chances that this key actually unlocks the padlock. Let's find out. We're just in today for a little bit of a scout. I'm still not feeling 100 percent. It must be 42-43 degrees outside at least. So we're just going to have a look and then if everything is good and the climbing is where it's meant to be we'll come back very early in the morning when it will be shaded the place and the rock climbing routes. As Leigh said we will return the following day bright and approach is as good as it can possibly be. We are literally camped here, not camp sorry, we've got our vehicle. We got the top popped because we made breakfast in here. We came nice and early to beat the sun and the heat. Grizzly and Bear's parked right there and just up behind me somewhere up there Where are you Frenchie? There you are. Where's my finger? There. Such an amazing spot. We're the only ones here. We've got the key to be in here. Quite an amazing spot and the sun is about to hit so we're going to see if we can get one more climb in and then retire to the pool. Before heading back to the campsite we decided to explore deeper into the nature park. Another day of Steffi putting in the hard yards. It's 20 past 10 in the morning and I'm gonna guess it's already easily 35 degrees. It's forecast for 44 degrees today. We're exploring deeper into the canyon. We're looking for the quiver tree forest which is marked on the map. Copy Frenchie. Are you ready? Ready. Today we're not in the mood of a big off-road adventure so if it gets too crazy we won't do it. Someone has created a ramp here but after that there isn't any tyres mark. We could probably do it but it's not necessary plus we have the camper on the back. All right we've decided to turn around. I've walked down another 500 meters. It's getting more and more serious. We've got the camper on. It's only a loop. We don't need to go this way and it's always been our rule is we're not you know we're overlanders. We're not hardcore off-roaders even though we do a bit of off-road. It's not necessary and we're not even sure when we get to the very end because it doesn't exit the way we came in. We don't know if there's going to be a gate. We don't know if our special master key is going to open that gate. We're getting older and wiser I think. There's multiple other 3.10 tyre marks so plenty of people bail here. Let's go find some shade and have some lunch. I'm starving. We have found the only little speck of shade that we could find on the drive out. We're a couple of kilometers from the exit gate and Steffi's going to whip up a lovely salad for lunch and then we're going to head back to the camp and the swimming pool because it is roasting. We're making a salad with tomato, lentils, cabbage and bulgur, quinoa and lentils. Oh it's got lentils already in it. I might make a miso dressing. Incredible last minute idea by the guys at Victi Tech to put these little raised stainless steel work benches on here for us and we have one on each side box. Do you like my salt and pepper? Very cute. Enjoy sweetie. You too. We burned it today. Climbed hard. When we returned to the camp the electricity was off. We were told that Namibia hasn't got large heading. I just put the thermometer outside in the sun. I've put it like two minutes ago and it shows 51 degrees. I've got the AC running. This thing has been a lifesaver the last, since we crossed the border pretty much the last couple of days. We've got it running off the delta actually which is quite cool. 31. There is some strong wind outside. We've never experienced this. The wind is hot, like so hot that you feel like it's opening the oven, force fan oven door. Blowing a gale out here but it's like 45 degrees. I've never really experienced anything like it, not even in Australia. We can't really use the delta at the moment because it's so hot that it is overheating. We don't really want to push our luck with the inverter as well. So no AC. We were at the pool most of the afternoon in the campsite. I don't know how we're gonna go here. I think it's a little bit protected down there. By a donkey for this incredibly good, I know it's good because I think I've tried some the other night, Bordervoos. Thank you Jacques, really appreciate it. It's on the bright tonight and thank you Gustav for the halt. This is definitely one of the coolest things we've done in a long long time. We got a super super early start this morning. We woke up at 4am, we left the campsite at 5am and we are in the canyon. I'm having some breakfast and Steffi's been awesome. She's got all the climbing gear ready to go. A reason for the early start is these cliff faces, this crag as we call it, that we would like to climb this morning. We noticed yesterday is the first to get the sun on it. As we've mentioned it's ridiculously hot. As soon as the sun hits the rock we cannot climb. So we think we're gonna have probably two hours of good climbing time and this wall looks spectacular. And that there ladies and gentlemen is a wrap. Steffi just topped out on an absolutely stunning grade 22 climb that went up that arete there. It was beautiful. That's what we were talking about when we mentioned that we're in a race against the sun. It's impossible, well not impossible but very unpleasant and unenjoyable to try and climb indirect sunlight. We're gonna call it a day. We did four magnificent climbs. Well we will never forget our time in the Ossinkir Nature Park. Our final time out of the gate. We gotta head back to the spa now but we heard a rumor the spa was closed yesterday due to the power outage. If it's closed today I'm not sure how we're gonna return our master key. Looks like the spa is closed. We must return the key. Okay thank you. Bye. Still no power? Still no power. No there's unfortunately a transformer blew the town about 200 kilometers from here so hopefully tomorrow. Okay I hope so for you guys. It's terrible. All right thank you. And that's it for our first episode in Namibia. We hope you enjoyed it. Please stay tuned for the next adventures. Until then, take care. Bye-bye.