Cycle Shorts: 1 Day of Your Trip: Stephen Drew - Namibia

Listen to Stephen Drew share his experiences from one day of his trip during his Ride of Independance through the desert in Namibia.

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:25

Hello everyone, it's Bella Meloy here, host of Seek Travel Ride, and welcome to episode number four of Cycle Short, our midweek mini episode where we share a listener's experience of what it was like on one day of their trip. Today's episode features the story of Stephen Drew and his experiences while cycling with one of his friends through Namibia. They were battling extreme heat in an isolated area, and Steven's friend was quite ill, so a bit of problem solving needed to take place on this day as well. But far be it from me to describe what happened. Without any further ado, let's listen to Stephen recount the experiences of what it was like on one day of this trip.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Hello everyone, my name is Stephen Drew from South Africa. In October last year, a friend and myself we went on a bikepacking trip, an epic bikepacking trip from Namibia to my hometown in Nazna, South Africa, and I call this my Namibian ride of independence. We rode for roughly 23 days and we did the practically the Rhino run in reverse. And there were some memorable moments on that trip, but I'd like to just share one with you. We've been cycling for what four days from Vintuk and we learnt a lot in those four days. We uh found out very, very, very soon that cycling in Namibia was very, very hard, much actually harder than anticipated. The going is very slow, even though it's fairly flat, you never feel like you actually are going anywhere, and you feel like you're riding a false flat. The going is very, very slow, much slower than anticipated. And then it was extremely hot, and even hot for Namibian standards, even the locals were complaining. So we had to devise a plan to work within these problems. So one of it was we decided that we would leave very, very early in the morning, cycle as far as we could until the heat really came up, which would normally be here at about eleven o'clock. From about ten o'clock, it would get into the forties and it'll just be extremely hot. And hopefully at 11 o'clock we would either come to a supply point or some kind of place where we could get some kind of provisions, and then we would sit out the heat of the day until about three o'clock in the afternoon, and then we would then ride out and go as far as possible just before nightfall and wild camp outside. And we worked this plan out, it worked out very well. It was easier than actually staying in a supply point because the distances were just so far between them. So on this particular day four, we had wild camped, and we then got to a place called Sasram, which is just outside Saucy's Flay. It's really just a petrol station and a nature sort of campsite. And it was very, very hot again, and we stopped there for provisions. Being a petrol station, we you know walked in and there was a whole lot of things on display. My friend was very hungry, and there was these ham rolls with lettuce and nice looking ham. And he sort of bought a few of these and I had a pie or whatever. But I must say when he looked at this, when he opened this ham roll, the ham looked more like bologna. It was really terrible, but he ate it, he was hungry. We then also would try and get a shower, so we'd negotiate for the campsite and we'd pay for a shower, and then normally in the shower we would wash our clothes for that day and then put them on wet because it was so hot. And then our plan then was to leave it about three o'clock after three o'clock, because the next section from Sesram to better was about a hundred and fifty odd kilometers, but it was through a really hostile place, and there weren't many overlanders that would go in that area. And we had found previously that we couldn't carry a lot of water, so we had to rely a lot on overlanders to stop them and ask for water, and we now were a bit worried that we wouldn't have this luxury. So we set off just after three. There was a strong tailwind, which we were lucky, which normally you don't get tailwinds, was headwinds. It took us along really, really, really strong tailwind for about 30 kilometers, and then we turned, and then the strong tailwind became quite a strong head side wind, and we rode for about 40 kilometers. The scenery at that stage we had seen a few trees and a bit of grass, but eventually it just died and there was nothing. It was just desert. There wasn't a blade of grass, not even a tree, nothing to sit under. And we then started looking for a place to wild camp. And we really saw nothing, but we came across this big roadworks machine on the side of the road and saw up ahead that there was actually roadworks that were fixing the road. And it was a type of a steamroller type machine with a big roller and a section underneath that protected us from the wind. So we actually camped while camped under the machine. We didn't even put our tents up, just to block ourselves from the from the wind and prepared ourselves for a hard day for the next day. And obviously ate and went to bed. And at about twelve o'clock that night my friend got up and started getting violently sick. He started bringing up his stomach was just running severe diarrhea. And this carried on and on and on right through the night, early hours in the morning, and just didn't get any better. He drank water and as he drank water it would just come straight out again. I was getting quite worried about him. He was getting worried about himself. Quite ironic at one stage he climbed out of this earth-moving equipment and went out into the sand, and I happened to look where he was with my headlamp, and all I saw was these little eyes all over, and it was actually jackals. There were three jackals that had been circling us all the time. Obviously looking for a quick meal. On easy meal, I would say. It was a bit airy. The next morning, well before the sun came up, as I said we had planned, we would pack our stuff up, but we decided just to carry on now to go on to better would be suicidal. You know, we would have to rely on stopping people for water because we didn't have enough water. Dehydration and with these conditions, it just would be suicidal. So we decided what we should maybe do is go back. And luckily we in the back of our mind saw a castle. What we saw was a castle was about five, six kilometers back. We saw it in the desert, sitting there wondering actually what it was. And we said, well, we'll go back to this castle and see if we can get any help there. So we climbed back on our bicycles and we pedaled back in the gloom early morning. It was still just getting light. And we pedaled and this castle got a little bit closer, a little bit closer, and then I saw there were palm trees in front of it. There's even some grass, and I thought, geez, this will really work. It was quite funny, I had a bit of a chuckle because I felt like you know, I remember back to that what Lawrence of Arabia movie where you come out of the desert sort of dying and there's this mirage that you see. And I didn't know if it was really true, but the closer I got to it, the bigger this castle got. And we eventually found out that it was a resort called La Mirage, a very upmarket resort focusing just on international tourists. So we cycled up to the the entrance, which was a grand entrance, with these palm trees and the grass, and as we got there the door opened and a whole lot of American tourists came out, they were preparing to go on a hot air balloon trip in their vehicle, and obviously when they saw us cycling up there out of the desert, they like couldn't believe their eyes. It was what five days of wild camping, we were rough and dirty, and it was quite a spectacle. And they then obviously started asking all about us, you know, where you're from and what you're doing and how you yeah. I then told them that my friend was sick and we, you know, got sick and and we're trying to we're looking for help and that's why we're there. I think one of the people was a doctor. He didn't say they were a doctor, obviously being American they'd be scared we're gonna sue him. But went to their room, got a whole lot of medication, and started doctoring him there in the foyer of this hotel, and giving a whole lot of advice and tablets and what have you. But then they had to go on their trip. So I went in and spoke to reception, tried to sort of say, can we just sort of sit here and just sort of transit it out, then negotiated maybe a rate for the room. And as I say, this resort was way out of our budget, way not to South Africans, and this was geared basically all on the international American tourists. But the people behind the counter really took pity on us, phoned the owner of the hotel and explained to them the situation. And all they said is we just want something to to lie on, it doesn't have to be cleaned. So they had a room that hadn't been cleaned yet, and they said we can go there and gave us a really, really, really good rate, and were really tentative to us. So we went to the room and my friend lay down, and as I say, even up in that stage, he couldn't even drink water, it would just come up straight away. But we were hoping that this medication and tablets would start taking effect, and so we sat out the day. And throughout the day the hotel staff kept on coming to our room, even the porter who wheeled our bicycles that were full of mud through the lush bloody hotel entrance. It's quite funny. Kept on finding out, how are we, how are we, how are we? And my friend was just getting worse, he wasn't getting better. And by about one o'clock they wanted to know, is he better? And I said, No, he's actually worse. And so the lady who was at the reception said, No, well she's got a friend that is the doctor at the local clinic. And the next minute she got this friend on her cell phone and passed the phone to me and I explained to this person what the symptoms were, and the doctor on the other side, no, no, no, no, this looks like some kind of food poisoning or bacteria and that the only thing that'll sort him out is a drip. And she could arrange a drip, but it would cost us. And I was just thinking of all sorts of real costs and said to my friend, anyway, you know, it's still cheaper than a helicopter emergency flight out of the desert. She then sent someone over the drip. The person drove out there and I then tried to inquire a little bit more. I said, you know, but how much is it? You know, what is is it going to be? She said, No, 450 Rand. And well, 450 Rand is even cheaper than a GP visit in my hometown. So I mean it is practically nothing. So I mean it was a no-brainer. And Rainer, after about forty minutes, this guy came there, Rainer came in there. Medic into the room, looked around, looked up, started attaching drips to the curtain rails, and put my friend on two drips, gave him a whole lot of medication, obviously, was so tentative with him. And after a few hours or whatever, obviously, when he knew that he was fine and things were looking good, gave him a whole lot of tablets and off he went. Exactly. All of a sudden my friend started feeling a little bit better, and he still couldn't eat anything, but that night they had a bit of I think butternut soup or whatever on the menu and he had some soup, so it was the first time he actually could actually eat. In the meantime, this hotel, as I said, was so fancy, and I mean we had gone on this bikepacking trip as minimal as can be, you know, washed our clothes daily. I still had the clothes that I actually had flown in, I didn't I only had one pair of shoes and was my cycling shoes. So walking around this fancy hotel thing dressed like that was quite strange. And then they had part of the package was breakfast and supper. So we had these five course meals with everyone at night being all dollied up and dressed up, and there was me and my old cycling clothes sitting there, but I wasn't gonna get let up on this food at all, and I just ate myself with oblivious. The next day we then realized that we couldn't go. He was still not well, he still hadn't eaten food, but was getting better, so we decided to stay another day. So we stayed two days in this resort, and only the following night could he actually have a meal, and we then decided okay, after two days we would then leave. But in this course of this time, as I said, I just ate and ate and ate and the food was rich and my stomach wasn't actually used to all this rich food. So on the second night I woke up in the middle of the night getting sick, but basically not from any food poison, just from eating too much rich food. So on the second morning when we had to leave this luxury to go out into the wild desert to go all this way to better, which was about 110 kilometers away. We were both feeling very, very, very weak, but also very grateful for the help that this castle in the middle of nowhere actually had given us. And yeah, the next day, as I say, that day was a really hard day, and that's just that's another story in its own. But yeah, that's my one day in my trip, my Namibian ride of independence, and how we basically got stuck at Le Mourage resort in the middle of Saucy Flat. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

I cannot even imagine putting myself in Stephen's shoes and having to go through what they endured during that time. But also, having had the benefit now of Stephen sending through some photos of that mirage, the castle, this resort. Wow, it it really looks so surreal. And to have had this experience fold out where they're staying in this amazing luxurious guest house in their somewhat soiled bikepacking clothes. I can just actually picture clip clopping through the floors there and also Steven himself sort of sitting at the table eating his way through the five-course meals every night at dinner as well. Wow, what an experience. Memories that he and his friend will have forevermore as well. Now, if you'd like to get involved in these short midweek episodes and have your experiences of one day on your trip shared, all you need to do is get in touch with me, send me an email to podcast at seektravelride.com. Get in touch, send me an email, tell me about one day of your trip, and we can see if we can highlight your story in the episodes to come. If you're enjoying Seek Travel Ride and if you'd feel like giving the show a rating and review, that would be amazing. It just adds as further social proof to potential new listeners that Sneak Travel Ride is actually worth listening to. So I'd be forever grateful if you go into your podcast player, give us a five-star review, and if you have the ability, depending on your app, just letting others know what you like so much about the show. Until the next episode, I'm Bella Malloy. Thanks for listening.