Our expedition across the Namib Desert

[smlobx]

Some people have asked me to provide some more information on the trip we took to cross the oldest desert in the world; The Namib.
The Namib is located in Namibia which is the least populated country in the world and the desert we crossed is completely uninhabited, in fact, it is forbidden to go into it without special permission which is only open to about 140 people per year.

Anyway we decided to go with Geko Expeditions, a Swiss expedition company we had taken trips with before. We drove rented Toyota Land Cruiser ( from www.bushlore.com) and it was my experience with this set up that led me to buy a Gladiator and try to outfit it like the trucks you’ll see in this video.

I hope you enjoy this video which was put together bu the Owner of Geko, Nicolous, who was a professional videographer previously and did a much better job than I could ever do.

‘Enjoy!



Let me know if you have any questions ...

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[furrymurray]

That was incredible! Thank you for that video it was amazing. I hope you can outfit your JT Rubicon the way you want it and take many adventures like this one.

 

[Desert Outlaw]

What was the daily route?
How far did you travel between refueling stops?

 

[smlobx]

What was the daily route?
How far did you travel between refueling stops?

‘The portion of the route we took that is shown in that video is from Luderitz to Wallis Bay along the Western coast.
It took us about 8 days of traveling and we had to bring all our fuel (diesel) with us as there was nothing but sand and ship wrecks. If you look closely you’ll see we were each carrying 7 additional 20 liter fuel tanks on top of the cab. It was pretty tipsy at first until we got used to it and almost every night we would top up the long range fuel tanks that were built into the truck (130 liters I think).
This area is forbidden to travel unless you had written permission. As I understand it they only allow about 140 people to traverse this area per year. The main reason is that there is a lot of diamonds and other precious stones that you can literally see gleaming in the sands in some area.

Our daily routine was to get up about 6-6:30, have breakfast and break camp by 8 or so. We would then drive/explore for a few hours, find a scenic place to stop for mid morning snacks then drive more until lunch which was usually at least an hour or so (remember almost everyone else was European...) then repeat until about 4 or so when we stop to set up camp, have happy hour and recall the days adventures.

I finished this leg of the trip with less than 1/8 of diesel left in the tank.

 

[Desert Outlaw]

Only ⅛th of a tank. The fuel requirements were logged to an exact science. Incredible. That sounded like the adventure of a lifetime. It puts all of my Baja adventures to shame.

 

[smlobx]

Only ⅛th of a tank. The fuel requirements were logged to an exact science. Incredible. That sounded like the adventure of a lifetime. It puts all of my Baja adventures to shame.

We actually altered our final days travel so that we could be sure of making it into town.
Baja is on our list, hopefully next year with the Glad.

 

[morejeepsthanicancount]

Looking forward to seeing your adventures. Good to see another 911/Jeep owner on here too!

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