Is This the Most Hospitable Country in the World ? vA 156
This is already early. Usually, I don't leave before 9. When I leave at 9, it's early for me. So leaving at 8 is very early for me.
-But you have a lot of packing to do. -Yeah, I have a lot of packing. -Do you bring it from that side with the hook on? -No, no, no.
-You're scared somebody might take it, yeah? -I don't know. I lock it all the time. -Yeah, that's a problem. -If somebody takes it, then there's an issue. -Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, those things are so easy to steal, if it's not locked. You just need to sit and ride it. It can be stolen in like 10 seconds. -Yeah.
-I know most, I mean, I know there's a 99.9% chance that nothing will happen, but I still lock it. -Yeah. Morning, my friends.
Is the battery still working? Yes. So which side do I go—right or left? Which is the fastest? I go to Grunau. -Go right. -Go right? Okay. -Have a nice journey. -Thank you very much. Yeah.
Thank you. -I’ll see you next year. -Maybe see you next year. Who knows? Thank you very much. Bye-bye.
Let’s go. Hello. Let’s go, guys. This should be my last full video in Namibia—my last video fully in Namibia. Today is a bit strange.
The plugs are not conveniently located along my way. So, I’m going 40 kilometers to an expensive lodge, where I can have an early lunch and recharge my battery. Then I’ll try to do 60 or 70 kilometers this afternoon, slightly uphill, to another lodge. And then, we go to South Africa! Let’s go to South Africa, guys! It's about 300 and something kilometers to South Africa from here, and a bit less than 1,000 kilometers to Cape Town! Hello. Hello.
Bye-bye, Keetmanshoop. Hello, Republic of South Africa. Hello. Hello. Hello. What is this? A gate without a house. Oh, I forgot to tell you—in Keetmanshoop, it’s been a while since I was in Botswana.
I had heard about a Pakistani cyclist being somewhere behind me, and he finally caught up. I actually met a very famous Pakistani cyclist: Kamran Ali, Online, he’s known as "Kamran on bike". What an extraordinary person! He’s one of the most extraordinary characters I’ve met in my life.
He’s a photographer and creates beautiful short, inspirational videos. One of his videos perfectly defines what bicycle touring is. I’ll put the link in the description for those who want to discover the beauty of this Pakistani cyclist. He’s an incredible man. He’s been traveling and cycling the world for nine years now and is one of the happiest people I’ve ever met. The beauty of bicycle touring.
The emptiness of southern Namibia. Hello. -Hello. -Hello. -Hello. -Hello.
I’m going to Cape Town. -Cape Town. -Yes. And here’s another empty river. And we are arriving at the lodge, where hopefully I’ll be able to recharge and fill up my battery for the afternoon. Maybe I’ll even have a second breakfast since it's too early for lunch.
Kitchen 51, uh, open for accommodation only? Oh. The man in Keetmanshoop told me they had a restaurant here. The gravel is too soft. Hello. -Hello. -Do you have a restaurant here? -Sorry? -Do you have food here? -No.
No, you don't have food. Hi, yes. You don’t have food here? -No, unfortunately not.
-You used to, because in Keetmanshoop, I was told I could stop here... -Oh shame, no unfortunately, we've been closed since Covid. -as a restaurant. -Yes, we only do accommodation now. -Ah, okay. -I'm very sorry about that. Okay, it’s fine. It is what it is. -Otherwise, um, is it okay, my bike is electric. -Yes.
-Could I stop here for some time, to recharge my battery a little bit for the afternoon? Yes, you can. -Can I? -Okay. -Are you alone?? -Yeah, I’m alone.
-You wanted to have something to eat? -I wanted to have something to eat. -Otherwise, I have food with me, -but if I stop here, I’d prefer to have yours. -Okay. -However, if I could use your electricity, that would be great. -Yes, but we can give you access. If you can just give me access to a plug, or— -Yes, let me see where would be the best. -Maybe at the back. You can come around with your bike.
-Okay, I’ll come around. -There’s an alleyway then I’ll get you. Okay, okay, thank you. Ah, well, that might still work out. I come here? Okay.
-Where are you going to? -Cape town. -Cape Town? -Yes. -From where. -From France. -All the way on land? -All the way on land, yes. -Yes, okay, but, yeah here's a plug. -And we can see if we can make a little sandwich with ham...
-You can, otherwise, I have food in my bag, so I’m fine. Oh, well. And maybe, we can make you a coffee if you want? -Oh yes, -If you could even make a sandwich with ham, that would be great. Fantastic. -Her is the plug. -I can use this plug? -Yes.
-Okay, great. -Do you have a— -Yes, I have the charger and the adapter. Fantastic. -You can just stop here. You can come inside and use the Wi-Fi, whatever you need.
-Ah, okay, fantastic. -Maybe you’ll just take that away... -Okay, thank you very much. Yes. -How far do you think you’ll go with this electricity? Or will you just go manual when the electricity is out? -No, because I used to have two batteries, but one broke down just before Windhoek. So that,s why now my range is much shorter. -Okay. -And the next plug is maybe 60–70 kilometers away.
There’s a lodge up the hill, no? There are two lodges before Grunau, right? -Yes, it's Goibib. -Yes, exactly this one and I think there’s something called Savannah, -Savannah, yes, but it’s a bit off-road. -Okay. -Goibib is also just next to the road. -Okay, okay. -Just let me check because as I know it's only those two, and you can’t get a battery here. -No, because these lithium batteries cannot fly. -Oh, they’re not allowed? -No, because there's a risk of explosion.
And in South Africa, they didn’t have the stock. I had to get a new one sent from Europe to South Africa and then back to Windhoek. It was taking more than a month, and I couldn’t afford to wait that long. -Really.
-Yes. The repair wasn’t possible either, so I tried, but— -By the way, my name is Jeanette. -Jeanette, I’m Yves. -Hi, nice to meet you. -Nice to meet you too. Unfortunately, I don’t have eggs at the moment, -It's okay, fine, no worries.
-But I have a breakfast muffin and some cereal with yogurt if you’d like. And we can make you a sandwich. -Fantastic. Whatever you have is great. -Okay.
-Is this just for fun, or is it for a cause? -No, it's just for me. I like it. -You like it? -Yeah. -When did you leave France? -Three years ago. -Three years ago? -Yes. -And how do you survive, money-wise? -I make videos.
I post them online. That’s why it takes so long; I have stop to edit the videos, but I earn money from the videos. -Okay, okay.
But, yeah. -Come in. -Okay, thank you.
-You can have a seat. You can sit there. There's also a plug if you need to recharge something. Because after Grunau... -after Grunau, there’s nothing until the border, right? -Yes.
-It’s downhill, so hopefully, it's still a bicycle, so hopefully the downhill will help to make it last. I'll see how it goes. -Okay, and then to Cape Town. From Cape Town, where do you go? -I’ll rest for a while, but then I’ll cycle back up. I came via East Africa, so I’ll go back to Europe through West Africa.
-And your family—do they visit you? -No, I’ve gone back twice to visit them. -Okay. -Yeah. -That’s interesting. I’ll get you a bowl.
-Do you have many customers? -For overnight, yes. -Okay. -But, we were farmstall before COVID. We had a stop for food. Ah, like the padstal, -Yes, the padstal.
-Ah, so that had to stop for food, right? -Yes. -Okay. -But when COVID came, we decided not to reopen.
Now, we only do accommodation. So, that’s fine with us. -Okay. -Because you had to close and then it was too complicated to get it running again. -Yes of course, In the beginning, there wasn't that many cars on the road. -Yeah, so nobody was coming anymore. -Yeah, nobody was coming and to keep this open, -You have to have fresh food and so, yeah.
-At the standard, that was not possible. Now, it's fine. I know the guest book. -So you can figure out how much food you need. -Yes. -We do fresh meals daily, except for frozen meats. People booking, they must pre order and say, I want breakfast, I want dinner.
-It's much easier for the stocks. -Yes. -We have a sort of a continental breakfast now, but we plan to make a full breakfast. -Okay. And maybe open the farm stall for just the breakfast in the morning.
-Okay, okay. -Yeah. -That’s the plan. -Okay. -Do you take milk? -Yes.
-Do you need hot milk or cold? -Cold is fine. Yeah. Thank you very much. -Where did you sleep last night? -Near the church. There’s self-catering accommodation there. -Okay, -Yes. -There's a lot of places, actually. -Yeah, there's a lot of places in Keetmanshoop, yeah. It's funny because it's small, but still there are so many accommodations.
-Yeah, it’s the first real town after the border. -Ah, that makes sense. -Yeah, it's the first real town from the border. -Here’s some cereal and yogurt if you want. You can help yourself.
-Okay, great. -If that is fine with you. -Okay, yeah. Look at that, it's funny, the handle from the spoon.
Interesting. So, wow, oh, nice. Wow. And I have access to all this. Wow, that's fantastic. Well, okay, I'll take the, oh wow. Fantastic.
-Some preserves. -Oh wow. Okay. Wow. See, I have some butter. We are in the land of butter. Some, uh, wow. Shredded cheese. Oh, the bread looks awesome. These look fantastic as well. The jam looks homemade—amazing! Let’s try it. Wow.
-Do you know passion fruit? -Yes, I love it! -This is from the farm. -Oh, wow. Okay. -Passion fruit from your farm? -Yes. -And oranges too, but the season is over now. -Ah, it's over. -Enjoy -Great. It's a lot. It's perfect. Yeah. Look at that guys.
These muffins look awesome. Wow. Wow, look at that. There’s meat and maybe leek inside. Very good. I have the passion fruit.
Let's try some of the ham. Um, good. And the shredded cheese, wow. Incredible. Let's try this bread that looks awesome. Proper bread.
Ah, it's for a sandwich. Ah, okay, I understand. I need to put the butter in the bread. And the cheese. Really good. Let's try this, kind of jam. So this is a kind of orange jam that you gave me? -yes. It's sort of a marmalade.
Ah, marmalade. Okay, yeah. -Yes. -It's also from the oranges juice and... -From your garden, yeah. -Yes The marmalade is really, really good. Fantastic.
Now I've got a friend. I love passion fruit. Very sour. Can I pay you for the breakfast? But then I'll wait a little more for the battery to charge. -That's fine, You can have the breakfast.
-No, it’s on the house. "Are you sure? I don’t mind paying! -Are you sure? -Yes. Thank you very much. I’ll wait here while my battery charges, maybe for an hour."
-Take your time! If you need anything, just ask. - okay, great. So thank you very much, then. -You are welcome, enjoy. -It's very nice. Thank you. Yeah.
-And then maybe I'll see you next to the road sometime. -Of course! We travel to South Africa often. When do you expect to arrive in Cape Town? -Yeah, I mean, probably now, I can guess, I would say three to four weeks maximum. Because, it's a thousand kilometers. That's roughly usually the time it takes me to do this kind of distance. -Yeah, if I see you, I will stop. -Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So you might see me at some point on the road, exactly. -I might see you, because it's the same route. -Keep enjoying. -Thank you.
Let's get back on the road, guys. You see, they rent those beautiful chalets there. Very nice place. -Where are you going now? -To south... to Cape Town. -Are you driving to Cape Town? -Yes. -You must drive safely. -Thank you very much. -Take care and enjoy this. -Thank you very much, I will.
-Thank you for the breakfast you gave me. -Pleasure. Have a good day! Bye-bye! Look at those beautiful orange trees. This was at Kitchen 51, guys. I’ll share their Instagram link.
I'll share you the links if someone wants to come here in a lovely lodge, 40 kilometers from Keetmanshoop on the way to Grunau. Very nice. They offered me the breakfast for free. Namibian people are really among the most hospitable people I've met in my life. You see "Kitchen 51".
Yeah, it's amazing here. The hospitality is unbelievable. So, it's 70 or 80 kilometers left to the next electric plug basically, and it's about 600 meters climb. Slowly, slowly, for the rest of the day. My battery is almost full.
Let’s go, guys! So, it's a strange climb for this afternoon because I climb 600 meters. So, 600 meters elevation gain over almost 70 kilometers, I think. It’s less than a 1% slope on average, but it’s a steady climb all afternoon. And a couple of quiver trees by the side of the road. The vastness of southern Namibia. Oh, perfect! Look at that. Let's explore this and have some food.
I’m starving, guys. Look at this bird's nest. Incredible! The size of it is amazing, and there are so many of them. You find these nests everywhere—since Botswana, I’ve been seeing them. I wonder what type of bird it is.
It’s like a city in the sky, a castle in the sky. Yeah, so I’ll just have the usual: carrots, an apple, some mandarins, droewors, and a bit of this stuff, which I like very much. I’m starving. Oh, man. I love these ones—very light. It reminds me of my childhood.
Cracker bread. Okay, a bit less than 30 kilometers left to the first lodge on the way. Oof, I’m tired. It’s been almost 8 hours I am on the road already, well, including the stops. For some reason, they blocked access to a potential rest area.
Weird. Tassie Fountain. As I get higher into the mountains, suddenly, a strong headwind shows up. What a day.
Oh, man, this is hard. I’m still 13 kilometers away. It’s 5 o’clock. Sunset is in an hour and a half. I'm barely going 6 or 7 kilometers per hour. Oh, man. Look at that, guys! The tree is broken under the weight of a huge nest.
Incredible! Only one bar left—10 kilometers to go. 3 kilometers to go. As soon as there’s some climbing, it’s obvious that one battery is not enough. The summit of the hill is just here. As you see, when it’s blinking like this, it means the battery is dead.
I have two and a half kilometers left, and my battery is dead. Ah, f***ing hell. Hopefully, there should be no more climbing— just flat and downhill all the way to the lodge. The police. In the end, the half-dead battery makes it to the summit of the last climb.
And you see, It's very close to sunset. Wow, that was quite a well-managed day in the end. The moon is up, there. What a beautiful landscape. It’s like being on the moon.
Here I am, arriving at the Goibib Mountain Lodge. Hopefully, they have space for me because, well, I can’t go any further. Beautiful cactus. It’s a fancy lodge. I think it’s an expensive one, but I have no choice.
Oh, there are some cars behind me. I thought it looked quite deserted. Let's see how it is. Beautiful garden, anyway.
Nice Ostrich. Here's the egg. Please ring the bell. -Hello? -Hello! Hello! Where are you? Hello! -Good? -Yes, I'm good. I'm good. How are you? -Good.
-You’re cooling down now, -huh? -Getting cooler? -Yeah, I’m cooling down, yeah. A bit tired. -Where are you coming from? -Today from Keetmanshoop. -Long way, huh? -Yeah, a long way.
It was a lot of climbing. Well, it’s not so steep, but I’m tired. It's electric but, it was hard. -It’s electric? -Yes, but I have only one battery left, so it was tough. -Okay, okay. -Do you have rooms? -Yes, we have rooms available. -How much are they? I can give you a special price—400N$ for a room.
-N$400? -Yeah. -Okay, well, that’s very cheap. I thought it would be much more. -No, it’s fine. -We make a special price for people on bicycles and such. -Awesome. That’s very nice. -Okay.
-Everyone has been very kind to me in Namibia. -Yes, good. -And will you be looking for food as well? -Yes, if I can have dinner and breakfast, that would be great. -Alright, the girls will come in for breakfast. We don’t have staff tonight; everyone’s gone off. -Okay. But we’ll see what leftovers we have, -and put something together. -Okay, great, fantastic!
-Alright, let me show you to a room. -Is it far, do I bring my bike? -just here. -It’s just here. Okay, I’ll bring my bike later. -Yeah, uh. -Hello, I'm Marius. Huh, Marius? -Marius.
-I'm Yves. -Pleased to meet you. -Nice to meet you too. -It’s here? -Yes.
-Bike will the go through the door? No. -It won’t rain, so it’s safe outside, no? -We can park it there. -Yeah, here, okay, yeah. -That will be fine, I guess. -No problem. Ah, it's beautiful here.
-I'll show you the room. I am sure the power is off. -It will come back at some point. -I'll go and switch it on now. -Okay.
Just if I could recharge my battery for tomorrow. -Here's the fridge. -Okay. -There's a charger, which we just have to check. -Fantastic. -Everything's fine. So yeah, it's all very nice.
Beautiful view, right? Awesome. -The view is amazing. -Oh my god, yeah. It's beautiful. -This is the switch for this light. -Oh, for the light, okay.
-You just pull the string for the fan. -Okay. -And then that's the switch for the bathroom. -Okay. -You're welcome to move in. -Okay, fantastic.
-Do you want me to pay you now for the room, or...? -Yeah, that's fine. -And the breakfast, how much will it be? -Uh, for the dinner and the breakfast? -the dinner and the breakfast, yeah. -I'll have to get my wife to set those prices.
So just wait until... -Okay. I'll wait until I know all the prices? -Yeah. -Okay. -I'm just gonna switch the power on. -Okay, great. Thank you very much, yeah. -Can I help you move in, or...? -Uh, no, it's okay. I'll bring the bike here. I'll take all the bags inside, and then I'll... -Well, no the bike goes through the door.
No, but we can get it on the porch. -I can park it here. No, it's safe, right? Okay. Thank you very much. I'll be fine. See you later, then. -Okay.
Oh my god. -It's been a long day. -Yeah, it's been a long day. -I left, like... well, exactly 10 hours ago. -10 hours? -Yeah, because it's electric, but I only have one battery left.
-Uh-huh. -So I stopped at Kitchen 51. -Okay. -to recharge a bit, to fill it up. And then I left at midday, half past, half past 12. -There are charging points here below this, if you want to charge batteries. There are plug points below the... -Ah, okay, okay.
-So you can even park it there and plug it in if you want. -Oh, it's okay, I can remove it, I can remove the battery, -Okay. -Now let's see, hopefully it will work in the room. -Yeah. -But if it doesn't work, then I'll go there. -Yeah. -I've been looking for, a trike myself to... -Oh, really?
-For exercise? -Yeah, it's great, yeah. -But they are... -They are very expensive. -Expensive? -Very expensive, yeah. -That's ridiculous. -Yeah. Let's check the room, guys. A beautiful room. You see, oh, look at the shower, beautiful.
You see my very beautiful room? The sun is already hidden behind the mountains, and, wow, my room is awesome. They gave me an awesome price. I mean, on the internet, it says it's 1,500 per night. And they gave me... I pay less than one-third of that. So people are just incredibly kind in Namibia. Some of the electrolytes that were given to me.
Look at this beautiful lodge, guys. See you tomorrow for the second part of the way to the border with South Africa.
2024-12-31 14:40
