Day 5: Palmwag Lodge to Opuwo

We started around 10 am from Palmwag and drove towards Seesfontain. Just after Palmwag, the GPS card from 4 x4 tracks that Bru had showed a panorama view point approximately 4 km off track in the direction we were travelling. We decided to take that route, which turned out to be a proper 4 x 4 track, with uneven and very rocky tracks. The moving was very slow, but in the end the view was really nice. We stayed there for some time and took some snaps before turning back to the main road.

On the way we made a stop at the old german fort at Seesfontain. The once ruined fort was renovated and converted into a hotel in 1994. Inside the fort it was like an oasis in the desert, very green and with palm trees providing the much needed shade in the arid region. They even had a pool. We stayed longer than we planned, had a drink and had toast for lunch. After about 2 hrs there we were on the road again towards Opuwo. The landscape changed dramatically and the route was more mountainous, with curvy and narrow roads, steep climbs and lot of dry streams crossing the roads. Some of the regions we crossed were very green with lot of mopane trees. We stopped on the top of a hill to have a photo of the road and the valley downstream. A few meters afterwards we had a flat tyre!! I think it happened as we parked the car on those sharp rocks. The tyre had two big cuts on the sides. The hot afternoon made the tyre change with the entire luggage inside extremely difficult. And that too on the side of a very dusty dirt road.  After the tyre change we drove towards Opuwo which was about 15 km away.

Opuwo is a relatively big town and if I am right the last town before the Himba region of Kaokoland in the north of Namibia. We camped at the Mopane camp, about 4.5 km off road, in the midst of mopane trees. It was a nice place and both of us were very tired. The camp had only chalet kind of accommodation, but they still let us camp there as there were no other guests.