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Travel: The sandpit of the gods

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Daniel Mothowagae

Normally family holidays involve using our timeshare within our borders, but we decided to do something different. This was the kiddies’ first time outside the country and the family’s longest trip by road.

The trip began a full year before we set off on our great trek to Namibia via Botswana.

HOLIDAY ON A BUDGET

Planning a family vacation with school-going kids can be quite tricky, especially when it comes to money. But we made ours a fun escape – even on a tight budget.

Our first decision was to drive rather than fly. We secured a big, comfortable car (thanks, Volkswagen SA for allowing us to test-drive the Kombi TDI). Air travel would have cost us about R18 000, but we ended up paying only R3 000 on fuel to Namibia and back, including border-crossing fees. This was easy enough to budget for beforehand.

During the year, we prepared the logistics, including pulling off the challenge of receiving the children’s unabridged birth certificates on time – a prerequisite for parents who travel with their kids outside South Africa.

Since we own timeshares – which come with a self-catering option – the approach was to “move our house”. We packed the same groceries that we would have used at home and just topped up where necessary. We packed enough food and drinks for the road to avoid spending money on take-away food.

We budgeted sufficiently for fuel more than anything, and our calculation was based on the kilometres we’d travel.

FENCELESS TERRITORIES

We drove out of our driveway in Naturena, Joburg, and headed for Rustenburg, aiming for Botswana’s Lobatse border. For two days during the first leg of our excursion, we drove along stretches of nothing but vast natural space as we cut across the southern Kalahari en route to our final destination in the Erongo Region.

Stray domestic cattle, sheep and goats became regular sights, along with the odd village dotted along the way. We even came across a group of ostriches roaming free. For a second, our little ones thought we were driving through an open zoo.

Decomposing carcasses of cows on the roadside and abandoned car bumpers bore testimony to the fate of speeding motorists, even though there are clear warning signs along the open route running between fenceless territories. Daytime driving proved the safest bet for us.

PIT STOPS

Into Botswana and, after 10 hours on the road, time to rest. We stopped overnight at Kang village, 390km from Gaborone.

There were only a handful of places to get fuel and accommodation along this route, but we had enough snacks and drinks in our mobile survival kit to keep us going.

Chasing the sunset, we went slightly over the 80km speed limit in Kang and were pulled over by traffic cops. Two officers were manning a speed trap, complete with a speed point machine to process payments.

In typical Jozi style, we sweet-talked our way out of parting with even one pula (the local currency).

We hit the road early the following morning – we had another 10 hours of open country ahead of us before we crossed the border into Namibia.

Our next stop was Gobabis, a dorpie 200km from Windhoek.

THE GIANT SANDPIT

After two days on the road, we arrived at our destination, the Sandpiper Dunes, sandwiched between a stretch of the Namib Desert’s boundless expanse of shifting sand and the Atlantic Ocean. What a truly beautiful sight.

The fully furnished two-bedroom unit with two bathrooms, a kitchen, a lounge and a play area for the kids offered us the kind of space that even the swankiest hotel couldn’t have provided. It even had an indoor braai.

The weather didn’t play along during our week-long stay, except on the eve of our departure, when we were greeted by sunshine after three days of clouds.

The quad bike and camel-riding businesses are booming in the Namib Desert, but weren’t suitable for tiny kids.

Instead, we went out to play along the dune belt. We even climbed Dune 7, a famous 383m-high mountain of sand – an accomplishment that made us feel as if we had reached the top of Kilimanjaro.

Our daughters brought back the shiny, smooth sand for show-and-tell at their schools.

LITTLE GERMANY

We were torn between touring Swakopmund and Walvis Bay, which were both 15 minutes from the Mothowagae holiday base.

In the end, we did both. Swakop, with its clean and laid-back surroundings, is mainly populated by German-speaking tourists.

Once or twice we thought there were also isiXhosa speakers in town, but they were the Damaras – the oldest inhabitants of Namibia – with their “Khoi” click language.

Walvis is perched on a spectacular harbour and makes for a great family drive, especially in a spacious kombi.

THE PERFECT FAMILY CAR

For a family accustomed to a hatchback that gets filled to the brim with school bags every day, the spacious and economical VW Kombi 2.0 TDI 103kW Comfortline was the ideal vehicle to house us all.

The drive, an epic journey of 3 666km by the time we had returned to Naturena, was remarkably comfortable, thanks to features such as cruise control, armrests and the dual-shift gearbox.

Its 2-litre diesel engine only shifted from the full tank gauge after it had covered 200km at a maximum speed of 120km/h.

For a family that was “moving house”, the boot space was big enough to fit in all our luggage and groceries with ease. We could have thrown in a bull eland from Namibia if we wanted to.

While the holiday was designed on a budget, I have half a mind to splurge everything we saved to buy our family a kombi which, appropriately enough, goes by the moniker nkomo (cow) because of its size.

*The author’s mode of transport, the VW Kombi 2.0 TDI 103kW Comfortline, was sponsored by VW

Fuel

. R3 000 (thanks to cheap diesel in the desert)

Overnight accommodation

. R772 for a family room at Kang Lodge, Kang, Botswana

. R1 050 for a family room at Goba Lodge, Gobabis, Namibia, which includes breakfast

Border fees

. Skilpadhek border: R260

. Trans Kalahari border: R242

Accommodation in Namibia

. Sandpiper Dunes family chalets from R2 100 a night for non-timeshare holders

The VW Kombi

. R493 000 for the entry-level version. Visit vw.co.za for more info


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