Namibia is awesome. Vast landscapes, dozy campsite operators and very generous South Africans have made for a brilliant first couple of days.

We took a not very well earned day off at Felix Unite the day after crossing the border and then somehow managed to cycle over 100km to Ai-Ais the next. I say somehow, what I mean is accidentally. We had had such a successful morning that we thought we’d just carry on, not realising we had misjudged the distance by about 20km, nor realising that the roads were about to get much worse.

Long story short, we got to Ai-Ais at 9pm after a hair raising, hour long, moon-lit descent, repeatedly smashing into corrugated roads and nearly each other. But at least we’d found a bar. Except we hadn’t, it was closed. We did manage to convince them to sell us a couple of bottles so we finished the evening with a bent wheel, broken pannier, missing light but, mercifully, tipsy.

It was decided (by us, but it makes me feel better to use the passive tense) that we needed another day off despite there being nothing to do at Ai-Ais except not be allowed to pay for anything by card.

We’ve been lukcy to encounter some very stupid campsite operators recently – helpfully they never bother to check if you stay longer than you initially agreed. Nor do they close the gate enough to stop two bicycles, say, from just riding out before paying. I mean, riding out thinking the place you pay was a few km down the road…

The next day we headed up to Hobas, unfortunately (I promise I mean unfortunately) we had to get a lift as we’d been left cashless – turns out card isn’t very popular here – and couldn’t buy any food. Such a shame.

Very kindly some South Africans managed to squeeze us, and our bikes, into their truck and gave us a lift. Thanks Colin, Estian and Jen for having such a big car and the stupidity – I mean generosity – to give two smelly Englishmen a lift.

We’ve now installed ourselves in the Canyon Roadhouse for the afternoon to catch up on important things like drinking, writing blogs, drinking, doing laundry and drinking. We’ll crack on again tomorrow, honest.