Saturday, 16 April: Flight Amsterdam to Johannesburg

Last minute packing, taxi for the three of us and our five bags to Schiphol, a snack after a speedy check-in, and a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt. I had chosen closely connecting flights for both the outgoing and the return trip, and this will all work without a hitch. The SAA Airbus A340 that we board in Frankfurt is filled to capacity, fortunately Maarten and I have extra leg room with a bulkhead in front of us. Marike is compensated for the normal cramped space by the pleasant company of a lady from Zambia, on the way back home after a stint in Sweden.

It's good to fly SAA: Castle Lager! And the food is decent. It looks like I'm the only one who gets some solid sleep, I wake up again over Zambia and we see the Kafue River, Lake Kariba, and then an early morning descent into Jo'burg.

Sunday, 17 April: Flight Jo'burg to Windhoek; 17 km

We have coffee and pastries in the Johannesburg smoking lounge, then board the SAA flight to Windhoek. It's cloudy over the Kalahari and we don't get a good view until the plane is low over the Nossob River. Touchdown at sunny Hosea Kutako is at noon, the police formalities are a bit slow, our bags have all made it, and customs is as usual not at all interested in our stack of bags. And now to be picked up by the driver from the ASCO car rental (www.ascocarhire.com/) ....... who isn't there. This is not good for my mood, and on top of that their phone numbers seem to have changed.

I ask around with the other drivers waiting to pick up passengers if they've seen their ASCO colleague, and one of them points at a van just coming in: he's only a bit late after having to bring in clients from another flight. He takes us down the familiar road to Windhoek at high speed, to our delight the countryside looks nice and green, as was also to be expected after the reports of a good rainy season.

We're in for a surprise in Windhoek: the driver doesn't take the usual road to Diehl Str., but instead takes another route down to premises opposite Krupp street, to which, as he explains, ASCO has recently moved - with a change in phone numbers as well. Our friend Robby, the chief mechanic, no longer works at ASCO, but has been succeeded by the equally friendly Peter. Pat, the long-haired Belgian manager, is also around: he explains that the V6 we'll be getting is the car that he usually drives around in, the sister to the other dark grey V6 that we had last year, and which in fact is now standing in the yard, ready to receive an affectionate pat on the hood.

Our V6 has 43K on the odometer, looks to be in a fine condition, and we quickly go through the inventory - much of it immediately ditched in favour of our own small and tested lightweight gear. The rear tyres are new 'Super Digger-V' Yokohama's, the front tyres the same Yokohama's, used but very evenly worn. No need for a test-drive, and we leave the premises at 14.30, the V6 gently growling out her power; for effect, Pat had seen fit to remove the rear muffler.

Now to do some shopping, most supermarkets have already closed as we find out, but the tested small HyperSave at the Game mall is open as expected. Marike and I raid the premises and succeed in doing more than half of our shopping, including the ingredients for this evening's braai, as well as firewood. We proceed to the ASCO B&B in Academia, on the opposite side of the Eros runway from the Arrebusch Travel Lodge where we stayed on previous editions. It has everything one needs, a decent and friendly place, and enough space to get our stuff spread out and arranged into the car. And, of course, cold Windhoek Lager!

The first braai is tried. The lack of smaller pieces of wood and an axe to correct for that, makes for a lousy performance with the otherwise excellent boerewors ('farmer’s sausage'- lean sausage with a typical SA spice mix in it). So we improvise, have a fair meal anyway, and enjoy our first evening in Windhoek on the porch. Our hostess Marthe starts to move her ample figure around in a red night-gown to place the padlocks on the porch doors, a good reminder that we're really tired, so we turn in around ten.

Monday 18 April: Windhoek - Intu Africa (near Mariental); 257 km

Breakfast on the porch: 'African', which in Namibia means boerewors, scrambled eggs and toast. A mighty TransNamib freight train passes by with a loud labouring roar of her diesels. We say goodbye to Marthe and start the morning's errands at ASCO to dump the pillows that we had forgotten to ditch and see about a creditcard glitch that happened yesterday. That solved, we proceed to the Auas Friendly supermarket, where Marike and I succeed in finding all the remaining articles on the extensive shopping list in a mere 40 minutes. Then Maarten and I hop over to the adjoining AGRA (the Namibian farmers' wholesale supermarket and hardware chain - www.agra.com.na/) where we pick up a sambok (bull-whip) and an small sturdy axe. Next is a visit to the Safari Den, an AGRA subsidiary, for a kattie (sling-shot with armrest) and a 20 L extra fuel container (aka 'the bomb') for our planned trip through the Kaokoveld.

But that isn't all: we specifically came to the Safari Den to find the article that we hoped would be central to the culinary experience of this trip, and indeed they have it: the Super Potjie! The Super Potjie (www.atlasfalkirk.co.za/SuperPotjie/superpotjie.htm) is the deluxe version of the old flat cast iron pot, fully enamelled, with some nifty features, a collapsible wrought-iron tripod and a handy carry-case. We buy one, including an extra tripod, and lug the instrument to the car, glowing with anticipation of what we're going to do with this magnificent piece of ultra-heavyweight camping equipment.

To finish off our shopping, we proceed to Schnapps Platz, the bottlestore where we've become steady (if infrequent) clients. To make sure that we'd find everything we wanted, I had phoned a week ago and was immediately recognised. No problem at all, and a stack of trays of Windhoek and Castle Lager awaits us, as well as some boxes of Namaqua Dry Red ('dooswyn') and a tray of Appletizer apple juice. We chat with the proprietor while he sells loose cigarettes and pieces of candy to other customers, a rather typical extra function of the Namibian 'drankwinkel'. Getting all of the stuff, including the 'Intruder Bush' bag of charcoal (a charcoal made from the by-product of the fight against bush-encroachment on some of Nambia's rangeland; see www.economist.com.na/2005/11mar/11-04-14.htm) into the car requires some (re)organisation, but we manage. Our friend urges us to pass by on our way back, which we promise to do.

It's now 10.30 in the morning, and as the shopping has been a warm experience, we decide to take the B1 down to Rehoboth and not the scenic route I had planned on taking. On the B1 we pass a car crawling along with a bent rear axle - hobbling like a wounded beetle. Amazingly, it manages to keep going and passes us again with its sheepishly grinning occupants when we stop for coffee along the roadside. We test-fire the kattie at the stop's garbage bin, admire our fine potjie, and continue around noon.

Marike suggests that we take the C25 from Rehoboth, which we do. The gruispad (gravel road) is excellent, and the first Kalahari dunes appear as Maarten turns up U2's 'It's a beautiful day' on his I-pod with FM adapter, allowing for the music to be picked up and amplified by the car’s radio. Other traffic is now scarce, yellow flowers dot the roadside, and after taking the C15 at Uhlenhorst (little more than a cattlepost with a fuel station) we come to Hoachanas, formerly the capital of the 'Red Nation', one of the 'Oorlam' Nama groups who vied for control over the central Namibian rangelands in the latter half of the 19th century. Whatever glory Hoachanas may once have known is now a thing of the past, for we see little more than a collection of corrugated iron shacks amidst hopelessly overgrazed land.

We're now getting close to Intu Africa (www.thirstlandadventures.namibia.na/), the private reserve that is today's destination. Briefly on the C21, then left on the D1268, passing Panama farm, a fine example of old colonial farm architecture. The road winds through Kalahari dunes until we come the Intu's gate, around 1500, and proceed to the lodge through lush grassland: obviously, the rains here have been just about as good as they had been on our previous visit in 2000. At the lodge, we are met by Bernd and Henrik, who explain that their tented camps in which I had made a self-catering booking, are undergoing maintenance. So, we'll be upgraded to the main lodge, and are shown where we can cook at the lodge's little-used lapa (thatched place for relaxing and dining, usually comes with a fireplace and braai facilities).