Eventful First Week!

Having left Franschhoek early on Wednesday 10th August our vehicles were brilliant for a whole two hours of our journey! On our climb up the pass near Clan William, the landrover started to over heat and continued to do so for the next 5 days! Shorlty after a quick mend by Pete, we stopped in Citrusdal to mend a fuel leak on the truck. These delays meant we had to stay over night in Vanrhynsdorp where a mechanic came out to try to fix the land rover. However this was not to be so plans to go across the Kgalagardi were cancelled and we drove North to Namibia in the hope that we would make it to Keetmanshoop to see the 'best land rover fixer in Southern Africa'! Luckily for us we did make it to the Namibian border where we stayed for the night and then made it on to Ai Ais for a swim in the springs and a trip to see Fish River Canyon - both definitely worth a visit. Sunday took us on a 180 km journey to the land rover man's farm! This should have taken us 2 hours but took 12 hours resulting in us arriving to set up camp at midnight! Both land rover and truck broke down simultaneously and after a few generous offers of help a Namibian farmer called out a mechanic he knew who lived 90 km away! The very kind man persevered with both the truck and the land rover which limped the next 20 km or so until he had made a fix! after 2 days on the farm replacing the cylinder head gasket, turbo and sorting out some hosing we were on our way again! We arrived in Windhoek yesterday to find that we  need a new tyre for the truck! We must surely now be ok with the vehicles and yes Johannes of land rover fame in Keetmanshoop certainly lives up to his reputation! What we have learnt from this is that the people in Namibia have all been incredibly helpful and kind to us along our way.