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Our search for the Desert Elephant.
My trail started at the campsite at Otjinungwa along the Kunene River and ended at Palmwag.

Otjinungwa
We left this rocky camp late morning and took a drive along the river towards the rapids, about 6-8 km from the campsite. Once again we were greeted by the cool waters of the Kunene and the green ravine plants. It still amazes me to find a river with lush green vegetation, surrounded by the harsh desert landscape.
 
 

We left the river and followed our tracks back to Marienfluss Junction (41 km) and kept right for Rooidrom.

Before the junction, we came across a stranded truck. I stopped to offer some assistance, but the owner had everything under control. It was quite clear that he was very familiar with the repair of a leaking radiator, as he had all the neccessary tools at hand. Looking at the old radiator, I thought that there was possibly more lead than water in it!

Rooidrom
From the Marienfluss Junction I had no knowledge of the distance to Rooidrom and with the Shell Map as my only guide, we followed the road. Rooidrom is a bright painted red drum and act as a  road sign or beacon. Here you can decide, either to turn left towards Orumpembe through the Rooidrom Pass or go straight for the turn-off to the Hartmann Valley.

I wanted to visit the Hartmann Valley, but the boys were getting restless with all the hours driving. We carried straight on up to the Hartmann Junction and then took the left turn to Purros.

Hartmann Junction to Purros Junction ( 73 km)
The road goes through endless rocky plains and we saw a great number of Gemsbok and Ostrich. The sun was high and it was difficult to judge the white gravel road as I had lost my sunglasses at Van Zyl's Pass, but we managed to drive at a high speed of 90 km/h. We arrived at the Purros Junction late afternoon.

Purros Junction to Purros. (104 km)
At the Purros Junction we turned right towards Purros. Orupembe is about 4 km to the left. Once again you travel through open Namibian plains. The sun was setting when we reached the Khumib River. The river cuts through a mountain on the right hand side of the road and I suggested to the boys that we should camp next to the mountain as I didn't want to keep on driving at night and miss the desert scenery. The boys was not to keen and just then a road sign appeared out of nowhere. "Purros Camping with Exclusive toilets and showers". I can not recall the distance but the kids made it clear they wanted to camp there for the night as darkness was already creeping over the plains. That settled the case in the boys' favour. I was out numbered anyway!

A road sign said that the campsite is still 5 km ahead as the track started to change from hard gravel to soft sand. Eventually we arrived at the campsite, 10 km from the 5 km sign! We were greeted by a electrical light at the "Office" The gatekeeper looked totally uninterested and informed me that the camp was full. I was not impressed with his attitude as I have become accustomed to friendly, helpful people all along. I saw no camp boundaries and thus could not understand how, without even getting up, the camp could possibly be full. Upset, I made a U-turn and retraced my tracks and followed a road to my left, just after the "Purros Camp" sign and crossed a river bed. In the light of the Landrover we saw Elephant droppings which were very old. I thought that we were on the road to Sesfontein and followed the road for another 8 km's, turned off and parked underneath an old Ana tree. There was no need to pitch the tent as the air was quite warm. We collected some wood, made a fire and had a quick dinner before creeping in to our sleeping bags.

The next morning we discovered that we camped close to a huge gravel heap. We explored the heap and the view from the top was magnificent. We were on the bank of the Hoarusib River and many years ago, this must have been a mighty big river. It was wide. The mountains on the other side was tinged red as the sun rose over the mountain behind us. It was silent.

After breaking up camp we followed our tyre tracks back to the "Office" because our beverage supply was running out, and we had no idea where the next shop would be. The same man greeted us, this time a bit friendlier and we asked if he sells cold drink and beer. Fortunately the shop was stocked well with cold drink and beer but at a price, naturally! We paid N$5-00 per tin! It was obvious that he had the monopoly as his shop/office was the only facility around. On the other hand, it was a communal campsite and probably depends on tourists for their income. I asked him about the Elephants and he advised us to drive up the river as he had heard that there was a small herd, not that far from the camp. With that he gave me permission to drive in the river bed.

We were very excited and eager to see a desert Elephant and thanked him as we drove away towards the river. This excursion was not planned for and we set aside 30 minutes for driving up the river and 30 minutes back. We were not fortunate enough to see any Elephant but there was plenty evidence that they were around. After an hour we were back at Purros. I placed my hopes to see a desert Elephant on Amspoort, our next destination.

Purros to Amspoort ( 82 km)

After leaving the river I had no idea where the road to Amspoort was. All I knew that there is a turn-off to the right, 6 km from Purros on the Sesfontein road. We had to find the center of Purros to zero the trip meter. Once again, although Purros is printed in bold caption on the map, it is not a "town", rather a gathering of small huts around a road junction. We managed to find the junction and was surprised to see a road sign showing the direction to Sesfontein. We zeroed the trip meter and followed the wide gravel road as it crossed the Huarisib River towards Sesfontein. In the river bed was a big thron tree and we were stunned to see our first "desert" Giraffe underneath it. Stunned, yes, because this was the last animal we would've associated with the desert. We are used to see this magnificent animal in the dense bush of the Kruger National Park, although we did see them crossing the plains at Etosha and now we found them in the desert. It was an amazing sight.

We carried on driving but 6 kms passed without a road on our right. The Sesfontein road, according to the map, crosses the river and then cuts through the mountains on the bank of the river. The road to Amspoort should be before the mountain. We made a U-turn and eventually found several tracks made by previous travelers making the same U-turn as us, all of them following a very small track into the river. About mid way into the river bed, there was a track to our left. After consulting the map, we realised that it was one of those "No Entry" roads and carried on.

We drove through a gorge towards the north-west. I had the co-ordinances for Amspoort and the GPS indicated that we were driving in the wrong direction.
 
 

I had a bad feeling about the current direction and about the turn-off we took from the main road but decided to carry on for another 10 kms before making a U-turn.

The map indicated that we would drive in a north-westerly direction, then the track will turn towards the west and shortly after it would turn in a south-westerly direction. I was counting on the turn towards the west and according to the map its a short drive from the turn-off. The main problem was that there was no indication of distance on the map and we were not sure if the current road was indeed the road to Amspoort. At 8 km we saw the turn towards the west at a distance and I could almost hear the boys sign with relief. The road cut through the hills and we came to a T-junction. The road to the left and to the south-western direction were more traveled than to the right and we followed the the tracks to the left. We elected to follow the track to the left simply because it looked more used than the track to the right.

The GPS was once again very happy about our direction as we crossed the Ganias Plain. We could see the start of the coastal dunes on our right and we were then assured of our location on the map as the track on the map follows the boundaries of the Skeleton Coast National Park. We saw several Springbok and the occasional Gemsbok. We were amazed to see dry Elephant droppings on these God forgotten plains.

The co-ordinates on the GPS were telling us that we had reached Amspoort. There was nothing there to tell us where we were. A convoy of six 4x4's passed us from the front, covering us in thick dust and not too far out to the left in a southern direction, another vehicle was battling through the dust. Was that the road to Sesfontein, our next destination? It was past 13:00 when we followed some tracks heading towards the boundaries of the Skeleton Park.

Down the hill and into the river bed of the Huanib we reached a sign denying us further entrance as we had reached the boundary of the Skeleton Park. Underneath a tree we had a light lunch, a bit unpleasant as the wind started to blow.

Towards the west the sky was dusty, a sure sign of a sandstorm.

We drove back to the spot where we last saw the convoy and turned south, following a river bed as the map also indicated that the road will follow the Huanib River.

Shortly after we entered the sandy river bed, we spotted our first desert Elephant.   It was truly a wonderful experience to witness this huge animal in the desert. It was smaller than the Elephant of the Kruger Park. It's trunk was sweeping the ground underneath the thorn tree, searching for the sweet seedpods of the tree, a delicacy not only to the Elephant but to all animals this time of the year. A short drive later, three other Elephants we grazing on the banks of the river. Occasionally we drove through shallow water and as the sun was setting we had to stop at a "Courtesy Stop". There was a chain across the road and a small dwelling on the left. A man and two young kids approached the Landrover. We had to buy a permit to drive around Damaraland. Although there were some information regarding this permit in the book the man gave me, I was confused as the permit had the words "Palmwag Concession" on it. We were miles away from Palmwag and I was not sure if this was a scam by the locals. The sun was setting and I decided not to start a lengthy conversation as there was a obviously going to be a communication problem. We paid the necessary fees and left the "Courtesy Stop" A few kilometers later we came to a stop.

In the last light of the day, several tracks laid in front of us, some were very deep. Which one should we follow and will the decided track take us to our destination? We closed the windows, set the gearbox to Low range and followed a track. As we hit the soft sand, the Landrover was instantly covered in very fine dust. Suddenly it was dark inside as we game to a halt. We waited for the dust to settle and advanced very slowly forward as the deep tracks left us no choice as to which track to follow.

It was well dark when we reached the main Purros - Sesfontein gravel road. We were covered in with fine dust. We certainly proved that the Landrover is not to be dust proof at all and we longed for a hotshower. We planned to pass Sesfontein and camp somewhere along the road but the need to clean ourselves changed our minds and we found ourselves desperately hoping for a campsite at Sesfontein.

As we entered the small village of  Sesfontein, a sign indicated camping facilities at Fort Sesfontein. Halleluja! A hot shower although it was also a piepie de lux special. I had no urge to prepare dinner and we headed for the dining room at the Fort. We were well recieved by the young caretaker and chief, Jaco de Wet Burger. The Fort itself is not very attractive, badly renovated through the years but there are signs that the current owners want to renovated it to its former glory. After an enjoyable dinner we hit the sleeping bags. It has been a long day's drive but a very rewarding one. We saw our Desert Elephant.