Solitaire
An adult who can’t play Solitaire?
No number of preparation sessions can prepare you for everything. It is good, even noble to prepare, to run scenarios, and anticipate problems and their solutions. Especially when travelling. When you are on a road trip all your preparations aren’t enough for what both you and your car haven’t encountered yet. I’d submit that Daniel really knows how to plan. I might even too my own horn that I too can plan. Everyone on the trip knew the plan, had the group plan, and had their own plan for individual activities.
Having a definite plan is definitely better than have a vague plan. Having a vague plan is worse than having no plan. But no plan is wholly proofed to the curveballs that life might throw your way. And this day, as we marked a midpoint of our trip, we were about to find out how talented we were at dodging and catching the throws.
That day we expected to meet another group of Tanzanians also driving from Dar through Namibia to South Africa and back. They left Tanzania after us, had caught up with us by reaching Walvis Bay the night before, and were going to reach South Africa, and ultimately Tanzania before us. While we were taking major pauses to take the countries in, and driving slowly, they were passing through most of the countries and driving fast. When joining a group trip make sure you share a travelling philosophy.
Daniel got up early as usual, except this morning he was having bad earache. I also got up early as usual, except this morning Eunice decided to ask me if I don’t like sleep at all. After morning routines and showering (for which ladies commented that some guys were taking long showers ‘for a guy’), we checked out of the chalets and headed out. Our first stop was meeting with the other group. We exchanged travel stories a bit, got acquainted with each other, and took a few photos.
Since we were leaving Walvis Bay that day heading towards Sesriem/Sossusvlei, we promised to share experiences of the road. After Walvis Bay, most of the road to Sesriem is gravel, but it is great quality that you can even do 100kph. We would soon forget that we had agreed to this. See a friend had warning us that there was a 40km stretch on which we shouldn’t do high speed. We were enjoying our speed too much to remember that.
Then a South African guy who was clearly drunk and driving Ford truck, turned around and parked beside us and told we were crazy driving Mercedes w123 and w126 on that road. He said we are not going to make it. We dismissed him a normal ‘hater’. After a short of driving on the stretch, Daniel started hearing ‘expensive noises’ on the w126. After stopping and checking we realized that the rear shocks had given up and now the car was bouncing like a tennis ball.
To balance weight, some of the heavier luggage was moved to w123, but even with that, it meant the w126 can’t go fast because any road hiccup, means they hit the ground because of the bounce. It moved from bad to worse when after a while me and Daud who were in the w123 and was ahead of the w126 noticed that we can’t see w126 behind us. We parked for a while assuming perhaps they gave us a distance because of the dust we were throwing up behind us.
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After several minutes we suspected something was off and turned around and drove back. The w126 had suddenly switched off on its own. The bouncing made one of the bolts of the fuel pump to be loose. It took us 4 trials and errors to ascertain this as the actual problem. Daud, who is a skilled mechanic for old school Mercedes, tightened it and we were on our way.
We reached the Tropic of Capricorn, and here we stopped to take photos in honour of our Geography teachers who taught us of this imaginary line that we had never seen. The drive from here was through some hills, and the car temperatures started going up. w126 had to switch off AC to lessen the engine load. And with maintaining speed, we both managed to keep the temperatures manageable.
Then it decided to move from worse to worst because both cars were slowing heating up and the w126 registering engine temperature of 120C (250F), gave up and switched off, and smoke was coming from the hood. All we were hoping is that it is not the cylinder head. By good chance it was just one of the pipes that decided to retire. We tried to fix it with what we had, but it was not working.
We had a brilliant idea, let the w123 tow the w126. We checked online towing laws in Namibia and then we started. But the 2 tonnes that w126 was bringing to this equation made the w123 start to overheat. We didn’t want to risk it, so we decided the w123 should go ahead and ‘find a way to help’. We were thinking maybe a tow truck. 22km ahead, we arrived at a small settlement that had one church, one gasoline station, one bakery, one cafe, one restaurant, one place to sleep, one general dealership, and one manager.
Daud immediately loved the place, because of its rustic old-school element that is designed into the environment. They had a late 1800 telegram machine, 9 old-school car bodies, 2 windmills, 1 vintage fuel pump, 1 phone booth — and the place is the only settlement between Walvis Bay and the sand dunes of Sossusvlei. We instantly started asking about the history of the place, and the manager was the right person. He gave us a quick brief and gave us a guy to help with our pipe need.
Me, Amanda, and Nancy checked the one place to sleep and secured with word-bond (the card to pay was left with the w126) rooms to sleep. I then went and joined Daud in trying to find a fix for the w126. We found a pipe replacement for NAD 15 (~$1) only! We filled every bottle we had with water, and we were about to leave when Amanda brought drinking water and bites to take back to the group that was left behind. Thank God for women. Me and Daud had not even thought that those people need water!
We drove back the 22km, got the w126 fixed and put water in, and we all drove back to the settlement. People loved this beautiful gem in the middle of nowhere, and after freshening up, we had a group dinner at a table for 8 as the sun was setting. Eunice said this is the most romantic place ever, and I don’t think it is because she had been in the sun a lot that day. This small town is just beautiful.
It turns out it was named by Elsie Sophia van Coller, the wife of Willem Christoffel van Coller, the guy who founded the settlement back in 1948. She picked the name because it had two meanings: a single set diamond and solitude. She wanted the name of the settlement to say that place is a unique one-of-a-kind precious place that is in a solitary place. The name she had given to the settlement, was Solitaire.
After dinner I took a dip into their swimming pool. And in it, it downed on me that I am an adult, who doesn’t know how to play Solitaire the game in Microsoft Windows. But at least before I went to sleep, I had Nancy explain to me what the game is about. I think I can explain to another person. Or not. I am not sure. Life can throw you curveballs, but surely you may also be finding the best gem because of that. Keep moving forward.
What I am sure of, is that God willing, I want to go back to Namibia. I want to go back to that diamond that you can find in the sands of the desert of Namibia. I want to go back to Solitaire.
