I have received these last days two surprising emails from people who have found my blog, illustrating the magic of the internet. First, from Eric, who grew up in Cameroon, near Ebolowa and the road checkpoint where Cyril and I stopped to buy bananas and sugarcane. He even recognized one kid on a photo. I guess there are not many pictures on the internet of most of the places I traveled through.

The second email is hardly believable. In February, I left Quibaxe, a small mountain town in Angola, with a deflating tire. I stopped in a tiny village to change the unreliable Chinese inner tube. I went into the ruins of a house to unpack and repair, protected from the harsh sun. I had put online a photo of my bicycle upside down and the dilapidated house. Lately, Luis emailed me saying that his wife’s family grew up in that very same house. The world and the internet are big, yet this connection happened. His wife’s grandfather had moved to Portuguese Angola to grow coffee, and he built the church of another photoof mine.

The network is excellent in Namibia, I can get MTC’s internet almost everywhere. Showers in campsite are always warm; it is incredible how the living and touring standard made a huge stride forward when crossing from Angola to Namibia.

アウトジョからコリクサスまで、私はシンプルだけど退屈な130キロの舗装道路を通るか、ウガブのテラスとヴィンガークリップを通る並行の砂利道を選ぶことができる。もちろん、私は後者を選ぶ。

舗装道路の最初の20キロは非常に速いが、ヴィンガークリップのためのD2752への曲がり角までは。数字が多いほど、道路は狭くなり、風景が美しくなりやすい。

この道路には大きな農場とゲームランチしかない。私はガムスボク（オリックス）を驚かせるだけだ。

There is a farm every 10 kilometers, so the population density is way below the national average of 2.5 /km², yet the network coverage is excellent.

This place is called the Ugab terrace, after the name of the Ugab river, flowing mostly underground for 500 km. It is an ephemeral river taking the water from the Etosha pan to the Atlantic ocean. I’ve never seen water in it, but animals can find pools and I heard there are some springs around. It still looks very dry to me.

All these farm names, Eendrag, Nuremberg, Moselle, can be found on the map of Namibia I was talking about earlier, along the Ugab river.

After opening and closing the gates of all the farms than span on the D2712, I finally reach Vingerklip, the rock finger, with the sunset. It feels like a canyon; Damaraland is a dry and hostile region but truly a beautiful place.

At Vingerklip, in the middle of nowhere, there is a luxury lodge. It still hard to believe that I’m in Africa, when I find water / electricity / restaurants / tourists after 100 km of gravel road, but Namibia is like that.

The point I like about (luxury) lodges in Namibia is that they often have a campsite, so it’s possible to have a warm shower and recharge my batteries where I least expect it. Unfortunately, the Vingerklip lodge has no campsite. There is one 10 km away, but it’s too late and I’m tired enough. The owners allow me to camp within the boundaries of the lodge, away from the luxury. It means that I will sleep within a game reserve, with kudus, gemsboks, warthogs, and (hopefully not curious) baboons.

I clear a piece of land from the thorns so that I can set up my tent, seal tightly all my bags, and hope I won’t receive a visit.

実際、真夜中頃に、誰かが私のテントの周りで何かを探している。野生に出て行くことはお勧めできない（捕食者にテントの中に新鮮な肉があることを知らせない方が安全）、しかし周りにはおそらく獲物しかいないと思うので、その disturbance を追い払おうとする。どの動物だったのかは見えなかったが、多分野生の豚だ。

このダマラランドの一帯は、低くなった周辺の風景から突き出た急峻なインセルバーグに適している。贅沢なビュッフェの朝食で一日を贅沢にした後（朝食でそんなに食べて、夕食までお腹が空かないのだろうか？）、Vingerklipの周りのこれらの崖を探る時間だ。

The lodge has built a restaurant and a luxury villa on the top of this cliff. A 15 min hike is necessary to reach it, via a long staircase.

The Vingerklip (rock finger) attraction is not as impressive as the now collapsedMukurob (finger of God) in Southern Namibia, but it illustrates how the extreme erosion is shaping Damaraland. The 35 meter high Vingerklip is made of the 100 m thick layer of sediments deposed by the Ugab river more than 2 million years ago.

The gravel road from Vingerklip back to Khorixas is tough. I’m suffering from the heat and the flies. On the way, there are what people call “Black communities” instead of White farmers. It seems that while White farmers tend to live alone and far from the main road, in nicely equipped houses, the Blacks live in groups and closer to the main road with the cattle roaming around numerous car wrecks. That’s much better for me as I can get water!

Sadly, the taps plugged to the tanks deliver too much green algae alongside with the water. The tanks are probably dirty and a perfect bacteria culture, so I skip water for now.

私は何人かのサイクリストに出会い、私たちは合意しました：ナミビアで最も厄介なのはハエだと。ほとんどの時間、約20匹のハエが私の頭にまとわりつき、耳、鼻、目に入ろうとします。彼らは私の休憩を非常に不快にし、私がどれだけ速くペダルを漕いでも決して私を放っておいてはくれません。

私は土曜日の午後にホリキサスに到着しますが、大きな都市のスーパーを除いて、ナミビアでは土曜日の正午から月曜日の朝まで全てが閉まります。運が悪いことに、さらに西に進むと、ホリキサスはしばらくの間最後の町になります。キャンプ場では、チャンピオンズリーグ決勝、アトレティコ対レアルを見ることができます。

ホリキサスから、トワイフェルフォンテインを含む美しいダマラランドの奥へ進みます…