← Continued from Page 6 of "2010 BMW X5 Adventure Trip in Namibia"DAY 6 – MORE OFF-ROAD MEANS MORE FUN
Although we were extremely tired, the morning was started (or it was still night?) by some over-lousy birds but the view was absolutely gorgeous, just like in a painting with a pure blue sky.
The guides rushed to inform us that we'll have to face a pretty long and exhausting day, so water and sandwiches should be the main things inside our bags. The BMW representative, Helmuth Pohl, explained to us how to play the co-pilot role and help the driver pass over the difficult off-road zones.
Around 20 kilometers to exit the Ali Aiba farm, plus 100 other kilometers on paved roads, after which we stopped near a tiny bazaar were we found all kinds of semi-precious rocks taken from the desert. The irony was that we tried to give some candies to local children but the only things we got were Diet Cola and... weight loss bars...
Tim, the local leader of the expedition, pulled the wheel and guided us on a road near an uranium mine, thus reaching some kind of old copper mine. We stepped into an old river march, probably created by an ancient river but brought back to life by a bunch of BMWs looking to test their off-road abilities. Tim was driving a Land Rover but, because there was no road ahead, we created our very own, thus trying to see what the X5 was up to on such a difficult terrain. We were really impressed by the X5's behavior because we managed to stay pretty close to the Land Rover, a more appropriate model for the local conditions.
Probably the toughest test was to get over a bunch of trees to continue the trip and we must admit it was pretty fun to hear all those scratching noises all around the car. Since the cars did not belong to us, we pushed the throttle pedal without even thinking about consequences, but this proved to be the smartest thing to do.
The first time we got stuck in the mud we also learned how to get out through forward-backward moves which are often useless on snow, especially because this way the wheels go deeper into the snow until they reach the ice.
Even if the X5 doesn't come with lockable differentials, disabling the traction control by pressing the DTC button for 10 seconds changes the setup by equally sending power to each part of the car, thus improving the off-road performance in certain conditions.
This is exactly the way we managed to travel for about 20 kilometers, a journey which took around 4 hours, after which one of the drivers decided to go back to the hotel and have a rest.
We and Tim continued the trip towards the Atlantic, passing over sand dunes and green areas full of all kinds of bushes. The worst thing that could have happened to us actually happened when trying to get through a swamp, as our X5, pretty powerful until that moment, got gloriously stuck in the mud.
The mud was fairly gluey, accompanied by a terrible smell and that's all-right given the fact that the bog was full of bovine urine...
This is how a new adventure started.
The Land Rover got stuck too while trying to move our car for at least one inch. He didn't make it. Our very own white horse hero came in the form of a Toyota Hilux belonging to a few local Namibians, but don't imagine it was too easy to get out of there. In fact, it was difficult like hell and we got it just after the first towing rope has broken and the Toyota was inches away from getting stuck too.
After several attempts, we managed to push both the Land Rover and the X5 out of the mud but, since we were already there, the American team wanted to give it a try as well. The result was unsurprising at all: they got stuck in the mud just like a super glue on your fingers... In order to push the cars, the team members had to remove their shoes and jump off the cars but this wasn't a problem at all, we actually felt like we were dealing with some kind of SPA therapy.
We had nothing to do than to drive on a shorter route through the desert and go towards the paved roads. Later that day we also heard that the off-road potent Toyota remained captive as well, just like the Nissan Patrol that was supposed to help it. Only a powerful tractor actually managed to came to the rescue...
One of the main activities in the desert was drifting and, just like expected, some of the cars couldn't get out of there anymore, so the sand quickly became the new mud.
Swakopmund was our next destination, as we were scheduled to sleep at the Butique Hotel. After one hour of beauty treatment, we went to a German restaurant called Bierhause where we ordered all kinds of goodies, such as fish, pork, beef and Orix in very large quantities.
Our next destination was a local music club, somewhat like an old disco full of beer, including Namibia's national drink, Jegermeister.
A few hours later, we've been told that the next day is going to be even more exhausting. No sh*t!
The guides rushed to inform us that we'll have to face a pretty long and exhausting day, so water and sandwiches should be the main things inside our bags. The BMW representative, Helmuth Pohl, explained to us how to play the co-pilot role and help the driver pass over the difficult off-road zones.
Around 20 kilometers to exit the Ali Aiba farm, plus 100 other kilometers on paved roads, after which we stopped near a tiny bazaar were we found all kinds of semi-precious rocks taken from the desert. The irony was that we tried to give some candies to local children but the only things we got were Diet Cola and... weight loss bars...
Tim, the local leader of the expedition, pulled the wheel and guided us on a road near an uranium mine, thus reaching some kind of old copper mine. We stepped into an old river march, probably created by an ancient river but brought back to life by a bunch of BMWs looking to test their off-road abilities. Tim was driving a Land Rover but, because there was no road ahead, we created our very own, thus trying to see what the X5 was up to on such a difficult terrain. We were really impressed by the X5's behavior because we managed to stay pretty close to the Land Rover, a more appropriate model for the local conditions.
Probably the toughest test was to get over a bunch of trees to continue the trip and we must admit it was pretty fun to hear all those scratching noises all around the car. Since the cars did not belong to us, we pushed the throttle pedal without even thinking about consequences, but this proved to be the smartest thing to do.
The first time we got stuck in the mud we also learned how to get out through forward-backward moves which are often useless on snow, especially because this way the wheels go deeper into the snow until they reach the ice.
Even if the X5 doesn't come with lockable differentials, disabling the traction control by pressing the DTC button for 10 seconds changes the setup by equally sending power to each part of the car, thus improving the off-road performance in certain conditions.
This is exactly the way we managed to travel for about 20 kilometers, a journey which took around 4 hours, after which one of the drivers decided to go back to the hotel and have a rest.
We and Tim continued the trip towards the Atlantic, passing over sand dunes and green areas full of all kinds of bushes. The worst thing that could have happened to us actually happened when trying to get through a swamp, as our X5, pretty powerful until that moment, got gloriously stuck in the mud.
The mud was fairly gluey, accompanied by a terrible smell and that's all-right given the fact that the bog was full of bovine urine...
This is how a new adventure started.
The Land Rover got stuck too while trying to move our car for at least one inch. He didn't make it. Our very own white horse hero came in the form of a Toyota Hilux belonging to a few local Namibians, but don't imagine it was too easy to get out of there. In fact, it was difficult like hell and we got it just after the first towing rope has broken and the Toyota was inches away from getting stuck too.
After several attempts, we managed to push both the Land Rover and the X5 out of the mud but, since we were already there, the American team wanted to give it a try as well. The result was unsurprising at all: they got stuck in the mud just like a super glue on your fingers... In order to push the cars, the team members had to remove their shoes and jump off the cars but this wasn't a problem at all, we actually felt like we were dealing with some kind of SPA therapy.
We had nothing to do than to drive on a shorter route through the desert and go towards the paved roads. Later that day we also heard that the off-road potent Toyota remained captive as well, just like the Nissan Patrol that was supposed to help it. Only a powerful tractor actually managed to came to the rescue...
One of the main activities in the desert was drifting and, just like expected, some of the cars couldn't get out of there anymore, so the sand quickly became the new mud.
Swakopmund was our next destination, as we were scheduled to sleep at the Butique Hotel. After one hour of beauty treatment, we went to a German restaurant called Bierhause where we ordered all kinds of goodies, such as fish, pork, beef and Orix in very large quantities.
Our next destination was a local music club, somewhat like an old disco full of beer, including Namibia's national drink, Jegermeister.
A few hours later, we've been told that the next day is going to be even more exhausting. No sh*t!
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