One of the Strangest Campsites in the World

By Steve Bouey in

July 15, 2008 – 10:10 am

If you ever find yourself in southern Namibia, you must stop by the Quivertree Park just north of the South African border and outside of Keetmanshoop. Some friends of ours in Windhoek had recommended the Park for an overnight stay on our way south and it actually makes the pages of Rough Guides and some other guidebooks. However, until you have seen this place with your own eyes, you have no idea what to expect and no description can really do the place any justice. The bottom line about the Quivertree Park, is that it is just plain Jane weird.

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Not exactly the entrance to the Hilton

We arrived at the Park just after dark, which made driving down the long, lonely gravel path even more strange. The actual campsite is about a kilometer off the main highway and along the way, your imagination starts to run wild with images from horror movies like Wolf Creek or the Hills Have Eyes as your headlights illuminate some of the other residents of the park lingering along the road. There are absolutely no lights on around the campground and all of us were getting a little bit nervous about our choice of campsites that night. We finally ran into some other campers who assured us that the place was in fact a campground, the other residents were well behaved and that as far as they knew, we would make it through the night without getting murdered. This place was definitely like no other campsite I have ever bedded down at.

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The Quiver Trees are unusual in and of themselves

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You are never alone while camping at the Quivertree Park

In the morning, you rise to find yourself in the middle of a large stand of Quiver Trees, trees unique to the region and aptly named, and realize that you are also in the middle of a very large collection of unusual art. You also realize that you had plenty of company throughout the night. The Park residents have been assembled in consultation with and are the brainchild of a 78 year old woman who runs the place. She actually lives in the next town these days, but has been putting together the strange and unusual artwork at Quivertree for many, many years. Honestly, I do not know what the overall objective of the Park is… maybe it is some sort of recycling project, maybe it is a display of unique art, or maybe it is just the tangible extension of a crazy old lady’s thoughts. Whatever the case may be, the Quivertree Park is definitely worth a visit, and if you do decide to stop by, make sure you arrive after dark… it will make the experience even more bizarre.

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A fellow overlander

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Park manager

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Not sure where they were from, but they appear to be having a good time

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I got nothin…

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Sweet ride

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Not sure what the old lady was thinking on this one

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You try knocking on the door of the “park office” at night and see what your imagination starts to do

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TWBR crew and our new Quivertree friends

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By Steve Bouey | Posted in Africa, For some laughs, Namibia | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Cape to Cape: Check

By Steve Bouey in

July 14, 2008 – 10:10 am

In the United States, you may not have heard about the driving the “Cape to Cape” run . I guess there may be some scenic drives or highways that go from Cape A to Cape B, but the Cape run I am talking about is the drive from North Cape, Norway to Cape Agulhas, South Africa. It is a drive that overlanders dream about and only a handful actually complete in their lifetimes. There are obviously more direct routes to drive from the northern most point in Europe to the southern most point in Africa, but for us, the journey covered roughly 17,000 miles, spanned about 110 degrees of latitude, took us through 29 countries and lasted approximately 6 months.

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Six months ago, we were in the far northern reaches of the Arctic

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As we made our way to Cape Agulhas, instead of reindeer, we were on the lookout for turtles

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Although chilly, it was a bit warmer at 34.5degrees South latitude

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The marker in Norway was nicer, but where else can you swim in two oceans at the same time!

We are not the first people to drive the Cape to Cape run, but it is definitely a small number of people, mainly Europeans… I can probably extrapolate a bit further, hedge a bet from our experiences and say that most of the members of the Cape to Cape overland family are either Dutch, Scandinavian or South African. Now add some nutty Americans to the group. I am fairly certain that we are the first Americans to complete the Cape to Cape run as part of our overall expedition. We received a lot of support and encouragement along the way. In fact, some South Africans we met in Angola shouted enthusiastically “finally, some Americans with some balls,” when we stopped on the side of the road to chat. The road was very tough at times, but we made it and looking back it was well worth it. We still have a good portion of the trip left, but this was a major segment of the expedition and one that we anticipated would be one of the toughest. I am sure South America will hold some surprises in store for us, but our experiences here in Africa will help us to prepare for what the next continent throws our way.

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By Steve Bouey | Posted in Africa, Expedition Updates, History, Norway, Road Conditions, South Africa, The Toyotas, World News | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments (2)

New Photos – Nouakchott, Mauritania

By Steven Shoppman in

July 10, 2008 – 3:33 pm

The capital of Mauritania is a very poor place.  Most people don’t even have homes and many of the inhabitants of the country are nomads.  We took many photos in the surrounding area and it is easy to see that this is near the top of the list for poorest countries in the world.

Speaking for myself, Mauritania was still one of my favorite countries, despite the trash infestation problem.  With a fairly large piece of land and a relatively small population to go with it, you can easily feel the adventure of the Sahara when going from one place to the next here.

TWBR Gallery link

Flickr gallery link

Map trickPhone Card Anyone?High end storefrontDiscount storeFrom Mauritania onCamelsMe and the swingAlone tooCamelsJalabiasGas and livestockBlow out carsThe marketTraditionCitroenAlways wavingOld buildingsGood RoadRoad signCampTrash and more trash

By Steven Shoppman | Posted in Africa, Mauritania, New Photos | Comments (1)

New Photos – North Cape (Nordkapp)

By Steven Shoppman in

July 7, 2008 – 8:29 pm

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In the far far north of the northern part of the north European country of Norway, there lies a cliff encircled point called North Cape.  This is the farthest you can drive north in Europe and a truly majestic site.  With giant cliffs, tunnels, ice covered roads and little to no light, the drive up to here is a true adventure in the middle of winter.  The sub zero temperatures, snow storms, wind and incredible hunger that abides when darkness is far more common than light nearly drive you mad as you count the number of days since the sun has actually shined on you.

On our speedy journey to the north and the little information we could gather about making it all the way to the cape led us to a closed gate just 12 kms from the finish line.  After a day of driving around trying to find the right people we were able to get a convoy with a snow plow and safety car to take us to the top, but at a cost…it ended up costing $1000 for that last 12km, and although that $1000 is still sitting on my credit card accruing interest…to all of us it was well spent.  We drove all the way from Cape Otway Australia, over 30,000 miles through jungles, deserts, mountains, rivers, rebels and more to make it there and nothing would stop us.

Considering the safety truck was less prepared than we were if something was to happen and the plow had already been up that day so the road was already clear, the price was for little more than the Norwegians making yet another dollar off of us. Expensive for nothing, but worth it.

Link to Flickr

Link to TWBR Gallery

The open plains no longer support tree life at this latitude.It is unbelieveable that they went to the trouble to build a road all the way up here along the side of these sheer cliffs.The usual 2pm loss of light, you cannot really call it a sunset since the sun never rises up here.There is more light in the tunnels than there is in the middle of the day.The roads are 100% solid ice for the last 1000km approach to the North CapeThe colors from the polar night are reason enough to come up hereThe tunnels have doors up here to prevent them from icing up.1000s of kms later we realized that the Norweigans will never miss a chance to add another fee.Without a convoy of snowplow and safety car, you cannot drive the last 12kmsThe final town before the last stretch of road to NordKappWith screaming winds and sub zero temperatures, a day of fliming only allows minutes outdoors before frostbite sets in during thThis was one of the coldest moments of the trip trying to film for 30 seconds with the wind blowning strong enough to knock you This is a true life shot, no posing, just pure cold.The is the end, after the run with the snow plow and safety truck we finally reached the farthest north point.In my Mongolian Dahl, I setup shots of the trucks with the last bit of light.The giant cliffs around NordKapp are breathtaking.The parking lot is not quite all the way to the point.So we had to walk the last few hundred yards to the globe.Thousands of miles of driving, countless nights sleeping in the trucks, and three tired crew members later, we were there.Inside there are photos of what the midnight sun looks like, circling the sky in summer.Time to leave the cape.Here is the $1000 plow that we had to pay to plow a total of zero inches of snow for us, and the safety car? Less equipped thatThere is nothing like this moment. We made it all the way north...in winter!!

 

By Steven Shoppman | Posted in New Photos, Norway, Road Conditions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

New Photos – Narvik New Years

By Steven Shoppman in

July 3, 2008 – 11:04 am

There is a small town in Norway not far from the Swedish border called Narvik.  The town is full of history, setting the stage for numerous WWII battles and attracts many tourists each year because of this. Its natural beauty is unreal as well, with huge peaks jetting straight out of the fjords and surrounding the town.  We spent New Years here and although at first it seemed like a quiet little town with nothing to do, suddenly around midnight thousands of locals poured into the streets setting off the finest run of amateur fireworks I have every seen.  We were told that this would be the last year for the fireworks as it was going to be outlawed because to many people had been getting hurt over the years.  It seems that the rest of the world is getting law crazy just like the United States, although I have a feeling that the locals may not adhere to this law all too well.

There is no doubt that we were ducking in fear as rogue bottle rockets and airborne spinners whizzed by our noggins, but this excitement is something that should be preserved instead of legislated against.  I guess it is just becoming the way of the world to make a law instead of learning some tolerance for one day each year.  Lawmaking aside, this is a hot spot for New Years.  Where the Narvikians lack in population, they certainly make up for in zest.  This New Years will certainly be one that I will never forget.

The day after new years we actually missed a turn on the way out of town and ended up at the Viking Hotel in Bjerkvik, a small town in the same area.  Here we met the owner of the hotel and a few of his friends.  They told us of the plans to remodel the hotel and put a huge Nazi Junker 52 airplane from WWII on the roof of the building that was recovered from the bottom of the bay.  Mark and I had a chance to go with the guys to see the plane in the process of restoring it that evening.  The two days around New Years could not have worked out better for us.  Check out the photos below.

Flickr Gallery

Link to TWBR Gallery page

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Looking over the town of Narvik at about 1pmThe view of the Fjord from just outside of town around the 3pm sunsetThe colors change very drastically in the arctic sky as the sun sets.Giant peaks surround the town and drop directly into the seaMountains are in clear view on all sides of town.Just as midnight comes, the entire town convenes to set off fireworks in the center.Just outside the only bar/club open for new years we had an amazing fireworks show put on solely by local amateursThe locals were setting serious airborne fireworks off just feet away from the balcony we were on. Many times we had to duck toJust before the light goes away, this is what it looks like.The big guy on the right is Jan Leifrantzen, he owns the hotel in Bjervik where we stayed the day after new years.Mark and I spent many hours talking with Jan and his friendsThe view from inside the recovered Junker 52 from WWIIThis plane was used in battle nearly 70 years prior and we were at the controlsThe plane had bullet holes and real damge from the battle in Narvik.The plane is slowly being rebuilt to be displayed on top of Jan's hotel.What an amazing way to spend new years day looking at this plane.Giant corrugated peices of metal make up the wingsWe got a tour and explaination of the plane from Tore and Dan.It needs a lot of work, but someday we will be back to see the finished product.

By Steven Shoppman | Posted in Events, New Photos, Norway | Comments (0)

End of The Line

By Steve Bouey in

July 2, 2008 – 6:48 am

For Africa that is. That’s right, we made it all the way to South Africa. We have a few more days before we arrive in Cape Town and hopefully ship the trucks to Argentina on the 6th of July, so  we are taking in some of the sights on the Garden Route. It has been a pretty hectic month and a lot has happened. Here are some of the highlights:

D.R.C

After getting deported the first time we tried to enter the DRC, we were more successful the second time with a little bit of help from our friends at the US Embassy in Brazzaville. On our way to Matadi where we hoped to finally obtain our Angola visas, we took some time to camp a little bit at the Zongo Chutes, a waterfall churning out a huge volume of water that eventually empties into the Congo River. It was quite an interesting sight and probably one of the only semi-developed tourist attractions in the entire country.

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At the Chutes, we also met some people from the Netherlands who are working for Heineken in Kinshasa. We had some good conversations around the campfire about living in the DRC and life on the road and they were kind enough to let us crash at their guesthouse in Matadi while we waited for our visas. That’s right, we waited for our Angola visas at the Heineken House… enough said. After three days of waiting in Matadi, we finally had our visas in our passports and headed south to the border.

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The guys from Heineken pose for a photo at Zongo Chutes, D.R.C.

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View of Matadi from the Heineken House

Angola

It was hard to believe that we actually had our visas to Angola… it was almost as hard to believe that we only had five days to drive over 2,000 kilometers on roads that were reported to be pretty rough. The roads in Angola did prove to be pretty bad, but if you are planning a visit there in the next five years, the Chinese will probably have completed most of the wide scale construction projects we witnessed there. Angola was an interesting country. The people were exceptionally friendly, the natural beauty was astounding and given all of the construction going on, it was obvious that they are preparing for an explosion of tourism in the not so distant future. Someone just needs to tell them that if they want people to come to Angola, they need to chill out on the whole visa thing. It was also very interesting driving through a country that up until a few years ago, was in the midst of a brutal civil war. Signs of the war are still everywhere, from wrecked military equipment littering the side of the road, to completely destroyed buildings pockmarked with bullet holes… not to mention the thousands of landmines still hiding in the ground waiting to be found by an unlucky farmer or pedestrian. It was too bad we only had five days to experience Angola, because there is a lot more that all of us would have liked to have seen and experienced there. In the end, we made it through Angola in the time we were given, but had to log in about 60 hours behind the wheel in just under five days to do so.

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Much of the Portuguese architecture did not survive the civil war

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Military equipment dots the Angolan countryside

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Most of the horrible roads were no match for the Thundra

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But when the bridge is washed out, there is not much you can do but find another way around

Namibia

After spending four months in the developing countries of West Africa, Namibia was a welcome change. The roads were in great shape, the ATM’s worked, the official language was English and the grocery stores were stocked with a variety of items that did not cost a fortune. A lot of the change is probably due to the fact that the wildlife in Namibia attracts a healthy stream of tourists and the country has invested in infrastructure to keep that stream flowing. We were still behind schedule, but we could not miss the opportunity to see some of the amazing wildlife in Namibia, so a few days after entering the country, we headed out to Etoshia National Park to see what we could see. We saw a lot, but unfortunately missed the opportunity to see any of the big cats, but rest assured, they are there waiting for you.

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No Photoshop… the shot of the day!

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The Etoshia Pan is the only waterhole for miles so animals are everywhere

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This bull elephant felt we were a little too close to his family and charged the Sequoia

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Wildebeests share the pan with Zebra

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It was amazing how close you could get to the animals in the park

By Steve Bouey | Posted in Africa, Angola, DRC, Expedition Updates, Namibia, The Toyotas | Comments (0)

New Photos – The Mauritanian Sahara

By Steven Shoppman in

June 27, 2008 – 1:18 pm

Months ago many of you watched the video that we put together about our time in the Sahara in the Banc d’Arguin National Park.  Here are the photos.

Photos On Flickr

See the video

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The first big dune we had to cross got us stuck a good five times.The Tundra has so much weight that it gets stuck much more often.Miles and miles of sand and no roads gets a little uneasy at timesGPS is pretty acurate, but without a good map of GPS coordinates it can get tricky.More kilometers than not we made our own tracks.The Mauritanian desert is no easy task to navigate.Sometimes you have to stop the trucks and hike ahead to make sure that the sand does not get too deep.Deep ruts slow the trucks down in the Sahara desert.We had the entire costline to ourselves for miles.So Bouey practiced his arabic a little bit.Mautitania was french occupied, so who would we be to not collect some fresh escargot?Nothing like living large in the middle of nowhere.As the sun goes down you begin to realized why you spent all day eating sand.Words cannot explain the beauty of a sunset that you have worked so hard for that day.As the sun goes down farther and farther, the light just got more amazingLeaving our beautiful beach campsite was no easy task with sandy hills and cliffs surrounding us.Setting up for some action shots.Taking a break from driving.The huge, wide-open basins are great for speed testing:)Civilization at last! ??The high tides make fields of shells in the middle of the desert.Bouey is taking a rest from some hard runs dune surfing.Dunes as far as the eye can see.Brook...making some fresh tracksSteve checks out his line.He goes for the leapAnd botches the landing, with a nice mouthful of sand as a present from the desert.And the hike back up.At night these little guys would crawl under your tent for warmth and make a really creepy noise.After you get the car unstuck, it cannot stop for danger of getting stuck again, so the diggers have to walk.A little free souvenir, some sand.Every once in a while there is a lone rouge tree that says,

 

By Steven Shoppman | Posted in Africa, Mauritania, New Photos | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

The Environment thing.

By Steven Shoppman in

June 25, 2008 – 5:15 pm

I guess when you ask for money from people, it is those people’s duty to question your merit.  Giving money to a group or a cause or an investment, whatever it may be, is something that requires a lot of thought.  So I suppose I can chalk all of the comments about our merit up to that, and respect all of those for asking us if our mission is truly worthwhile.  The latest:

“Assuming 12 miles per gallon for your vehicles, you’ve put more than 70 tons of carbon into the atmosphere! That’s more than three times the average total emissions for an American…….about 6 times that of a European and 20 times that of an average Japanese citizen. That’s only for your driving, not taking other activities into account which would increase that number significantly.

Are you doing anything to offset these emissions?”

Thanks for asking Green Bill.  We have been sponsored by Native Energy to offset all of the carbon emissions for the trip. Beyond that, you should take into account that we live like locals most of the time and our carbon footprint beyond the trucks is far, far less than anyone in the modern world. By the professional calculations of Native Energy in this partnership, our expedition is set to emit about 110 tons of CO2 over the course of the entire 2 year expedition.  This number is actually not very high on world standards if you take a couple of other factors into account.

This number has typically been divided by about 5 crew members and sometimes as much as 9, so even with this 70 ton estimate above, each member of the crew is still actually well below the 20 ton per year American average.  Considering the 110 ton estimate for the entire expedition spanning two years, if divided by 5, each crew member is effectively polluting 11 tons per year.  For the last segment of the expedition we should have no less than 7 crew members in the trucks at a time, so this number will be even lower when it is all said and done.

So what is my point?  The point is that we do everything we can to reduce the amount we pollute.  We eat local food instead of imports, we give other travelers a lift to the next town, we camp about 50% of the time, we share hotel rooms with sometimes as many as 9 people, we are looking at getting LPG conversions on both of the trucks, and all of our time and efforts are part of attempt to educate more people about what is going on in the world.  If there was a way to do what we are doing with hybrids or something else that pollutes less, we would be all for it, but the nature of the expedition requires these trucks, and many of the roads we travel could not be attempted without them.

So in response to Bill, we are doing quite a few things and believe that our goal will ultimately be worth the amount we have polluted.  Do any of our readers have additional suggestions on ways we could lower our footprint even more?  We are always open to new suggestions on this topic.

By Steven Shoppman | Posted in Media Coverage | Comments (1)

New Photos – The Ice Hotel

By Steven Shoppman in

June 24, 2008 – 4:47 pm

A trip to the North of Scandinavia is not complete without a trip to the Ice Hotel.  Although expensive to stay, a walk around the village is free and a tour is not too expensive either.  It is an amazing and truly unusual place.  With hundreds of sculptures and a giant hotel that can house hundreds of visitors each night…a truly impressive feat that is built over and over again each winter.

Artists from all over the world come each year to show off their skills by creating individual themes for each room.  The process of building the hotel takes months and has become a mecca for tourists around the world.  So enjoy the photos although 6 months overdue:)

www.icehotel.com

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Just in case you forgot.Also, just in case, they have some of this here.Sculptures are everywhere, hundreds and hundreds of them.Three long hallways lead you to the sculpted rooms.Elegant but a little coldThe ice sculptures have to do something to keep warm out there.There are so many rooms you can hardly see them all in one day.How do you think they get the lights in there?It is hard to imagine how they even do this.The hotel was still being built when we were there in December.It is a place like no other on earthArtists come from all over the world to carve here and bring styles from their homelandsSome rooms are even two stories tall, completely ice!Anything you can imagine is made of ice hereEvery night, each of these rooms are booked.The ice is this blue, no effectsAnd MoreIce WindowIce leavesWavy IceKiwi IceSome rooms take months to build and are gone each year.More Kiwi IceIce ShroomsIce DragonIced TWBRIce Bar EntryIce BarThe Original IceBarNo Drinks for Bouey at $30 eachIce AbsolutIce MarkMidday in the Polar Night - This is the brightest it gets.Outside of the IceBarThe Ice hotel has a side business of selling high quality ice to clientele around the world.From Snowmobiling to Dogsledding, there is tons to do here, but it is not cheap!

By Steven Shoppman | Posted in New Photos, Sweden | Comments (0)

George Carlin Died.

By Steven Shoppman in

June 23, 2008 – 7:38 pm

I saw the news earlier today.  I imagine that the vast majority of the people reading this blog at least know who he is.  Many of you likely have your opinions of the guy good or bad, as he shot from the hip without filter the majority of his career as a comedian.  One of my favorite parts about his humor was his criticism of modern governments and the problems of the world.  So in tribute to one of my favorite comedians I have embedded this video of one of my favorite peices of his comedy.  This segment only rings more true as we make our way around the globe and see all of the things that are renamed in a politically correct way.

By Steven Shoppman | Posted in World News | Tagged | Comments (0)