Day 10 – Namibia/Botswana Safari 2015. Okangwati to Marienfluss.

We have an early breakfast as there will be our 14 vehicles and 12 others tackling the pass today.

The story of Van Zyl’s is that it was built by a farmer called Ben Van Zyl, but why he built it no one could tell us other than perhaps he wanted a short cut to the Marienfluss, it took him with a team of labourers 3 months to hack out some sort of trail, because that is all it is and by no means could you call it a road or even a track.

We start off the day with one of our members having a short altercation with one of the members of a KZN contingent who tooted him at the start of the first climb and came up to him and said “what are you waiting for” and he replied “go up the hill and you will see why and do not ever toot at me again” needless to say when he saw what was waiting for him up and over the first climb, he sheepishly got back into his car and waited his turn. We were to hear later from our support group that this group were doing considerable road building on the way up.

It took us (12 vehicles) 4hours 35minutes to do the 11kms of the pass with 4 very tricky areas where our tour leader Phil gave us direction and guidance, without “road building” otherwise we were on our own. There were times when you were on three wheels and I am sure there were times we where we were on two wheels. The most important thing to do if you are to have a successful crossing of Van Zyl’s is to pick your lines correctly and then commit, picking the lines was about identifying the rocks that were firmly imbedded in the trail and making sure your right or left front wheel went over it and let the vehicle do the rest of the work because it can, sounds easy, but it was very hairy at times and often looked worse than it was, especially watching someone else do it from behind or in front.

Just make sure those rocks are not loose.

This is where the "Road re-building" can cause grief as the rocks they have moved are invaribly not stable or imbedded

The rocks on the right of photo were loose and were slipping luckily no accidents

The gradiant was much steeper than it looks here

This an area where it felt like both left hand wheels were in the air

Oh Heaven we are on a flat piece of road heading North to the Kunene River

Crossing the Marianfluss

We finally get to the top and the view is stunning down into the Marienfluss a valley between the Hartmann Mountain range and the Baynes Mountain range which when it rains and the grass has grown is like looking down on yellow gold, but even without the view is something else.

We head off North to the banks of the Kunene river where we will spend the next two nights.     

One of our groups sidewall damage

One of the tricky sections this was the sting in the tail

There is still a sting in the tail on the descent where you descend 86 metres vertically while moving only 94 metres horizontally, but we all manage it without incident and at the bottom we stop for lunch and you can feel the relief in the group who have tackled one of the hardest and most dangerous 4x4 routes in Southern Africa.

Denise with the Marienfluss below.


We head off North to the banks of the Kunene river where we will spend the next two nights.