The Desert
6am September 9th we got back in the Land Cruiser with packed lunches and water bottles and followed David and Dan 2 hours out to the desert town of VIrei.
They were on their way to the bush to spend time with the Mucubal Tribe and offered to connect us with their contact in VIrei. We drove about 10 minutes to the edge of town and then turned off a paved road onto dirt. About 20 minutes later our 2 truck caravan stopped. The guys got out and immediately started bustling around the vehicles. I asked what happened and Teague said they were letting air out of the tires to prepare for the desert terrain.
Everyone seemed like this was a totally normal thing to do, so I just nodded and went along. The road got continuously more like sand, and in fact at one point the poor GPS had nothing but a car on a yellow background.
There was absolutely nothing for miles. It was silent except for a bird chirping here and there. At one point we lost sight of Dan and David's truck and took a side path detour. It allowed for an exciting few minutes of following a cloud in the desert- like the Israelites!
David Killough's truck kicking up dust
The boys told me about the Welwitschia that had started to spring up out of the ground. They are crazy looking, slow growing, plants with only a couple of big fat leaves. It takes about 1000 years to get to be the size of a large cabbage plant. This is the only place this plant grows on the whole planet!
We continued through the desert for about an hour passing one other driver on a moto, miserably inhaling our dust as we passed. We also came upon a roundabout out of nowhere, which I thought was hilarious.
Finally we arrive at the village of Virei.