We wake up with our guard dog at the foot of the tent, we have no water though so we use our own tanks to get the day started. A quick coffee later we are at the marble mine having a look around. Very cool to see in person, we spend a few minutes studying the cuts in the rocks. On the way out we drive past the small gathering of locals that are congregating for a political meeting we assume.
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- Posed up
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- Such clean cuts
Heading south we feel like we have be transported to the moon overnight, Its more barren and rocky here than anywhere else to date. A desolate area. Although one area opens up into a giant red vast of sand, flat with a few trees spaced unevenly across the horizon. We continue to pass these rock statues placed by an artist a few years ago.
1 of 5 statues, Blink and you miss them 
Barren but beautiful 
Feels like a polaroid photo
Continuing on we pass Orupembe, a small village with a tiny tiny shop and a police station. There is nothing out here, if you need supplies you can get maize flour and sugar basically. It is a struggle. After the village we actually hit a wide gravel road that most use to get from Puros to opuwa and we get a chance to put the hammer down, although all these roads are destroyed due to tourists not airing down, they hammer along at high rates of speed and destroy everything. Speak of the devil, up ahead is a rental 4wd on the side of the road, I pull over to offer assistance as we are literally in the middle of nowhere. Right off we spot 2 flat tyres, that’s a good start, but the drivers mentions the engine just died. Upon closer inspection piston number 1 made a clean exit through the oil pan. Luckily they had a sat phone and were waiting for a tow truck.
We carry on around the last corner on the hard pack dirt and it turns to pure sand. Amazing how it changes in this country. Pulling into the village we stop at the shop and grab a few drinks and head for camp. We use the local community camp and even get a deal of 300N for the night in a room which is great as I don’t have to setup the tent for a night. The camp operator Chiko was asking about a ride, so I offered a run into town if he knew where we could get meat, he does so off we go. I pull up to a tree and hanging is a leg of goat, well I have never bought this before so I grab a leg and head back to camp.
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- Some not as lucky
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- Dinner for tomorrow
Upon arrival chef Asareh is less than impressed, apparently I was supposed to know how hard this is to cook in this form. Oops, But she uses up most of our left over veggies to make an amazing pasta dish that we share with Chiko. Lucky guy even got to take the left overs home. We sit around the fire and chat till 9pm. Friendly people can be found all over the world.
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- The room for 300N
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- After the fires
