22/09/2026
KAOKOLAND TRIP – Day 7 & 8:
What Happens in Kaokoland… continues… and eventually reaches the tar road!
📜The Officially Unofficial Final Report!
And so... we reached the final chapter.
Having slept😴 save and sound at the Puros Community Campsite, and packing up in the early hours, the convoy of vehicles headed to the view 👀 point a little further from the settlement. As not all vehicles would have fitted on top⛰️ a couple remained at the foot🦶 of the hill and walked up. 🚶🚶♂️🚶♀️
The views 👀were spectacular. The scenery 🏜️was breathtaking. The photographs 📸 were numerous.
We had to drag ourselves away from this sight as there were still some considerable kilometres to cover to get to the next destination.
The landscape besides the - often times badly corrugated 〽️- road was stunning yet stops were only made when one of the mystical and elusive Kaokoland STONE MAN was spotted along the road.
🗿 THE STONE MEN OF KAOKOLAND
Not ordinary stones.
Not random piles of rocks.
No... these were the mysterious and elusive Kaokoland Stone Men.
So now it's your turn 🫵
👀 Look at the photos… HOW MANY STONE MEN DID WE ENCOUNTER❓
👇 Drop your answer in the comments below.
And no worries, asking the Stone Men themselves does not count as cheating.🤝
Eventually, we rolled into the settlement of Sesfontein with a few fuel tanks approaching the desperate stage.
⛽ PLAN A: Fill up at the fuel station.
Unfortunately, plan A depended on the fuel attendant actually being there... she wasn't.😡
She had obviously decided that working hours were more of a suggestion than a contractual obligation and always buggers off after half a day of inhaling a fair dose of fuel fumes.
⛽ PLAN B
Find fuel somewhere else. We located a tyre repair shack where aparently fuel could be obtained. Excellent. Except the fuel wasn't there yet. It had to be organised and brought in… and this would take a while.
⛽ Plan B became plan C which was, there was no plan C. There was, however, the prospect of ONGONGO FALLS💦 our next stay over.
And 30 km was apparently considered close enough to “we'll worry about the fuel later“, so there was no Plan C.
💦 ONGONGO FALLS
At Ongongo Falls, everyone dealt with the heat in their own way.
The group divided into two categories.
CATEGORY ONE:
💦 Those who cooled themselves down in the refreshing natural pool 👙🩱
CATEGORY TWO:
🍺 Those who believed hydration first comes from within and reached for a cold b**r🍻
Both groups claimed their method was superior.
Nobody conducted a scientific study, nobody needed to.
The day finished off with a communal Braai (BBQ) 🌭🍗 and the trip's penalty 🎤announcement 🥳, a tradition finely ingrained into LRONS events.
⚖️ THE LRON COURT OF PENALTIES
A few alleged transgressions had been carefully documented during the trip.
🆗 some somewhat factual,
🆗 some highly questionable,
🆗 some entirely fabricated by people WITH FAR TOO MUCH TIME AT THEIR HANDS 🫴
A number of offences had been committed - or allegedly committed - or possibly invented.
The court did not concern itself with such minor 🤏 details. Evidence was optional. 🤔
Witnesses were unreliable. 👎
The accused were given very little opportunity to defend 🤺themselves.
⚖️ The sentencing?
🥃 PENALTY SHOT - Rice w**e.
Because apparently normal beverages are not sufficiently punitive.
For those with a weaker disposition for alcohol (ladies etc.?) or those with a more sophisticated criminal record, there was also 🍓 Strawberry Cream Liqueur, a penalty so suspiciously enjoyable🤤 that one wonders whether it was actually a reward.
This caused an immediate problem... in fact, that several participants seemed suspiciously keen to be found guilty and hoping to be convicted.
The justice system ⚖️ seriously requires reviewing. 👀
The next morning, rather than risk returning to Sesfontein and discovering that the fuel attendant had once again entered a mysterious state of absence, the convoy decided to drive the 110km to Palmwag.
👍The promise of a functioning ⛽fuel station helped.
👍 The promise of an ice-cold b**r at Palmwag Lodge may have helped considerably more. 🍺👍
Some of us drove, others limped.
The difference was largely determined by the contents of their fuel tanks.
After the refilling, vehicle and body alike, the journey continued along the rugged rocky landscape of the Damaraland. As the landscape changed more and more, rocky outcrops, granite boulders and grassy savannahs accompanied us towards our final destination.
Late afternoon saw us rolling into Brandberg White Lady Lodge.
We checked in. ✅
Found our campsite. 📍
Set up camp.⛺️
And then performed one of the most underrated rituals of any overlanding trip:
🚿 A PROPER SHOWER.
Thereafter:
Campfire lit ✅ Dinner consumed ✅ Stories✅ Laughter ✅ Sleep ✅
🐘 A DESERT DWELLING ELEPHANT WHO DIDN'T OFFICIALLY CHECK IN❗️
The next morning, we discovered that we had received an overnight visitor.
A desert elephant had apparently wandered through the campsite.
Its footprints 🐾were approximately 10 metres from camp.
Ten metres❗️ That's close enough to qualify as a neighbour❗️
🛣️ TAR ROAD.
After days of driving tracks that had challenged both vehicles, drivers and passengers, we were heading back towards civilisation.
A mere 100 km stood between us and smooth blacktop. 🎉
Once there, the convoy eventually split up, with everyone heading towards their respective homes.
And just like that…
The Kaokoland adventure was over.😢
Or was it❓
Because there was one final matter to settle.
WHAT HAPPENS IN KAOKOLAND STAYS IN KAOKOLAND.
At least, that's what everyone said.🙄🗣️
However…
📸 There are photographs.
🎥 There are videos.
📝 There are penalty records.
👀 There are witnesses. 👂 .. and there are people who remember. 🗯️
👉So perhaps the real question should be:
HOW MUCH OF IT ACTUALLY STAYS IN KAOKOLAND? 😂
Until the next LRON adventure. 🚙🚐🚘🛻🚙🚕🚌
