Kaokoland for Enduro riders

You land at Hosea Kutako International Airport in Windhoek in the morning or early afternoon. The OVERCROSS team picks you up and transfers you to the guesthouse in the city. The drive into Windhoek takes around 45 minutes.

The afternoon is yours to recover from the flight and adjust to the altitude — Windhoek sits at 1,700 metres above sea level. You can walk the main Independence Avenue, visit the Christuskirche, or grab a first Namibian beer and a plate of biltong at Joe's Beerhouse. In the evening the group meets for a welcome dinner and the first full tour briefing from your guide.

The briefing covers the route, the bikes, the daily schedule, the radio protocol and the rules for crossing rivers. You also pick up your enduro motorcycle tonight so you can get familiar with the controls before Day 2.

Today the real ride starts. You leave Kamanjab on gravel heading north-west and drop into the Khowarib Gorge off-road trail. This is your first proper enduro challenge of the trip: a narrow rocky track that follows the dry riverbed through a red sandstone canyon for about 25 km.

The trail is loose and technical. Your guide rides the line first and shows the easier passages. There are several waist-deep sand sections, a few tricky rock steps, and a handful of places where you have to stand on the pegs and pick a line between boulders. The 4x4 support vehicle takes the parallel detour and meets you at the exit of the canyon.

You exit the gorge into open country in the early afternoon. The rest of the day is fast gravel towards the Hoanib valley. You camp tonight in a tented camp near a dry riverbed. Dinner is prepared on the bush grill. Your first Kaokoland stars appear at 19:30 — no light pollution for 200 km in any direction.

This is the Epupa Falls motorcycle trip day. You ride north out of Opuwo on rough gravel. The route passes through Mopane tree forest and red-rock country for about 180 km, then drops down into the Kunene river valley on a steep, loose descent.

The Kunene is the border river between Namibia and Angola. At the Epupa Falls the river breaks across a 500-metre-wide cataract of small islands and cascades. Baobabs grow out of the rock right at the edge of the water. You can see Angola on the other bank.

You camp tonight on the Namibian side of the falls. The afternoon is free for swimming in the safe upstream pools, walking to the main viewpoint, or just sitting under a baobab with a cold beer. Some days a Himba family from the nearby village comes by to sell handmade jewellery. Accommodation: guesthouse or camping. Meals: breakfast and dinner.

You wake up in the Marienfluss. Yesterday was rock — today is sand. The dry riverbed and the wide plain give you a long sandy stage that is completely different from the van Zyl's descent. The surface is soft, the ruts are deep in places, and momentum is everything.

The route follows the Marienfluss north and eventually rejoins the Kunene border river. Swimming in the Kunene is not an option — the river is full of crocodiles and no sane guide lets anyone in the water here. You stop at a view point, take photos, and then turn south again.

In the afternoon you leave the Kunene and ride back into the wild Kaokoland interior. You camp tonight in the bush, far from any settlement. The 4x4 sets up the kitchen; the guide builds a fire. This is the night people remember. Accommodation: guesthouse or camping. Meals: breakfast and dinner.

Today is the Hoanib River motorcycle track day. You leave Purros after breakfast and ride south-east into the Hoanib valley. The first section crosses a Mars-like gravel plain — wide open, no vegetation, deep red rock. This is some of the most surreal scenery on the entire tour.

You drop into the Hoanib riverbed itself and ride the sand in the shade of big camelthorn trees. The track has several genuine water crossings — depending on the season there is actual flowing water in places. Desert elephants use this riverbed as their main corridor. Elephant dung on the trail means elephants ahead of you. The guide will signal when to stop.

You refuel in Sesfontein. The village has a restored German colonial fort from 1905 that is worth a quick walk-through. A short ride further brings you to Warmquelle and its natural hot-spring pool — take a swim, wash off the dust, fill your bottles. Accommodation: guesthouse or camping. Meals: breakfast and dinner.

The enduro part of the trip is over. Today the motorcycles are loaded onto the support vehicle and the group transfers back to Windhoek by 4x4. The drive takes roughly 6 hours via Otjiwarongo and Okahandja with lunch stops on the way.

You reach Windhoek in the late afternoon. The same guesthouse as on Day 1 is usually booked for the group. The evening is free. Most riders head back to Joe's Beerhouse for the final group dinner — twelve days of Kaokoland stories easily fill a long evening.

If you want to keep going, this is the moment to book the optional two-day side trip to the Etosha National Park. OVERCROSS can organise it on the spot. Etosha has the biggest game concentration in Namibia and is only half a day from Windhoek. Accommodation: guesthouse or camping. Meals: breakfast and dinner.