CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
188 km from Keetmanshoop to the finish, about 2 h 56 of riding. On the way it passes Seeheim and Hobas. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,000 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 11 km this is Fish River Canyon Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Keetmanshoop is the capital of the south, which in Namibia means a flat, dry town of some fifteen thousand people where everything useful happens at once. It is the place you buy tyres, groceries and cash, and fill every container you own, before heading for the Fish River Canyon or turning west towards Aus and the coast. Treat it with that respect and it is a perfectly good place to be.
Read the complete Keetmanshoop write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Keetmanshoop is where the day begins. Next is Seeheim.
Seeheim is a railway halt turned crossroads, a handful of buildings in the south of Namibia where the road from the coast and the road from Keetmanshoop converge near the Fish River. It is not much to look at, but the scale of the country around it is a reason to stop. The land is dry, rocky and enormous, with granite hills, dark dolerite outcrops, and gravel plains that run out to a horizon that never quite arrives. Rain is rare and fierce when it comes, and the riverbeds are dry for most of the year, but after a good storm the Fish River can flood the lowlands.
Read the complete Seeheim write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Seeheim comes up about 49 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hobas.
Hobas is the gateway to the Fish River Canyon, the second-largest canyon in the world, and it is a small camp with a gate, a campsite shaded by trees and a swimming pool that seems miraculous in this landscape. The canyon itself is a huge scar in the earth, about 160 kilometres long, up to twenty-seven kilometres wide in places, and around 550 metres deep at its lowest point. It was carved by the Fish River over hundreds of millions of years, and by tectonic movement that cracked the plateau. From the rim, the river winds in great horseshoe bends at the bottom, a green-brown thread among the pale rock walls.
Read the complete Hobas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 177 km into the recorded legs you reach Hobas. Next is Fish River Canyon Viewpoint.
The Fish River Canyon in southern Namibia is the second largest canyon in the world after the Grand Canyon, about 160 kilometres long, up to 27 kilometres wide and about 550 metres deep at its deepest. The Fish River winds along the bottom in great loops, and the viewpoint at Hobas looks down on the most famous bend, called Hell's Bend. The canyon formed over hundreds of millions of years, partly by faulting and partly by river erosion, and the rock walls show the layers of history in grey, brown and red. In the dry season, the river shrinks to a series of pools, and after rain it can flood.
Read the complete Fish River Canyon Viewpoint write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fish River Canyon Viewpoint closes the day.
Keetmanshoop → Seeheim is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Seeheim → Hobas is 128 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Hobas → Fish River Canyon Viewpoint is 11 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.