Day 2: Ai-Ais

The road to Ai-Ais took us from Augrabies to the Onseepkans border. From Augrabies we drove on the N14 to about 50km from Pofadder where we took a road going to the border. This road is about 50km, 25 of which is tar and the rest up to the Onseepkans border is dirt. The road is decent, except for the last 5km before Onseepkans which is heavily corrugated.

The road to Onseepkans

Going through the border was a breeze. Everyone was super friendly and they didn't really go through the car on our side or on the Namibia side. You pay a +-R300 entry fee on the Namibia side.

The C10 up to Karasburg is really good, you can easily drive 100km/h+. Karasburg had a spar open where we bought some snacks and some decent meat.

Heading towards Ai-Ais the D271 wasn't in the best shape, but was drive-able. The C10 to Ai-Ais was really good.When you start heading into the mountainous canyon area the views really start to mesmerize you.

Arriving at Ai-Ais we were greeted by some friendly staff at the gate and signed in. We set up camp in some unpleasant winds. We arrived early so the camp was empty, but it gradually filled up as the day progressed.

We went swimming at the public pools and then at the private pools (R20pp). The main hot spring is nice to see, but it was dirty with some ladies sanitary products drifting in it. We had a quick meal at the restaurant. The food is decent but the staff are quite slow, plus the birds poop on you.

The ablution blocks are rather gross, our shower had a lot of hair and bandages in them, the toilets had the odd floater every now and again, and in the three days we were there they didn't replace the empty hand soap.

The views at Ai-Ais makes up for all of the run down facilities. There is a lot to do at Ai-Ais as well and I would recommend staying there for a few days if you can.

Ai-Ais lives in the shadow of this big guy

Late in the afternoon a convoy from Natal with two SUV's and caravans arrived. They treated us with the soothing sounds of a loud TV, and just as I thought it couldn't get any worse, the one camper had an air-con which we had to listen to all night.