ROCKY'S EPIC ADVENTURE ACROSS THE WORLD'S OLDEST DESERT

THE DESERT IS an unforgiving landscape that strips you down to your bare essentials and teaches you the meaning of resilience.

- WORDS AND IMAGES BY SEAN FRAENKEL

A SCRAPPY JACK RUSSELL TERRIER AND HIS FEARLESS HUMAN PEDAL 750 GRUELING, WINDBLASTED MILES ACROSS THE NAMIB TO RAISE MONEY FOR ANIMAL WELFARE.

Riding through the Namib with my loyal Jack Russell Terrier, Rocky, I couldn't help but think of The Sheltering Desert, a 1957 memoir by the German geologist Henno Martin. His tale of survival and adaptation in the harsh Namibian wilderness echoed my own journey, offering an unexpected connection between my adventure now and his time hiding in the desert to avoid internment during World War II.

I dubbed our adventure “Rocky's Ride”—an unsupported 750-mile bikepacking trek from the Namibian coastal town of Swakopmund to the Namibia-South Africa border formed by the Orange River. I'd be following “Segment 4 - Namib” of the Southern Africa and Namibian Deserts (SAND) routes, which was pioneered by a bikepack-ing adventurer from South Africa, Johan Wahl, and is featured on bikepacking.com. I chose this route so I could immerse myself in the wilderness and truly experience the Namib. I'd be doing the route in reverse, north to south, while hoping to raise 50,000 South African rand ($2,800) for the Kloof & Highway SPCA outside Durban, South Africa.

My touring rig consisted of a two-wheeled trailer loaded with food, clothing, and survival gear attached to my Trek Supercaliber. Rocky rode up front in a plastic carrier mounted on the front fork. On smoother stretches, his carrier doubled as makeshift aero bars, and he'd rest his head on my arm. The conversations were mostly one-sided, but I kept talking anyway—rambling about the ter- rain, my aching legs, or whatever random thoughts crossed my mind, as if he understood every word.