Van Zyl's & the Marienfluss

After braving a series of dramatic river crossings, the challenges of Van Zyl’s seemed pretty doable… and then there was the spectacular scenery of the Marienfluss to take in. This is what it’s like to travel with Simon Steadman of Ultimate Adventures.

- Simon Steadman

Having braved some serious crossings of the Kunene River and spent Christmas at Epupa Falls, it was time to pack up camp and head south away from the Kunene River to the ‘town’ of Okangwati, where we topped up our fuel tanks before heading into the real wilderness of Kaokoland. This stretch of road gradually becomes more challenging and slow-going as you get closer to the community campsite just before the start of Van Zyl’s pass and, in my opinion, can be more challenging than Van Zyl’s pass in some sections with its many cross-axles and dongas to negotiate.

Low-range engaged, we crawled our way along this very scenic track through countless Himba villages until we reached the Van Zyl’s pass community campsite at the top of the pass. This is a great place to stop-over before tackling the pass, with good but rustic ablutions and scenic campsites next to a dry riverbed (yes, it was dry). After a tasty chicken curry in the riverbed, everyone turned in early in anticipation of what lay ahead of us the next day.

A sting in the tail