Bliss

It had been a while since we had been to our most western point this trip, and our lost stop meant our most southern part of the trip. When we got in our car to drive back north from Aus, we realized that we were officially on our way back. Quite a strange feeling, but this trip we turned out to feel something even stranger, something we had not felt in a very long time. 

We had been really struggling with Gigi. She did an amazing job throughout this entire trip, but especially in the desert it was not easy. We had been looking at the temperature gauge for a loooooong time, eyeing it every few seconds. That is far from a relaxed drive. Most overlanders try to avoid tarmac, because the real adventure is in the gravel roads. We were soooo happy when we found tarmac, because that meant that driving would be a little bit more easy. We could drive a little faster, meaning the wind coming in would be a little bit colder and the fan under the hood would have to work a little less hard. The road to Aus meant our last long gravel trip, with a special ending. Going downhill was usually nice. We would not have to accelerate a lot, meaning the engine could 'relax' a little. The opposite was true for going uphill. The longer the climb, the tougher it was. As soon as the gauge would go up, we would slow down. We tried speeding up downhill, so we had some extra starting speed going uphill. Some hills we would start with about 80-90 km/h (on gravel), and ending up struggling the last kilometers uphill with 20-30 km/h. 

The last part to Aus we would drive on the B4 and from there we would mostly drive A-roads and B-roads. A-roads and B-roads in Namibia are all tarmac, so we looked forward to that so much. The last part of gravel was a last final test for Gigi though. It was a climb that seemed to never end. The climb went on for kilometers on end and we saw the gauge climb very slowly, with almost no room for us to stop. Speed went down from 90 km/h in the beginning to about 10-15 km/h at the end of the climb. When we finally reached there, we cheered and we believe Gigi cheered as well. This should have been the last of it. 

When we left Aus, going back north, the tarmac did wonders. We already felt quite euphoric that we had made it all the way to Aus, and we were now on our way back. We loved (almost) every second of this trip, but we also really looked forward to bringing it to a stop. The enthusiasm grew stronger and larger as we went. Gigi did perfectly on the tarmac and one by one we started putting our electronics back on, just to see how Gigi would cope. A/C on, no problem. Lights on, no problem. Music on, no problem. Mai on, no problem. Charging a phone, still no problem. On extended climbs of a few kilometers, Gigi still got a little hotter, but the gauge did not go to dangerous heights and it went back down very quickly again.