After the super conditions of last wek the nautical mile looked set to see new records, unfortunately the wind had other plans. With no chance of speeding down the mile we changed from water to wheeled transport and headed up north. With the needle edging off the dial it still took six hours before we finally passed through the gates of Namibia’s Etosha National park.

Nothing creates a plan quicker than the lack of wind, after the first day of the mile it was clear it wasn’t going to happen. We hired a mini bus and made plans to head to Etosha, we couldn’t leave before the event was officially canceled, but the time soon passed thanks to four wheels of a different kind.

We went Quad biking last year, it was supper regimental, any chance of having a good time was all but ruled out, so it was time to give another operator a go. What a difference, the shouts to calm down were replaced with, try this, jump of that, take this bike it’s a racing machine.

At the bottom of the biggest dune I’ve ever seen, Mike jumped off his pimped up quad, “take this, see if you can make the top”. The acceleration was amazing, it just wanted to clime what I thought to be impossible, I needed a few goes to get it right, but what a ride. This was a beast, best of all no one else wanted to give it a go, not that I let there turn go to waste.

Back on the standard rentals it felt tame, but again Mike made it real “just go strait at the lip”. This guy was nuts, love to see his insurance policy, if he has one. Truth is the jumps were tiny, but who cares when you’re looking down a hundred feet of sand dune with the wheels are in the air, the feeling is way more exciting than the reality.

Back on the van it couldn’t be more different, the roads stretch beyond the horizon without a single turn. The round trip to Etosha was a just over eight hundred miles, yet we only needed to make six turns, map reading doesn’t get easier than this.

With the event being over a month earlier this year we were still in Namibia’s winter, the dry season brings wild life out into the open in search of water. Within an hour of entering the park we’d seen more animals than two days last year, at time there were so many different species it almost looked staged.

Lions were top of the list, and while we met other that had great experiences, for us it was just a fleeting glance from a distance, and despite chumming with John Smalley we couldn’t bring them to there feet. Finding a heard of thirty plus elephants cooling themselves by a water hole soon put pay to our disappointment.

We were lucky enough to get a cabin by the waterhole so we could stay in the park and catch all the animals coming in for a drink throughout the night. I’ve always felt lucky in life, but there aren’t that many times that take your breath away. Waking up to see Elephant, Giraffe, and Rhino drinking just meters away is an experience I could never have imagined.