On the evening of Tuesday 5 September, Day 1 of the 2017 Honda Quest, the ten two-person teams were announced around the campfire at the foot of the majestic Spitzkoppe mountains. Early on Day 2 they kitted up and headed north for Palmwag in the heart of the Damaraland.
This was their first day of riding together as team mates. While the ride wasn’t technically that hard, the 350km of dirt road was in a terrible state, with serious corrugations, making for a very trying experience.
The biggest challenge however was the dust, which made for extremely taxing conditions with visibility sometimes down to 30m. In addition, foreign tourists used to driving on the right side of the road were a hazard, creating dangerous situations for everyone.
The convoy suffered two punctures, which were a direct result of the bad road surface, as well as coming to the rescue of two Dutch tourists who were stranded in the middle of nowhere with their rental car having had two punctures.
The Quest convoy eventually settled down in the camp at Palmwag, servicing their motorcycles and support vehicles. They teams continue with their daily routine of individual competitors giving presentations to the rest of the group about subjects related to Africa on which they were briefed before the start of Quest.
On Day 3, Thursday 7 September, the Quest convoy will head for the town of Opuwo, the capital of the Kaokoland.
