{"id":10214,"date":"2025-08-31T08:54:42","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T08:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/?p=10214"},"modified":"2025-08-31T08:54:42","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T08:54:42","slug":"transafrica-1975-south-west-africa-namibia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/?p=10214","title":{"rendered":"TransAfrica 1975: South West Africa (Namibia)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On 29th August 1975 we passed many refugees on the road to the border with South West Africa (as it was then called, now Namibia). At the border we managed to speak to an army officer (who spoke with a ‘Sandhurst’ accent) who examined our British passports: ‘You chaps can come in. Have you got 3rd party insurance?’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a great relief to us, we were safe at last. We drove to the nearest town and bought the insurance and were taken to a house with BEDS! After a comfortable night we started the journey to Windhoek but on the way we diverted to Hoba farm indicated by a signpost. There we saw a massive metal meteorite:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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30th August 1975: Hoba West Meteorite with the Land Rover in the shade of a tree<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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30th August 1975: Me on the Hoba West Meteorite.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As an aside, I recall seeing where a small chunk of the meteorite had been cut out. This must have been difficult as it is, in effect, a huge lump of stainless steel. I wondered who, and why, this was cut out. Imagine my surprise when 40 years later I came across the missing piece at the National Trust property of Tatton Park:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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September 2015: The piece of the Hoba West meteorite at Tatton Park, 40 years after I sow the original<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We then continued our journey and arrived in Windhoek on Sunday 31st August 1975:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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31st August 1975: Brian, Steve and Pete by the Land Rover in Windhoek<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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31st August 1975: Me by the Land Rover in Windhoek<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Windhoek was to be our base for a while as we needed to work to replenish our funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what a journey…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 29th August 1975 we passed many refugees on the road to the border with South West Africa (as it was then called, now Namibia). At the border we managed to speak to an army officer (who spoke with a ‘Sandhurst’ accent) who examined our British passports: ‘You chaps can come in. Have you got … Continue reading “TransAfrica 1975: South West Africa (Namibia)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[148,3,146,147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-landrover","category-photography","category-trans-africa-1975","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10214"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10240,"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10214\/revisions\/10240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}