Windhoek to Cape Town: Keetmanshoop to Upington stretch

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robinwyatt
robinwyatt

Hi all,

I am travelling through Namibia to South Africa this coming July/August with my aunt (she's 62 or so - hardy, but not the archetypal backpacker!). She is making travel plans for us, and we are trying to compromise somewhere between backpacking and luxury travel.

So far, she has sorted out how to get us to Keetmanshoop in Namibia by train. She has then found a car hire company that will drive a car for us from Luderitz to meet us in Keetmanshoop. From there, we would hire this car to explore Fish River Canyon and some other places, and then return to drop off the car.

We would then need to travel to Upington in South Africa, from where we'll hire another car to explore the flowering desert and head onwards to Cape Town.

My question relates to the bit in the middle: how does one travel from Keetmanshoop to Upington? Is the only option the InterCape Mainliner (which my aunt tells me travels through the night, meaning we'd miss the scenery)? I have also read about a company called Bailey's Reo Liner online, but can't see a web address for them. Does anyone know whether they stop in Keetmanshoop and Upington, and - if so - from where one can obtain schedules and prices?

Many thanks for all information in advance.

Robin

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peterscot
peterscot

Hi Robin,

This might be that point in life when you have to give up the backpacking and just hire a car.Having someone drive from Luderitz (twice) seems a bit odd. Why not just pick up the hire car in Windhoek and drop off in Cape Town? What's the attraction of Upington?

Maybe I'm not understanding your question?

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robinwyatt
robinwyatt

Hi Peter,

Yes, we have indeed decided to hire a car. However, we want to take the train from Windhoek to Keetmanshoop (we are both big train fans), and taking the car across the border becomes much more expensive than having it brought to us from Luderitz as we have to pay for a driver to be flown internationally (I'm not entirely sure why, but I did see it mentioned in the e-mail correspondence my aunt had with the company and I think it relates to the car having to be returned to the country it came from).

So for those two reasons (and certainly the former, even if a way could be worked out to avoid the latter), we will need to have the car brought to us. Luderitz seems, from my aunt's enquiries, to be the cheapest and most sensible option.

So what I would like to know is how one can travel between Keetmanshoop and Upington by day. I would like to know whether anyone can tell me about alternatives to the InterCape Mainliner, and whether there is a way to find out the schedule of Bailey's Reo Liner buses and whether they stop in these two cities.

With thanks,

Robin

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ambarush
ambarush

Can't you drive the car yourselves?

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robinwyatt
robinwyatt

To quote from the e-mail I received: "The costs are for the driver of the car to get to the car from CT and to fly back from Namibia as there are legal restrictions in the moving of cars".

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