Today was going to be another long and strenuous day as we stopped heading north and finally started to head west, with plans to visit a couple of interesting rock carving sites. We drove for about 3 hours to get to Twyfelfontein, (which means ‘Doubtful Spring), to see the ‘Lion Man’ carving, created between 2-5 thousand years ago. This involved a 45 minute guided tour up and over this World Heritage site in the midday heat, (over 30 degrees), but it was worth it to see carvings of many animals, including Giraffe, Rhino, and even Seal and Penguin, even if we were over 150kms from the sea.
Next we headed to a local camping area for lunch, before another 2 hour drive to the site of the ‘White Lady’ paintings in the Brandenburg Mountains. This was an even longer hike into the rugged terrain that was going to take over 2 hours to complete, and it was still bloody hot to boot. Fortunately, as we entered the deep canyons we were soon in the shadow of the 2000m peaks around us which did help with the heat.
After an hour for steady climbing we reached the overhang under which the painting of the White Lady, (which is in fact actually a male shaman), could be found. It seemed a long walk for so few paintings, but they were very interesting and well worth a look.
Kudu's to Fiona for booking you such a great tour - you are obviously experiencing Namibia at it's best, well spring is pretty amazing, especially in the desert and round the watering holes, but there is no mistaking it, the game parks and watering holes are true gems.
ReplyDeleteWe camped rough at Okahandja (no tourist facilities back then) some 35 years back and man it was scary for me - you could hear the Lions prowling around and the Hiena all night!
An unforgetable experience.
My uncle was head conservation officer for Namibia (South West Africa back then) and spent most of his time travelling rough and camping out all over, mostly after poachers but also checking up on the game hunters.
They had to be licensed and pass certain skill tests in clean killing, skinning, butchering and cleaning and preserving trophy heads etc.
Guess all that has changed long ago though.
I hope you get to visit Etosha as well - another great "must see" and if there are still that many, the vast herds that come to drink each day is a mind numbing site...
Look forward to your next post and more graet photo's!
Yes I know you are there - I meant the "Pan", the great lake...
ReplyDeleteHey Steve, first of all well done to THFC for beating Man City to a place in the Champions League Nx Yr. More footie for you to watch (isn't that a drag !)I watched the game from a bar in Spain and thought they deserved the win.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, we don't want to hear about how hot it is in Namibia ! It's been one of the wettest weeks in NZ history with flooding in Oamaru and my back garden washing line area. It is also Africa which is supposed to be hot. surely you knew that !
I've never been to any of Africa so it's really interesting to hear what you make of it. The tour you are on sounds really well designed. Love the idea of staying in the middle of a gamepark with nothing around you except nature and a horizon that stretches as far as the eye can see in every direction.
If the French get too much feel free to suggest they would be cheaper 'meat' than Donkey.
See NZ won against Serbia ...great win ! The cheating Aussies almost broke legs with some of their tackles.
World Cup fever hasn't really hit NZ compared to when I was in Aussie, Spain and England. It seems NZ are under playing the Football WC as there's some other competition on next year.
I've booked my leave pass for the next four weeks to be in bars at ungodly hours of the morning. Roll on the 12th.
Cheers Alan
Thanks all for the comments. We have just arrived back in Windhoek for a couple of days of R&R. I will be updating the blog in the next few days. - Chhers - SteveG
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