Having decided to skip camping with the seals at Cape Cross on the Skeleton Coast, we were able to add an extra night in Damaraland, an area of more than 100,000 square kilometres (over 10% of the whole country). Sandwiched between the Kalahari Desert to the east and the Namib Desert to the west, the mountains and plains of Damaraland are not technically desert (areas receiving less than 250 mm of rain annually) but rather semi-arid, receiving up to 500 mm of annual rainfall. That amount of rain is what we inhabitants of a temperate rain forest would call a wet weekend, but it’s apparently enough that San Bushmen have survived here for up to 20,000 years, and later arrivals could even farm and graze livestock. However most of the area is still home to a variety of wildlife, including desert adapted elephants.
As we left the Skeleton Coast, we fuelled up and stocked up then leaving the dunes behind we crossed a region so dry and dusty that it was hard to imagine anything living there. We made one stop to replicate an experiment with lichen that we’d read about. See the pictures and video below. Then after hours of driving over the plain with only the odd antelope or oryx to be seen, the inselberg mountains of Spitzkoppe appeared on the horizon. The campsite tucked away amidst the huge granite peaks would prove to be our favourite site of the entire trip. Certainly not because of the facilities; no power, no water, and only pit toilets. But the amazing landscape of giant boulders at the base of looming mountains was fantastic. As the sun set, it only got better as the granite lit up to an orangey red colour and the dassies came out to start foraging once the temperature dropped below 40 degrees. A spectacular sunset and a great BBQ ended the day.
The following day was short in distance, but took a surprisingly long time due to some of the worst roads that we encountered on the trip. However, the day’s destination proved to be worth it. We took a break from setting up our own tent to stay at the Madisa tented camp with a huge safari tent for us to enjoy, complete with an actual bed and an open air shower amongst the boulders at the back of the campsite. Madisa also featured something that we didn’t expect to see; a swimming pool. A small, shallow, circular pool with a giant rock as big as a house in the middle, but so refreshing after the dusty drive. We also took advantage of the 3-course dinner that was served up by the light of candles and a fire in their “boma”. But the best part of all was that while waiting for dinner a herd of desert adapted elephants walked right through the camp, stopped for a drink from the water tank, and continued on their way. Fortunately we were up on a hill watching the sunset, yet close enough to see the elephant parade safely.
We finally had a short driving day when we left because we spent several hours visiting Namibia’s only UNESCO site in the Cultural category, Twyfelfontein (or /Ui-//aes). Twyfelfontein (literally “doubtful fountain”) is the site of a natural spring that has been a stop for the hunter-gatherer San people (often referred to as bushmen) for perhaps as long as 20,000 years. It’s on the UNESCO list because of a huge concentration of rock art dating back at least 6,000 years (i.e. before the pyramids!). We had an excellent tour of the major sites to view just a few dozen of the more than 2,000 engravings spread over 57 hectares. We’ve included a few photos, but real enthusiasts should check out this website.
After our tour of the San rock art we reached our campsite at Mowani, also tucked in around a field of enormous boulders, and featuring a washroom and shower in a private grotto at our tenting site, and a swimming pool in another spot within a cluster of huge rocks. Another BBQ dinner and early to bed since the next dfay’s drive would be a long one. Still in Damaraland at the next stop, but a separate post for an unusual activity; rhino tracking on foot.
See images from these days on Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/100countries/albums/72177720315943660/
