Spitzkoppe

We found a whole family of Meerkats on the 4x4 approach to Spitzkoppe. They are supposed to live in the Kalahari Desert. But these are definitely Meerkats!

















Awh! How cute they are.







The Spitzkoppe (also referred to as the "Matterhorn of Namibia"), is a group of bald granite peaks located between Usakos and Swakopmund in the Namib desert. The granite is more than 700 million years old and the highest outcrop rises about 1784 meters above sea level. The peaks stand out dramatically from the flat surrounding plains. The highest peak is about 700m above the floor of the desert below.


















Making some lunch and resting the hottest mid-day hours. We had a 40 l refrigerator box in the car running off the battery. So thankfully a cold drink was always at hand.

















We spent the afternoon clambering around these very pretty rock formations.
















A little bit like the Stockholm Archipelago but with the grass plains surrounding instead of the sea.







The plains in between the rocks was a bit like the "lost world" and you half expected dinosaurs.


































We hired a local boy from the village, Richie, as a guide for 2 hrs in the evening. He showed us some of the rock paintings in the area.







Very neat and tidy weaver nests.




































Our guide Ritchie taking a picture of us with the pondoks in the background before taking us to the village and letting us taste the local alcoholic beverage. The brew is made from seeds from grass that ants collect. When the ant nests flood they bring up the seeds to dry outside the nest and the women from the village then collects the seeds and make some kind of beer from it. Not great taste but not realy unplesant either.































Deciding on a spot to set camp for the night.







A self portrait in the spectacular African sunset.







Cooking dinner. We resorted to caserols of different kinds quite a lot. When it is pitch dark it is quite conveinient to put your cast iron pot on the fire and just let it simmer away while you watch the fire and drink some wine. They have excellent beef in Namibia and then just add a variety of vegetables, onions, tomto, wine, spices and garlic and you have a great dinner. In order to save a bit of time during the day when you are on the road it is absolutely fine to have the leftovers cold for lunch with a slice of bread.









This little bird was hanging out with us at Spitzkoppe. Not very shy at all, preferring to hop around less than a meter from us.







Sunrise at Spitzkoppe.









We climed up on the rocks and had a pic-nic breakfast watching the sun rise higher on the sky and the rock dassies (looks like guineapigs and lives high up on the rocks) scurry around.










Before leaving Spitzkoppe we climed up to Bushman's Paradise. A place with a large overhang where the bushmen used to make rock paintings.


















No inland ice here so these smooth granite rocks have been formed over very long time by the wind.








So below this overhang the bushmen used to sit huddled up and paint stuff on the rock wall. The theory is that small groups of hunter gatherer roamed this area and the paintings on the wall was messages to other groups. E.g. "watch out for many scorpions", "we were 20 when we arrived now we are 19" (hence the scorpion warning perhaps?), "water can be found heading south", "we hunted giraffe" and so on. Well they certainly picked a very pretty place!