Day 7 - Brandberg to Damaraland

After an elephant-filled-dreamy night at the White Lady Lodge, we woke up slowly and enjoyed the quiet morning watching a new friend: the Go-away-bird. A massive avo burrito and fruit salad later it was time for play! Testing our strategy with a friendly game of Yahtzee! 1-1 for the first round!

Time to pack up from this little oasis and start exploring the region.

Our first stop, a visit to one of the old Khoisan rock paintings, after which the camp was named. 10km away, at the bottom of the Brandberg mountain we arrived at the site of the "White Lady Painting". Together with our local guide Samuel and fellow visitors, a group of very grumpy Spaniards and their wives, we made our way into the 5km round trip to the canyon.

Our guide told us all about :
- the geology of the mountain and the volcanic eruption that happened 150 million years ago, finally explaining how the landscape, with all the boulders and koppies, was created.
- the local inhabitants of the regio , the damara people and of course, various species of lezards, rock dassies, elephants and leopards.
- the trees and their medicinal and beauty purposes such as canpher as "wild perfume" or the Shepard tree as mosquito repellent.

Of course starting an animated discussion with Leo about the various local fruit trees and the jams they could make with them. Mainly a berry tree from which jam and fermented beer was made. If the monkeys didn't get harvesting before them of course.

Under the one o'clock sun, we were quite happy to arrive at the site of the 4000 year old bushmen paintings in the shade of massive boulders. Samuel told us about the White Lady. In fact not a lady at all, but a drawing of a shaman covered in ashes (hence the white) for their tribe rituals. Around him, gathering women, hunting men, and the animals found in the region. Mainly oryxes and zebras. Made with a mixture of animal blood and poisonous milk of a tree for the red paint and with ostrich egg for the white paint.

It was time to leave the Brandenberg Mountain and make our way to a new spot. Our plan was to find something in the wild again, which we found halfway on the very bumpy road to Twijfelfontein, our next destination.

We found a beautiful spot between the rocks a little off the road. A quick evaluation of the terrain and a climb on the rocks to find the best sunset view point and we were set!

Once again a wild camping spot to remember with massive boulders covered in white crystals! Choosing our best french Pâté (aux châtaignes) for the occasion, and fresh beers we enjoyed another one of Africa's classic red sun downers.

Starting the easiest fire ever, famous Namibian wood for a reason, we enjoyed an evening under the stars with a comforting dish of Gnocchi Al lamb Raggu and our favorite Badenhorst Family red wine.Baca selengkapnya