Archive for the ‘Weekends’ Category
Gamsberg – Namibia’s Table Mountain
August 17th, 2011 | 
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Posted in We had a weekend with a difference recently when we decided to hike up Gamsberg, a Namibian mountain with an elevation of 2347 m above sea level. This flat-topped mountain closely resembles Table Mountain in South Africa and it is famous (or infamous) for more than just the tortuous walk to the top.
The farm Weener, where we planned to camp overnight, is about 17 kms off the main gravel road (the C26) and getting there is an adventure in itself. Just before reaching the farm, the road passes through a narrow gap in the mountain and runs alongside a deep gorge. Going over the edge is not an option! We were given the campsite aptly named “Panorama” with stunning views over the hills and folds on the low-lying Namib desert in the west. What a magnificent campsite – highly recommended. The bird-life and walks on the farm are worth going back for in the future.
But this weekend was mainly about climbing the Gamsberg. We left early on Sunday morning and drove the 4×4 track through the farm Dradiwawal to the base of the mountain. It was a beautiful day and Gamsberg loomed above us in all its splendour.
The steep track was relentless from the word go. An hour and a half later, after gasping my way up numerous switchbacks, I joined (a much fitter) Rob at the top and we marvelled at the views of the Hakos Mountains in the north. Wow! The views alone were worth the effort.
There were some buildings at the top, probably part of the observatory established in 1970 by the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy when this area was identified as a top site in the southern hemisphere for astronomical observations. The clear Namibian skies are exceptional for star-gazing and the desert conditions add to the suitability of the site. It would have been useful to have had a guide to enlighten us more on this.
We spent some time at the top, looking at the views and the plants and just getting our breath back for the descent. The walk down, although much quicker, was harsh on the knees, but we made it back safely, happy with our morning’s excursion and exertion. The beautiful unspoilt scenery and the privilege of having shared the mountain with no-one but its animal and feathered inhabitants was a rare treat.
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Weekend at Twyfelfontein
Namibia and Botswana have a wonderful system of helping the indigenous population to share in the spoils of the tourism industry and to realize the benefit of preserving wild animals and the environment. In association with Conservation Tourism, community campsites have been set up that are run by the local community and the money earned is used to benefit the people of the area. Not only do they learn new skills running campsites and chalets, but they can display their cultural activities, art and craftwork, do guiding and have gainful employment in the rural areas.
We stayed recently at a community campsite, called Granietkop, about 19 kms from Twyfelfontein in Damaraland. This delightful spot had about six campsites on and around a granite outcrop, each with its own excellent ablution facilities. Twice a day the wood burnng stove was lit, so there was always hot water available. We were sad to see that this immaculate campsite was not as well supported as the rather overcrowded and run down Aba Huab River Camp closer to Twyfelfontein. Their rates were more reasonable and we had peace and quiet as well as amazing facilities. If you’re heading in that direction, please give Granietkop your consideration and business – you won’t be disappointed. And if you want excellent views over the landscape, ask for campsite no. 5!
The area supports the elusive desert elephant, which we didn’t see, but on an early morning walk we did see wild giraffes grazing near the road.
There is plenty to see in this beautiful area. Twyfelfontein has been declared a National Heritage Site because it has the largest concentration of rock art in Namibia. Whilst there are plenty of the usual Bushmen paintings, where staining material was used for their art, Twyfelfontein is famous because the rock art has been engraved deep into the soft red sandstone rocks.
There are over 2500 petroglyphs of various sizes, mostly of animals and people. Considered a sacred site by the indigenous people, Twyfelfontein was an ideal spot for the Bushmen to tell their stories by means of art about fifteen thousand years ago. Twyfelfontein means “doubtful fountain” in Afrikaans and the little spring that rises in the area has been supporting life for thousands of years.
Nearby, the Organ Pipes are an interesting geological feature in the Twyfelfontein area. We walked down into a narrow gorge and were surrounded by literally thousands of perpendicular dolerite pillars, some measuring up to five meters in height. These were formed when dolerite that had intruded into the shales of the Karoo Sequence, shrank during cooling and split.
Our next stop was Burnt Mountain, formed by the Karoo shales and limestone deposits about 200 million years ago. The dramatic changes that took place over the centuries left a mountain sporting various shades of colour (red, black, grey, purple, white and orange), which, at certain times of the day with the rays of the sun hitting it, give the impression that the mountain is on fire. Seen at midday, people might wonder what all the fuss is about as it just looks like a black mountain!
This is a beautiful area to visit, with so much to see and do. From here it’s a short drive to the petrified forest, which I wrote about in a prevous blog.
Weekend at Palmwag
A visit to the Palmwag Concession in north-west Damaraland has long been on our ‘to do’ list, so it was with great anticipation that we left the Skeleton Coast Park and headed to our campsite at Palmwag Lodge. The scenery along the way was quite spectacular, made even more enjoyable by the remoteness of the area and lack of other vehicles on the road. This 450 000 hectare Concession is home to Africa’s largest population of free-roaming desert-adapted elephants, black rhino’s and occasional lions.
Palmwag Lodge is surrounded by waving palm trees and is situated on the banks of the ephemeral Uniab River (‘Uniab’ meaning ‘the one that carries you away’ in Damarana.) It has about six campsites, some of which overlook the dry riverbed and the plains beyond. All the campsites have shaded areas and private kitchen sinks. From our idyllic spot we were able to see a variety of game and birds – of special interest was a hornbill’s nest that Rob will write about in another blog.
We hired a guide from the local community and spent a wonderful morning with him searching for desert elephants. Unfortunately we didn’t have any luck, but he took us over the Grootberg Pass to remote settlements that we would never have visited otherwise and it was great to see how the locals live in such an isolated and demanding environment.
There are beautiful walks around the Lodge which give one a feel of the countryside. The area is dotted with weird looking trees, like the bulbous Herero Sesame-bushes (Sesamothamnus guerichii) which are reminiscent of Baobab trees. The Euphorbia Damarana, Namibia’s most toxic plant, is everywhere. Although this bush is lethal to humans, it is grazed on by kudu, black rhino’s and steenbokke with no ill effects. It leaks a deadly milky liquid when the branches are broken and needs to be avoided at all costs.
The valley around Palmwag is surrounded by flat-topped mountains and conical hills, with the massive Grootberg visible in the east.  The ground is scattered with basaltic rocks that add their own beauty to the scenery.
Although the Lodge looked a bit ‘tired’ to us, with unkempt gardens and buildings in need of repair, it was well worth a visit. For folks planning a trip in the dry season, there is every chance that elephants could walk through the campsites or Lodge grounds. What a drawcard!
Weekend at Arnhem Cave
We’re always scouting for camping venues close to home, and have discovered a great farm about 140 km east of Windhoek. Not only does it have campsites and chalets, but Namibia’s largest cave system is situated on the property as well. As an added bonus, the farm is serviced by a quiet dirt road, which makes it ideal for Rob to cycle to without having to worry about traffic. So we headed off to Arnhem Cave for an adventure weekend.
We left early to ensure that Rob rode mostly in the cool of the day and by doing so we were assured of abundant wildlife on the lonely road. I drove a short way ahead and waited for Rob at various points along the way. We both saw loads of kudu, hartebeest, warthogs, black-backed jackals and shy little buck in the early morning light. As the day warmed up the meerkats peeped curiously out of their burrows, keen to see what we were doing when we stopped to watch them.
If we made the slightest movement, or grabbed a camera, they dashed back into their holes and popped up a few meters further along! It was lovely traveling like that, as the journey itself became as pleasurable as the destination and Rob had a good workout on those hills!
Our campsite, under enormous acacia trees, was really nice and we had an ablution block to ourselves, complete with resident bat that eyed us every time we ventured in.
The birdlife around the camp was also good so we knew we’d be fully occupied the whole weekend with walking, caving and photographing the birds and animals.
We booked a tour to visit the caves and were soon being led deep into the bowels of the earth. The caves stretch for 4,5 kms underground and are well worth a visit if you aren’t scared of bats, because they host the largest bat population in Africa with five different varieties being found there. It’s a bit disconcerting having bats flying past your face in their dozens, but their radar is excellent and they never actually touch you (don’t believe that myth about bats going for your hair – it isn’t true!)
The five varieties of bats found there are:
1.   Giant leaf-nosed bat (Hipposideros commersoni)
2.   Long-fingered bat (Miniopterus schrelbersi)
3.   Leaf-nosed bat (Hipposideros caffer)
4.   Egyptian slit-faced bat (Nycteris thebalca)
5.   Horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus denti)
We learned that more than 100 000 tonnes of bat guano was mined there during the Second World War Apparently bird guano is rich in mineral nitrates and was used for the manufacture of both explosives and fertilizer. When, during the war, the use of bird guano collected at the coast was curtailed, the farmers turned to bat guano as an alternative organic fertilizer as it wasn’t subject to the same restrictions, and Arnhem Cave came into its own as a large scale guano producer.
The grotesque remains of a porcupine from the 1930’s is also on display in the cave. It was very hot and dusty down there and I was relieved to leave at the end of an interesting tour.
There are pleasant walks on the farm and at the end of the day it was wonderful to sit under the stars with a crackling fire and a cold beer reliving the experiences that we felt so privileged to have had.
Weekend at Hobatere
Rob and I were full of happy anticipation when we drove up to the Reception area of the campsite at Hobatere Lodge, on the western side of Etosha. We’d heard that the place was game-rich and that the birding was very good so the weekend seemed quite promising. Imagine our dismay when the gentleman manning the gate advised us not to wander too far from the campsite as there were lions in the area. When you’ve just driven over 400 kms to have a birding weekend, hearing that does somewhat put a damper on your plans, but we reckoned that a (safe) lion encounter would no doubt make up for the inconvenience.
We located a nice campsite on the edge of a rocky outcrop and then drove the 16 kms further up the road to the lodge to confirm what we’d been told. And sure enough, the manager said that we did have to be careful of lions. He told us, however, that there were folks doing research on black mongooses and that we should go with them when they checked traps. This didn’t really suit us at all from a birding perspective.
There is an enormous hide at the lodge itself where one can look out over the plains. We didn’t have much luck with animal sightings there though, possibly due to the time of day. We were hesitant to book a guided early morning walk* (see footnote below) because of the rather long road we’d had to negotiate to get from the campsite to the lodge. It looked like we’d be confined to the campsite for most of the weekend.
On our way back to the campsite we came across this beautiful chameleon making its jerky way across the road. Â What a magnificent specimen!
We also saw a pair of double-banded sandgrouse sunning themselves in the road. I love the striking markings on these birds.
In spite of the lion warnings, the weekend turned out to be very enjoyable after all. We managed to take a short walk down the river bed and saw lots of different birds. There was actually also plenty of bird activity around the campsite – enough to keep us occupied and not fretting about not being able to walk far.
The campsite also has a hide that overlooks a waterhole, but we didn’t have any unusual animal sightings – all we saw were a couple of klipspringers on the rocky mountainside, baboons and dassies.
The campsite is very well laid out – each site has its own ablution set-up surrounded by sticks.
There were literally thousands of koringkrieks (armoured ground crickets) around, which was rather unpleasant as they are ugly-looking creatures and make a horrible popping noise if you step on them accidentally! So an inspection of the shower and loo area was necessary before entering.
If you like to take long walks, then Hobatere campsite is not the ideal spot, but it is a great stop-over if you’re going to Ruacana or if you’ve braved (and survived) the Khowarib-Schlucht. The rocky scenery is very pretty and the remoteness of the campsite is a big plus as far as we’re concerned.
As a footnote to what I’ve written above about not going on a 6.00 a.m. guided walk at the Hobatere Lodge: I have four acquaintances who actually went on the walk together, with an armed guide. They were given strict instructions not to run if they encountered a lion, but to stand dead still and face the animal. Well, the adult, John, was at the back, with the guide leading everyone in single file, when he noticed two lions nearby. When John pointed them out, everyone, including the guide, ran for their lives. John stood his ground and faced the two lions that started to walk slowly towards him. With the whole party watching, he stared the lions down for a couple of minutes before they turned around and walked off into the bush. Afterwards they asked the guide if he would have shot the lion if it had attacked John and the surprising answer was that unless you can guarantee to kill the lion with one or two shots, it is better not to injure it, as this would only worsen the situation.  So be warned if you’re taking an early morning walk in lion territory – make sure your guide is a crack shot, and that he won’t run if you’re in danger! Or maybe you should just be able to run faster than everyone else.
