The routine is pretty relaxed on this trip - none of those five o'clock wake up calls. Andre & Jansen bring your choice of tea or coffee to the tent at the very civilised hour of seven o'clock and you are able to relax and wake up gently. Breakfast is served at eight o'clock after your morning shower and then a morning walk is proposed....just up into the hills behind camp....
The number of signs - once you know what you are looking for - left by the previous inhabitants of this land is truly astonishing....all the colours used for personal adornment or entertainment are achieved by using natural ingredients in the area.
We squeeze into caves to view ancient rock paintings, some viewed by lying on your back because the rock has fallen since the artists completed their paintings...they are beautifully preserved presumably due to the site, the climatic conditions as well as lack of human traffic...
I believe that an Italian woman destroyed the painting of the White Lady at Twyfelfontein by pouring a can of Coke over it - I do hope that she was severely fined for ruining one of Namibia's national treasures but what material value does one place on such a work of art & how does one punish such stupidity? Even while these paintings were being produced, people were trying to deface them....usually only the pictures representing people which suggests that they were painted by rivals or were considered bad luck...the animals seemed to be left intact....
The views from up here are stunning and in the photo below you can just see the camp strung out like a row of beads along the bottom of the picture...
The area is very arid with a host of weird & wonderful flora that has adapted to the conditions...below the elephants foot...
Photo of the beautiful lichen above - courtesy of Amanda Mitchell.
This lichen below very cleverly shivels up with it's black side to the sun & when you pour water (not Coke) or in nature when it rains or the mists roll in, then it unfurls like a flower bud to reveal a beautiful pistachio green inside...Back down at camp, we jump into the vehicle to explore the other side of the valley....maybe this is what Mars looks like...
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