fontain

Last week we had a special entertainment in Windhoek: a fontain nearly as high as the building nearby in Independence Ave. I don't know whether it was a broken pipe or what, but the result was quite impressive and lasted for almost half an hour!

climbing hazard

Today I went climbing again and discovered some of these animals. I looked at them closely, marvelling at the beautiful colours. However, my friends told me that it burns and you get blisters when touch your skin and someone even mentioned that their bite can be deadly! I had not expected this animal to be that dangerous and looked at it with even more respect then. Luckily I did not meet it when I was up on the rock.
In a presentation on Saturday I heard that in Australia live 7 out of the 10 most poisonous snakes in the world while Namibia only has 1. How reassuring! Never mind that the next 10 poisonous snakes can still kill people and several of them exist in Namibia.

Pontok mountains

Last weekend I spent with a friend at the Spitzkoppe again. It is 8 months since I have been there and the landscape now looked totally different. Due to the good rains it was green everywhere and the flowers in blossom. We arrived at 8pm, in the dark, at the camp. The half moon was just above the mountain and run down its side which was great to watch. Thus we had light till after 9pm, enough to get our meal ready and ourselves settled in the sleeping bags under the starry sky. It was wonderful to wake up at night and look at the stars. In the morning we watched the sun dunking the Spitzkoppe into light. This time our aim was not Spitzkoppe itself, but a walk around the nearby Pontok mountains. A Pontok is a hut covered with a mud roof which looks like the peaks of this mountain range. We took our time, had a look at Small Bushman's Paradise first where you can see ancient rock paintings. I am always fascinated by the rock formations and caves in this area. It was a hot day and we had to climb over the saddle of the mountain to get to Big Bushman Paradise, but I thouroughly enjoyed the tour. Back in our camp I went on another small excursion to a rock formation called the bridge through which you can also see the mountains. Then I used the luxury of a rock pool which stays for about 3 months after the last rain to take a quick bath. I was back in time for the sundowner and then the usual ceremony of braai started. It followed another wonderful night under the open sky. Next day we tried to reach the top of the first Pontok, but we did not know the way. Surprisingly, we came across some way marks and climbed quite high over bolders and rocks until all possibilities ended at a steep wall. Without rope and proper climbing equipment there was no way to go further. I think next time we should try it from the other side. Anyway, it was a nice trip, we returned to the car and drove back to Windhoek just after lunch.

Moltkeblick

Last Sunday I decided to climb the second highest mountain in Namibia, Moltkeblick, with a friend. It is only 10km away from Windhoek. He has been there before, but years ago. The mountain is 2400m high, but you already start at about 1700m. We set off about 9am, asked at the farm for permission to walk on their property and then we are on our way. First we went along an old, disused farm track where grass and flowers grew on the way. My friend could not exactly remember the way he went once, so we just turned to the mountain range after a short while. We climbed up to the ridge and continued along there, first on a kind of path, then just through the bushes and bolders where there was space. We had a great view from up there. I found a lot of beautiful flowers along the way, some of them only come out every couple of years after a good rain. There was yellow and red and purple and white amongst the high, green grass. What looked so beautiful made walking harder, though, especially as one should look out for snakes as well. The longer we continued along the ridge the more evident it became that we should have stayed for much longer on the farm track. Our "way" was up and down, through deer fences and around cliffs. However, I found it a pleasant walk while my friend began to struggle and slow down. Finally, more than 6h later, we reached the top of Moltkeblick which was not very exciting. There was a wind motor and a signal post, all fenced in. So, the way has been much nicer than the destination. We had a short break and then started to make out way back down. This was not easy as the ground was full of medium large, loose stones and it would have been easy to break ones ankles. When we reached the foot of the mountain it was getting dark. We just about managed to identify the farm track and stayed on it through dusk. It was still several km back to the car, there was no moonlight and the way became harder and harder to follow. At some point we lost it and had to return to the nearest fence to find it again. Then we tried with a torch, but it was still very hard to identify the remainders of the track. I already thought we had to stay in the field over night. Finally, 12h after we set off, we reached the car, fairly tired, but happy.

Erongo again

Easter saturday I followed my friends to a farm in the Erongo mountains. I set off after work and it was a fairly long drive so that I only arrived in the evening at the farmhouse. The camp was about 6km away and I have only been there once. The farmer described the way for me and it sounded easy enough: follow the path along the fence and bear left. However, as far as I could see there was nothing to bear right or left, just the one path. I noted a totally overgrown track to the left which did not look as if a couple of cars had passed there 2 days ago. I remained on the main path which led to an area I could not remember and then got worse until it only was a tractor track. Meanwhile it has gone dark and I turned around. There was no chance to find my friends this night and I did not want to return to the house. So I just pulled to the side, pitched up my tent, had a bread and a drink and sat on my cool-box watching the stars and the full moon coming up. It was very quiet and peaceful, an overwhelming feeling of beeing alone in the wilderness. Even the farmer asked me the following day whether I was not afraid, but of what? Leopards have been seen in the area, but are very shy, snakes escape when they feel the vibration of approaching man and the farm gates were locked, so there were no people. Next morning I got up before the sun, drove to the farmhouse and asked them to show me the way. It was really that overgrown track I considered the evening before! My friends had just decorated the camping tables with branches with easter eggs and I joined them for breakfast. Then we went climbing some fine granite walls and I even led one route myself. In the afternoon we went to the natural rock pools to cool down in a bath and wash the sweat off. Others had filled a black bag with water and hung it in the sun to have a hot shower, called "super solar shower". Then I went for a walk along the dry river bed and found a piece of a clay pot made by the bushman, probably thousands of years ago! I also discovered a small dead snake on the track, probably a poisonous puffadder. In the evening we had a delicious barbeque and lots of wine. We watched the lightening far away in the Brandberg region and were glad that it did not rain where we were.
Monday morning we packed slowly, went to Omaruru for an icecream and then each set off our own way. On the road back I saw a dead monitor lizzard, a giant beast of nearly 1,5m! I would not like to meet this alive on foot.

Okambara Elephant Lodge

The second weekend in March my parents and me spent at Okambara Lodge. This is only a 2h drive from Windhoek to the east. The first question they asked me when I called to confirm my booking was what car do I drive. The last 8km from the “main road”, which is already only a gravel/sand road to the lodge just consists of mud and puddles after the good rains. The day before someone got stuck there with a combi. They advised me to keep on the track even when it goes through relatively deep water. We made it, but afterwards you could not even read the number plate anymore because of all the mud. Approaching the house offered a dreamlike view at a green jungle of bambus, cacti, bougainvillea and large trees. There were even ducks and geese on the grass. First we were greeted by a cute, tame suricate nibbling at my toes. Then the friendly house lady came and showed us around her little castle which she had designed herself.

After a delicious lunch and a nap we went on our fist game drive there. It started with feeding the captured leopards and cheetahs which were problem animals from other areas and found asylum here. One leopard was quite tame and I stroke his fur when he leaned against the fence. It was very soft. The cheetahs fought with each other for their food and it was a joy to watch these graceful cats. You could see that our guide liked his job and with the help of a sender he found the little herd of elephants on this gigantic farm for us. On the way there we saw the damage they hat done to the fences and wind-engine. One bull had fought with the others and then escaped from the farm. Later we heard that he had to be shut. So there were 7 elephants left and we saw the whole group. Furthermore we spotted red hartebeest, wildebeest, steenbok, impala, eagle, stork, ostrich and some small birds. At the end of our excursion it started to rain and we were rewarded with the view of giraffes in front of a rainbow. In the evening we fed wild porcupines at the terrace.

The next day we started with a game drive after breakfast to find the rhinos. We drove criss-cross through the farm, discovered tortoises and saw a beautiful large kudu-bull very close, but no sign of the rhinos. We already turned back to the house when we spotted a little grey hill between the bushes at our side. It was the back of a rhino. We drove closer and met the whole family which was peacefully grazing. Very satisfied with this success we returned to the main house. After a swim in the large pool we said goodbye and made our way back to Windhoek.

The way back

We took a slow drive back via Helmeringhausen and Maltahoehe. In Helmeringhausen we stayed in the old post office which is now a very tastefully decorated B&B that belongs to the hotel. The settlement itself only consists of 5 houses including a shop, an agricultural museum, a petrol station and the hotel. In former times the place was just a farm. There was not much to see and do, but we enjoyed the peaceful setting. The road to Maltahoehe was very bad because of the rain, mud and deep puddles everywhere. We only made 50km/h on average. So we could marvel at the lilies in blossom at the roadside and we discovered some bright orange oryx-weaver birds who build their nests on the long grass in the puddles.

In Maltahoehe I was surprised to find a backpacker, but no-one was staying there. The river there was severely flooded, trees and fences were under the water. This was a strange sight in this normally dry country. Near Mariental we also looked at the full Hardap Dam which is a gigantic sea of brown, muddy water. Unfortunately, we could not do the game drive there because the roads were closed for safety reasons. On our way back into Windhoek I hardly recognized the area. It was green all around where I weeks before only saw brown, burnt grass.