Christmas at Harnas

Hello, this is the story of a different Christmas. Without Christmas tree. I made a sudden decision and was lucky enough to still get a place at the campsite at Harnas. This is a farm in the far east of Namibia where they take care of injured, abandoned, orphaned, unwanted and abused wild animals, especially big cats. I wanted to visit them for a long time already, but it is out of the way of any round trip through the country. However, it was well worth it. On arrival I missed the reception and ended up in front of a cheetah enclosure where I did not want to proceed. The cats were just being fed and I turned around to find the reception. After checking in I unwrapped my one present I had brought with me and spent some thoughts on my family in the cold and snowed-in Germany. Then I strolled through the area till it got dark, watching the baboons playing, the tortoises grazing on the large lawn in front of the bar and the crocodile lazily lying near the pool. I went to bed soon after dinner to get up with the first daylight. The baboons were already active and noisy and there was a young giraffe behind my tent which came so close that I had to stroke her. Later the same happened with a duiker, a small antelope. I actually had to push her away to be able to take a photo. There was also a zebra in company of a calf strolling around. Then I spent quite some time watching a Pillendreher-Scarabaeus-dungbeetle rolling a lump of dung and burrying it. I joined the morning feeding tour during which we drove around to enclosures of baboons, lions, cheetahs, leopards, velvet monkeys, African wild dogs and karakals. The leopard could catch a big piece of meat standing on its hindlegs on a branch. One karakal jumped 2m high to get the best piece of meat. The dogs were fighting with each other, 5 of them tearing on the same piece. At last we drove through an enclosure with tame cheetahs, but none of them was seen. Then our guide called them and they came running to us despite the fact that there was no food for them. We were allowed to stroke them and one licked my arm with a very rough tongue.
By the time we got back it was already very hot, so I just relaxed, had a light lunch and long siesta. Then I watched a video and an exhibition about the place and walked around with the afternoon feeding tour. There we saw baby lions, a vulture, exotic parrots and monkeys, bat-eared foxes and rock dassie. People come here from all over the world to work for free for some time, that is actually, they pay for it! It is cheaper to stay there as a guest, but of course you then don't get in such close contact with the animals. In the evening there was a buffet and Christmas party for everyone. Early in the morning I went for another walk around and then drove off at lunchtime.

flying higher

I spent another weekend with my friends in the dunes, got a lot of flights done and learnt a lot - not the least is confidence. We started higher and higher and in stronger winds, though not from the top of the dune yet. Sometimes it took quite an effort to correct the flying direction when the wind blew. I am very happy that I managed the weekend without further injuries and the Sunday even without any crashlanding. I am looking forward to next time!

Skeleton Coast

My latest trip lead my friends and me all the way up the coast from Swakopmund to Terrace bay (that is as far as you can get). This is a more than 350km drive on salt and gravel roads with hardly any features to rest your eye at. We saw some shipwrecks and left overs from the diamond mining times on the way, that was it. However, even this huge amount of nothingness is amazing, though quite tiering for the eyes. It was also very windy and when someone got out of the car the sand pricked the sking like thousand needles. Not a welcoming place, but there ist still live in this desert. We spotted a jackal and a couple of springbocks and even some ducks in a little puddle in a riverbed. Terrace Bay itself is an assortment of some bungalows and most guests come here for fishing. There is really nothing else one could do. We only spent one night and then moved on to Palmwag lodge behind the desert girdle. We drove through a great landscape with lots of little table mountains. Palmwag lodge is a nice place and they offer game drives to see elephants and lions. After one night we continued via Fingerklip to a farm near Outjo. There we split up - my friends went to Etosha next day while I drove home. All in all it was a bit too much driving (1700km in 5 days) with too little to see and too few activities. But at least I have been through skeleton coast without leaving my skeleton there.

trying to fly

Last weekend we spent at the coast as I wanted to try hanggliding. After a couple of exercises such as running with the thing I moved a few metres up the dune and started with the first hops. Early afternoon I was successful to fly for about 20m, but the landing was a bit too fast, I twisted my ellbow and finished the sport for this weekend. However, I got the taste for it and I definitely want to continue with it.

the coast

One night we camped wild at the Brandberg with no-one around for a couple of kilometres. We enjoyed the nature and the absolute quietness. Then we explored the other end of our proposed original route, the Brandberg West camp. We drove through a deserted mine and just as we thought nothing will be there and wanted to turn around a simple camp appeared. We were greeted and the woman had a registration list ready and also hand-drawn maps of the way through Doros Crater. So, from this side the undertaking looked much more possible, but now it was too late. We turned around and drove to the coast. The Skeleton coastline is as bleak as described in the books, but we did not get bored by this. I even enjoy this emptiness. The kids went bathing in the Atlantic at 13 degrees water temperature, mist and an unpleasant wind outside. On our way we visited one of the largest seal colonies in Southern Africa. The number of animals was quite impressive and it stank horrible. We watched the acrobatic swimming for a while.
We stayed a few days in Swakopmund to get some entertainment. The boy and the man went quad biking, the girl and the woman had a look at the Kristallgalerie and adjoined jeweller shops. One day we joined Tommy’s Living Desert tour which was great fun. I had been on the tour over a year ago, but it was very interesting again. In Walvis Bay we met a pelican selling souvenirs and my visitors bought a few.
On our way back to Windhoek we stopped for one night and a bit of scrambling at Spitzkoppe. The kids enjoyed this adventure a lot.

Ugab Terraces

The next leg of our journey brought us along the Ugab river to the famous Vingerklip. Long ago the river cut through the landscape and created towers and funny shaped hills with steep sides. One of these towers is the Vingerklip, so narrow at the bottom that one wonders that it does not tip over. We enjoyed this amazing landscape for 2 days and then carried on to Twyfelfontein. On the way we visited the petrified forest where we marvelled at 30m long logs of stone. We stayed in the Aba-Huab community camp, right next to the Huab river. One evening I strolled along the riverbed and discovered several elephant footprints. Although they were not fresh I found this quite exciting. We explored the surrounding, found the Wondergat, a very deep and narrow hole in the ground and looked at the Organ Pipes, a strange volcanic rock formation. Twyfelfontein is known for its rock engravings and we joined an interesting tour to see these. Usually I prefer looking at rock art at my leisure, without a guide. However, this was not possible in this place and it was indeed good to get some explanation of the engravings. Some of the pictures were like a map where temporary and permanent wells are marked, essential knowledge in an area like this. Most engravings showed animals, sometimes with human body parts. This should symbolize the shaman who is transforming into that animal. Then there was an ostrich with 5 necks which showed its movement.
Originally we intended to cut through the Doros Crater to the coast from there, but warnings about people getting lost, lack of a detailed map of the area and lack of information about the way from local people deterred us from this. We went on a day trip on the 4x4 path into the area and back instead. Then we made our way on a long detour around the east of Brandberg to get to the same point.

mishaps

I could not believe the number of broken things on this tour. It started with the fridge in the car: it worked for the first 200km, then said “beep” once more and then it went dead. No light, no tone, no refrigeration. So we had from then on a very bulky and inefficient cool box which restricted us in our food shopping. However, we managed surprisingly well without it. The next thing was the borrowed gas cooker. Our attempt to cook tea on it required a windstill place and a lot of patience. The flame was tiny, not enough gas was coming out. We checked the valve and the outlets, but could not find anything wrong. So, this meant cooking on an open fire whenever we wanted anything hot. OK, I could put up with this. Then, on a camp site in Etosha, we had a screw in one tyre and it lost a lot of pressure. We decided to change the tyre in camp rather than somewhere on the Etosha roads with hungry lions around. We had problems getting the nuts off and asked for help at the local petrol station. The man there helped us with some tools and we thought the problem was sorted. It was not so. When trying to use the hydraulic jack it only moved a few centimetres and then stopped. It turned out that the oil had been leaking out. So we also borrowed a jack, finally changed the tyre and got the hole fixed. At our stop in the next town I bought more useful tools for the nuts, a new jack and also showed the gas cooker to the man in the garage. He tried it out and it worked! He said he had not done anything, it just worked. Hm. Well. What I had not expected was that we needed tha jack and the tools the next day as we had another flat tyre in another camp. We also got that tyre fixed in the nearest town. To finish this unpleasant story, later one tyre was torn by a stone and the last one ripped totally off on a normal gravel road. We ended up driving 150km along the coast without a spare. In Swakopmund I ordered new ones. And I remember my brother asking me in the beginning why the hell I have 2 spares! I think 4 flat tyres within 2 weeks is quite a record and in the end we were very quick in changing it.

Etosha once more

This time I went on tour with my brother and his kids. The Landrover was fully loaded with borrowed camping gear and food for 2 weeks and off we went. We took our time to enjoy everything in leisure and to avoid too long drives in a day. Our first stop was the Cheetah Conservation Fund, a place where they care for injured and orphaned cheetahs. If a cheetah does not learn to hunt from its mother, it will not be able to survive in the wild, so it has to be kept in a reservate and fed. We were introduced to the concept of the place and saw the feeding of a group of the cheetahs. There is even a clinic and laboratory to care for injured animals and to do some research on them. The museum nearby was also very interesting. They do a morning exercise with the cheetahs, where there is a piece of fur pulled over the field for them to hunt, similar to a greyhound race. Unfortunately, we missed that.
The next highlight was Etosha. Although I had been there before it was still a great experience. Already in camp the night before we entered the park we heard the lions growling. We had 3 days to spend in the park and saw everything one could wish for: a herd of 20 elephants crossing the road just in front of us, 4 lionesses with 7 cubs relaxing at a waterhole, oryx fighting, giraffes with their offspring and a pair almost twisting their necks around each other … The funniest thing I saw was a large group of zebra mongoose whirling through each other at the road side and the strangest thing was a single black rhino pestering a group of elephants at the waterhole – and the rhino won! Usually this is the other way round. After those 3 days in the car we took a day off and relaxed in a camp outside the park, just walking around a bit and using the pool.

Rhino Horn

I spent another wonderful weekend climbing at Spitzkoppe. We did a number of routes, up to grade 22, Andreas leading all of them except the easiest one. The highlight was the 22 up Rhino Horn. I got some great pictures abseiling down the other side of it. In the afternoon we quickly wanted to get up an unknown route for which we did not have any description. It did not look so long from the bottom, but it turned out to be about 200m of climbing, 5 long pitches. Andreas only had 13 quickdraws with him and needed 17 on the first pitch, so he had to keep coming back down to retrieve them. To complete the mishap I then dropped one of them after taking them out, so it fell down the 50m into the bush at the bottom and it was missing for the next pitches. The sun was going down, but we completed the climb and reached the car just before dark. Next morning we had to search for the lost quickdraw, but we were lucky and Andreas found it easily.

Namibgrens

The last long weekend I spent with a friend on the farm Namibgrens near Spreegthoogte Pass, the way to Solitaire. We had not planned anything in particular, just relaxed, went for one short and one full day hike and enjoyed the view from the escarpment down to the Namib Desert and over to the Gamsberg. The campsite was new and typical Namibian: an open "kitchen" which means a water tap, sink and fireplace, an open tent for shade, a shower next to the rock with a wooden fence around and a toilet with a little tree inside a similar fence. I always find it funny to see the white ceramic basins in the middle of the bush with no wall around or roof above. And I do enjoy the free view while sitting there. We only saw a few wild animals on the farm: dassies, a hare, a leguan and the track of a large snake which had crossed the sand road, possibly puff adder or phyton.

Spitzkoppe summit

I spent a long weekend at Spitzkoppe once more. This time the aim was to climb the summit of Spitzkoppe itself which is 1728m high. Andreas and me arrived around lunchtime and waited for a Russian woman to join us. For warming up we climbed “desert rose”, a grade 13 pure friction route up the Sugar Loaf. It sounds easy and it was not hard, but the leading climber had to have good nerves as most pitches did not have bolts or any kind of protection – just around 30m to the next anchor which was not visible from the start of the pitch. I lead 2 pitches and each time was very relieved when I could see the anchor. I did not like the idea of climbing the pitch back down in case there was nothing on the top. We happily arrived on the top and enjoyed the view around before abseiling.
The ascent of Spitzkoppe was planned for the next day. We camped near the start of the scramble and got on the way at 6am. It is a long scrambling route and not always easy to find the way as there are waymarks of stone everywhere. We made good progress and had a break for a second breakfast at the bottom of the climb at 9am. It is an interesting route with 3 chimneys, 1 traverse and very few bolts or anchors. Andreas lead all the way as he has been there 10 times before. At 1pm the three of us walked up the last bit to the top hand in hand. We enjoyed the view over to the Pontoks and the Sugar Loaf which we climbed before and they looked very small from up there. Then we read odd pages in the summit book and entered ourselves and had a short break. After that the long abseil started. It went well, but it took some time. We also used the ropes to support us at the first part of the steep scramble down. In the end we had to hurry up as the daylight was fading and it became difficult to find the way through the boulders. However, we managed and arrived back in camp at 6:30pm, exhausted but happy.
Then we had a day rest, walking around and enjoying the rock formations and climbing 2 routes in the evening. The last day we spent the morning at Klippdachswand. I lead a 3 pitch grade 17 route which went fine and Andreas a 3 pitch grade 19. After a long lunch break I lead a short grade 18 route which I had not climbed before. I struggled a bit, but eventually made it. We decided we have to come back to this great climbing area soon, maybe to climb Rhino Horn, a grade 22.

Arnhem cave

Hello,
today I visited the largest cave in Namibia. It is a dry cave, so there are not the usual nice stalagtites etc, but the exciting thing about it are the bats. 5 different species live in there of which I got to see 2 alive and 1 mumified. There were lots of them and when we disturbed them it sounded like a storm coming up from the noise they made flying. We saw some very close and even a pair mating. There were also mumified porcupines which venture very deep into the cave - one was found about 60m deep and maybe a km from the entrance! During the second world war the guano from the bats was harvested and shipped to Germany to make explosives. Nowadays there is no mining, but the smell is awful!

Brandberg Pools

The next morning I went to marvel at the lovely stone garden up there and took some pictures. Then I took over the guiding and tour planning. With the help of map and GPS we exactly identified where we were and decided to carry on through unknown landscape to a creek called Longipools which sounded promising. The problem was the way. There were again steep stone slabs we had to cross and huge boulders where it was difficult to find any way through. However, eventually we managed to get to our destination and it was a wonderful place. Lots of pools to bath in and drink water from. We decided to stay there for two nights and make a day trip without the heavy backpacks to Orabes Kopf. This is a very prominent peak of the Brandberg, 2299m high and it offers great views all around. Again, it was not easy to find a way through the boulders as we lost the stone pyramids, but it was much easier to get through it just with the light day pack. On top were pools again and one very close to the edge really looked like a bath. I tried it out, but it was quite cold. Next day we packed again and climbed through another gorge to another rocky place called Wasserfallflaeche. Of course I took a bath at the heat of the day. There was also a cave with a waterfall in front of it, very pretty. Then it was time to find a way back to Hungarob gorge and we found a lovely place to camp directly at the Messum river, 300m below our first camp. It was a pity this was the last night, we would have liked to carry on. We were now able to follow the stone pyramids which made progress much easier, although walking was hard in the sliding scree. Early afternoon we arrived at the car which was boiling hot. After a last bath to cool down we left the gorge and made our long way back to Windhoek.

Brandberg Hike

This was a 5 day hike on the highest mountain of Namibia. There are no footpaths, just here and there some stone pyramids to mark the way. It is absolute wilderness, so we had to take all food, tent and bedding in our backpacks. Water was taken from creeks and pools with tadpoles in them. It was clear and tasty (just remember to spit the tadpoles out).
I went with a friend from the mountain club who had been in the Brandberg several times before. He had chosen the route he knew best: up Armis gorge to a cave called Lufthoehle, then Riesenhoehle and finally some pools “Katarakt” on the top. This was the plan. We also took a GPS with us, just to try it out and to be able to track back in case we got lost. We drove there from Windhoek and arrived at the bottom of the gorge in the early afternoon. We took a dip in a pool formed by the Messum river to cool down and then set up camp. Clouds were coming up, but only a slight shower disturbed our game of chess and the braai.
The first day of the hike was a usual the hardest. We went up from 700m to 1800m through difficult terrain. There were boulders 4 times the size of my Landrover blocking the way, thick thorny bush between the rocks and sticky grass where it was flat. You Europeans don’t laugh about the grass! I did so in the beginning when people told me about it, but it is very annoying. It sticks to your trousers, pierces through the skin and irritates you all the time. When you try to take it off it even sticks to your fingers. In the beginning we tried to follow the river which flew sometimes underground and then appeared as pools again, very nice. Quite often we had to make a detour around the boulders which involved some climbing, not easy with these heavy backpacks. Later we had to move up on the slope at one side as the river itself became impassable. My friend thought to recognize that pool and this big rock and so we moved our way up. At some point he became doubtful as he did not see familiar features anymore, but then very large stone slabs appeared on our side and this was were we had to go up. It was steep and he became breathless, so we swapped backpacks for a while as mine was much lighter than his. However, the stone slabs turned out not to be the ones he was looking for. Finally he realized that we were not in the Armis gorge at all! The GPS has been trying to tell us we were in the Hungarob gorge next to Armis, but we did not really believe it. Now we did. Luckily there were some waterholes at the top of the slabs and we set up camp there as it was already late. Wow, what a camp site, what a view! Alone at the top of a steep slope of rock! We cooked our noodles on a gas stove, drank a small bottle of red wine and sat by the campfire until tired.

Erongo West again

This was the second time I went to this place and it looked totally different than before. Everywhere grew high, green grass, pretty flowers, even moss and algae. The road was damaged by the river crossing it and we had problems to get through, although there was not much water flowing anymore. Near the campsite were beautiful small waterfalls and pools for bathing although not swimming.
The first day I decided for the walking group. We went along and in the river, sometimes sinking into loose sand ankle-deep. Then we crossed over to the mountains where my friend remembered to have seen bushman paintings. Unfortunately, this time we could not find them. Never mind, we continued to another place where there is a little cave and paintings on the overhang. These we found and they were very clear: kudus, two giraffes and an unidentifiable bird. We completed the round and returned along the river. I let the others go to camp and used the chance to take a shower in the waterfall. The water was lovely and warm.
In the evening we had a lekker braai and there was talk about getting up at 6 to do some climbing before the heat of the day. I did not really believe in this, but got up at the first sign of dawn anyway and packed everything. Then I took my breakfast and climbed onto a rock overlooking the camp to see the sunrise and keep an eye on the camp to notice what is happening. And there, really, just as I finished my Nutella roll, 2 people emerged with rucksacks from the camp. I hurried down to join them and climbed two fairly easy routes which I remembered to have managed on a top rope before, this time leading. As we approached camp again, a group of women was on the way to the pools. I quickly grabbed my towel and followed them for a bath. It was very relaxing, with water-massage from the little waterfall. After lunch we sadly had to return to Windhoek.

Blutkuppe

As we left the special permit area, we saw more tracks on the beach, rubbish lying around, we passed a dead whale and finally reached tarred road. It was a strange feeling to have cars coming towards us, to have to observe road signs and traffic lights. It is astonishing how soon you can almost forget these things. Then we heard the first news: the Kuiseb river did flow because of the extensive of rain, damaged the water pump station and left Walvis Bay without drinking water. Thus, after a last meal together and saying goodbye to the other tour participants, we moved on to Swakopmund and stayed there.
Next day we set off to Windhoek via the little mountain Blutkuppe. I drove through that area a year ago and it was just stony desert. This time it looked like a field in spring: green everywhere! We climbed up Blutkuppe and enjoyed the plentiful stone formations. Back at the parking spot we had to change a flat tyre. Fairly tame Guinea fowl came nosily to have a look at our coffee table. We packed just in time before heavy rain started. It was already late and we still had a long drive on gravel road in front of us. It was not fun driving in the dark on these muddy roads, with cows standing in the middle of the way. Once we also saw a Dikdik, a small antelope, in front of the car. Finally we arrived safely in Windhoek and I went straight to sleep.

serious dunes

Now driving in proper dunes began. Going down a slip side of a dune looks scarily steep, but in reality is only about 35 degrees. My driver was the only one without sand experience and we struggled in the beginning. The others gave us good advice and after taking some weight off the car by distributing excess water and adjusting the driving style to high refs it worked out ok. However, almost everyone got stuck at least once, even one of the guide’s car. The crew was very experienced and quick in recovery. Luckily, towards the north, where the dunes get higher, the sand was still wet from previous rain and it was relatively easy to drive. The Landrover sometimes got an easier way on a detour and mostly we followed it. On the other hand, some of the others tried how far they could get up a steep dune and sometimes even jumped over the edge as they had too much speed. On the way we visited literally deserted diamond searcher towns, a graveyard in the sand which was uncovered by a storm with human bones scattered all over the place, and a ship wrack from 1910 which nowadays lies 1km away from the coast. We also saw a seal colony and a lot of whale bones left over from former times. Halfway through the desert are some bungalows which form the base of the Oranjemund fishing club. The fishermen come there for a week every now and then. We got some fresh fish from them to cook over the fire in the evening, very delicious! Nearby lives a brown hyena and we were lucky to see her. Here, at the coast, it was windy and misty and sometimes really cold in the evenings. What I enjoyed most on this trip was to be hundreds of kilometres away from any settlement, in the middle of nowhere.

start from Luederitz

Our group consisted of 8 cars with 2 people in each, mostly South African farmers. There was one Landrover Defender in the convoy which was immediately regarded as bad luck. Apparently, these cars struggle in the dunes as they are heavy, not well balanced and not speedy. Again I was glad I only came as a co-pilot and not in my Landrover. Then there were 2 guides, each in a Landcruiser. One of them has been doing the tour for five years and it was amazing to see what he can do with the car. First we had to fill in an indemnity form, basically saying that your car may get stuck irrecoverable and that yourself may die on the trip as there is no medical help in reach. However, we were still looking forward to the tour. After a few km on tarred road we turned off into the desert which is a nature park and only few permits are issued for people to enter the area. We stopped to let air off the tyres, down to 0.8-1bar. They looked scarily flat. On the first day we still saw a lot of dune grass and Oryx feeding on it. We visited a deserted bulldozer which was used by a diamond searching company until 1954. This was about the only sign of civilization we saw that day after leaving the road. No, the second one was the drop toilet at camp, consisting of an open metal barrel with a toilet seat and lid, four wooden poles and some fabric around it on three sides with free view into the dunes on the fourth side. I never had better views during big business than on this trip.
To my surprise, the driving did not get boring. We stopped for breaks and to take photos and even the driving itself was quite exciting. At 5pm we reached camp and after a nap I went for a walk in the dunes. When the camp disappeared behind a dune one could think one is alone on the world, so wide and empty was the landscape. I enjoyed the experience not to hear any background sound of civilization.

Into the desert

This trip was an organized 4x4 tour from Luederitz to Walvis Bay - 630km through the desert! Participants had to use their own car, carry extra spares, water for 6 days and around 250l of petrol. I was lucky to be invited by a friend to join him in his car as I would never have done this tour myself.

Firstly, it is a long drive to get from Windhoek to Luederitz. We camped on the way at a place near Keetmanshoop, near a quiver tree forest. These “trees” are in fact aloes, but they grow as tall as trees. There was not much time to look around in the evening, but the light effects were great and there was a marvellous sunset with very localized rain in the background. We were the only people on the campsite. For our evening meal we used electric light which attracted so many beetles, moths and grasshoppers that the area around the light was covered with them. Although we kept some distance from the light source a number of beetles still found the way into our salad. Then you just eat slowly and carefully and spit the bit out when you feel legs moving on your tongue. In the morning a bus full of tourists arrived and they all came up to our tent to take photos of the oldest quiver tree which stood next to it. There was no respect for privacy and they were just short of asking us to move the car so that they could get a better shot. After this sobering experience I went to explore the “forest” with my camera. It is an accumulation of some trees, but nothing that would be worth calling it a forest by European dimensions. However, it was a very pretty setting. We carried on to Luederitz, pitched up camp on Shark Island, and I went for a quick swim. We were lucky that it was not too windy that night as tents had been blown away from that peninsula.

The flight home

I went home for 3 weeks around Christmas and New Year to escape the heat and boredom of Windhoek during that time of the year. It was nice to follow the old Christmas tradition again with proper pine tree, goose and Christmas markets. I also enjoyed ice skating after a few years break. It was a very relaxing time as I did not try to visit all my friends in Europe (sorry, dears). On my flight back home from home I had the opportunity to see the great countryside of Namibia from the air and this time I did recognize a couple of things I saw. The most impressive one was Etosha. Only from the air I realized how big it really is, after I have driven around in this area for 3 days.