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.