South Africa

This was my first trip to South Africa. I intended to see the Namaqualand flowers in blossom, but unfortunately they did not have enough rain there this year and there was only the occasional flower at the roadside. But anyway, the main objective was climbing which also meant that I did not see very much of the country, not even Cape Town. However, I did manage to squeeze one wine tasting in – on the winery that makes my favourite sundowner. So there was at least one standard tourist activity.
For climbing I visited the Rocklands in Cederberge. It is a fantastic landscape with amazing rock formations and the vegetation is as green as in Europe. The rock has a rough surface with very good grips, lovely to climb. It was quite a bit colder than in Namibia, generally good for climbing although one day we finished early because of a very cold wind. The other climbing area was Montagu, 200km east of Cape Town. There are hundreds of bolted routes of all grading which kept us busy for days.

Spitzkoppe again

Originally, we had planned to go hanggliding this weekend. I wanted to keep in training and was quite keen to try new things after the last long and successful flight. Also, there was a new hangglider to be tried out by Andreas. However, already a few days before we intended to leave for the coast we heard the bad news: east wind and up to 40 degrees in Swakopmund, a real desert storm. The main deterring factor was that the wind blew the wrong direction and we would not be able to start.
Therefore, we decided to go climbing at Spitzkoppe, almost a year after our last visit there. We arrived late afternoon and found a beautiful, quiet campsite. We scrambled up the rock for a last view over the plain this evening. It was already dark when we came back to the car for our sundowner. Then we made plans: 4 two-pitch routes on Sugar Loaf looked tempting. So we got up at 6 to make our way up the rock face in the morning sun before it became too hot. We started with a grade 16/17 and I felt brave and thought I would lead the second pitch. However, I changed my intention long before I reached the first stand. I just felt too insecure on that pure friction rock face. Promptly, I slipped on the second pitch and struggled to get over that tricky section. The next route was a 19/18 and I left the lead from the beginning to Andreas. After a 20/21 where Andreas was almost blown off the rock by a strong gust, we retreated to shorter routes in Boulder Valley.
After lunch and a nap Andreas attempted a 23 on Dinosaur Rock. From the bottom it looked to me as if there were enough grips and cracks for it to be an 18. I would learn otherwise. Andreas struggled his way up to the 3rd bolt. He put the quickdraw in, but when getting the rope up he suddenly slipped and fell – on top of me. I was glad to have stopped his fall just above the ground and that we were both ok. He pushed and pulled himself up the rock again and finally reached the anchor. Now it was my turn to try this route on a top rope – a waste of power. I realized that this was definitely not an 18, somehow the angle of the rock was not right for that grading. I gave up half way. After two more, easier routes, we finished the day with a braai.
For the next morning we had planned to tackle the fourth route on Sugar Loaf, a 22/20. Strong winds at night and in the morning persuaded us to a lie-in instead. Then we had a look at the routes on Bushman Rock: a 23, 20, 17 and 10. We decided to leave the 20 and 17 till some time after a thorny tree has been cut back and to leave the 23 at all. I took my first lead of this trip on the 10, wow! After a hairy 19 on Lion Rock Andreas was keen to try “mit links”, a bloody hard one. He struggled, pushed, pulled and cheated his way up to the anchor. When it was my turn I protested to even try it, but he insisted in pulling me up the rock. A very light climb up and scenic abseil down The Bridge pleasantly closed the day.

Orange river

Finally we joined a group paddling down the Orange river with Felix Unite. The boats were fairly big and stable and took quite a load. We had waterproof buckets for our things fixed in the boat and even a cooler box with ice for our drinks. The river was relatively high which made it easier to get through the rapids. On the other hand the water just covered a number of rocks which – because of the brown colour of the water – we could only see when it was too late. Once we got stuck on a rock and had to get out of the boat to free it. The waves in the currents were surprisingly high, more than half a metre and we got splashed soaking wet a couple of times. But we never capsized. Steering through the rapids was not that easy, but our guides were of great help pointing into the right direction. We paddled through a marvellous landscape with rock faces rising steeply out of the water in places. There were a lot of fish eagles, herons and shags. The water was warm and pleasant to swim in. In one place our group visited an old mine and some people collected the bluish-greenish stones. In the evening they threw them into the fire where they glowed and then popped. We just camped at the riverside and our guides prepared a delicious meal on the fire. After the refill half way there was even ice cream as dessert!

In the Canyon

The next highlight of this tour was 2 days of rock climbing in a wonderful canyon. The sight of the canyon alone is worthwhile, but imagine this even with about 40 bolted routes! There are steep walls at both sides of the narrow path which seemed to be formed by piling one block of rock on top of the other. It reminded me of fairytale castles. We had route descriptions printed from the internet, but the numbering and grading of the routes was not always clear. We started with a 16 lay back and then slowly worked our way up to a 22 at the most. The rock is good sandstone in most places with some crumbly sections. Although it can get quite hot in the canyon the temperature in the shade was pleasant and there were always plenty of routes to climb in the shade. We climbed well, 10 routes on the first day and 8 on the second. At the bottom of the last route a scorpion came out of the grass, but it was very shy and disappeared quickly when it noticed us. We really enjoyed these 2 days. It is a pity that this area is so far away from Windhoek.

Fish River

On this tour Andreas and I went all the way down to the Southern border of Namibia, to the Orange River. Although we started on Good Friday morning the roads were almost empty and we arrived at Keetmanshoop, 500km from Windhoek, at lunchtime. As it was nearby we had a look at Giant’s playground, where huge boulders are piled up in amazing formations. Sometimes we could not believe the stone on top is not falling down. We also took some pictures of the quiver tree forest from the roadside. This is not actually a forest in the European meaning of the word, but rather an accumulation of a few trees several metres apart from each other. Next day we continued to the famous Fish River Canyon. Yes, it is impressive. We looked from the top down to the water 500m below. It is a rugged desert landscape with just a thin stripe of green along the river. And it was hot. Further south we visited Ai/Ais Hot Springs which is a camp with a 65 degrees hot spring – what a waste! I imagined how glad the Eskimos would be about such a source. This camp is at level with the Fish River and we took a refreshing bath. Finally we made our way to the Orange River which appeared as a green ribbon out of the desert, an astonishing contrast.

Pillendreher

This is especially for my colleagues in good old Europe - a small account of unexpected problems in practising pharmacy in Africa. It is not that you cannot get the drugs and it is not exotic diseases. The problem is a combination of difficulty in expressing oneself and a completely different perception of health and diseases. People come into the pharmacy with funny descriptions of what they need. Look at the following examples:
"My son has a worm in the head." After questioning how he knows, the customer replied that he has seen it when washing the head. I had to consult with a local colleague to come to the conclusion that the man probably means ringworm - admittedly a stupid name for a fungal infection of the skin. The man must have heard the word and then only remembered part of it which lead to a wrong description.
"I eat too much sand." I asked the woman why and she said that it feels nice. No clue what that was about. I just told her to stop it and recommended some minerals and vitamins.
Several people were looking for a necklace or wasteband for newborns which is supposed to calm and protect them. These things are on sale in some pharmacies here and I think it is dangerous rather than protecting as the child could strangle itself.
"I want a medicine for the gut because the back and shoulders are paining when I eat." ?? Strange association, I could not find out what that should mean.
"Don't you have something to clean the stomach?" I explained to several people that they do not need to stick a bottle brush down their throat. The cleaning sometimes related to constipation, sometimes to heartburn.
"I am looking for the perfume for the room." After careful questioning and with the help of a colleage I revealed that the woman wanted naphtalene moth balls - for a good smell in the room!
By the way, the Pillendreher (I think in English it is dung beetle) is very common on farms here and it is amazing to watch them rolling their perfectly round ball until they finally bury it.

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.