The secrets of Damaraland

Damaraland has a certain feel to it – after the plain roads and the desert scenery you suddenly end up in the middle of red-coloured mountains. Damaraland has a lot to offer, and after the beautiful night at Spitzkoppe, we headed to Brandberg, The Fire Mountain. It was really nice for a change not to have a long drive ahead of us, so we actually got to enjoy our time at the pool of Brandberg White Lady Lodge, were we camped with the desert elephants. Well, we ended up not seeing any, but a French-Irish couple we met on our first night in Namibia had seen a herd of 20 elephants in the camp site (we did experience a herd of cows walking past during the night though, and even that was quite exciting when you are watching them from the ground level). We also had many other animal friends at our campsite at Brandberg, as you can see.

The one thing we sort of ended up missing out on was the Fire Mountain during sunset. Due to the hing levels of iron in the mountain, its Western wall turns all red when the sun is setting. However, this phenomenon took place on the other side, so we couldn’t see it from the lodge. We were told that the same effect can be witnessed from our lodge in the morning at sunrise. So we woke up 5.30 and climbed on a nearby hill to catch the sunrise, which was beautiful (we even held a small circuit training session while waiting for the sun to come up, well-earned activity points).

There is a collection of interesting nature sights near Brandberg, so we had quite a lot of sightseeing ahead of us for the day. We left the lodge very early, because we wanted to enjoy the sights before the hottest hours. But it turned out we didn’t get there as early as we would’ve hoped, since Google maps led us to an interesting non-existent road, and for a while we drove in the rived bed. We did get out okay in the end, but this “shortcut” took an extra hour, but it was a nice little adventure ;)

You have to use your imagination to hear the music of Organ Pipes.

Twyfelfontein (the Uncertain Spring) is the first UNESCO World Heritage site in Namibia, a place to see the ancient rock engravings, which were made up to 2000–2500 years ago. In this picture is the Lion Plate with a Lion Man, a creature with human toes and an extremely long tail!

A massive flood brought the trees to the Petrified Forest 280 millions years ago. The flood also contained a lot of mud and sand, which covered the trees in a way that air intrusion was prevented and no decay took place, so they turned into stone due to the enormous pressure. Thanks to erosion, even 45 meter long trees have now been discovered, quite amazing!

For the night we had booked a camp site from the Hoada camp (managed by the luxurious Grootberg Lodge), but when we got there in the afternoon quite hungry, our booking was nowhere to be found. But thanks to the friendly and customer service orientated staff at the camp, a spot was finally arranged with a small discount. For the evening we got to enjoy a delicious camping dinner (we had to keep walking constantly while eating though since there were so many flies around us), and before going to bed a youth choir from a nearby village came to sing us a few traditional songs, which was a very nice way to end the day.

First giraffes spotted, yea!

Sunset at the Hoada campsite