Just a few hours from the ancient carvings at Twyfelfontein sits Brandberg, Namibia's highest mountain. Cruising along the fairly well graded dirt roads, we made our way to the campsite around Brandberg around lunchtime, giving us time to set up a nice meal and marvel at the swimming pool, cactus garden and small patch of green grass surrounding the pool, catching our eye after days of browns and yellows. Beyond the campsite sat two massive peaks, with the reddish, rocky Brandberg poking into the sky at over 2,500 meters (about 8,000 feet), standing tall above the adjacent yellow grasslands and random patches of stacked boulders here and there. Drawn in by the allure of the pool, a few of our group decided to relax and stay behind while the rest of us got back in the truck and made our way to the base of the mountain where we hired "Professor Colin", an older man with a baggy polo shirt and slightly unshaven face as our guide for the area, as the locals often work in rotations for guiding the tour groups that happen to show up. He quickly made some introductions and then we were off, realizing that we didn't have a lot of time to make the hike and get back before the sun went down over the horizon.
Walking briskly, our group followed along as Colin pointed out various birds and plant life, giving us detailed descriptions of the local flora and fauna and demonstrating a vast knowledge of the area. As we walked, we passed through a few high grasses and then a dry riverbed with large boulders along the side and smaller pebbles and gravel down the middle. Along the side of the path, rodent-like creatures were scurrying about, moving away as they saw us coming. These small, brown balls of fur, about the size of a small cat, are rock hyrax (also known as rock dassie in the area), the closest relative to the elephant, though vastly different in appearance, since they mostly just look like an oversized rodent or chinchilla without a tail. Moving further along, the wall of the adjacent mountain ridges grew closer, putting us in the vast shadow of rocky Brandberg and out of the hot sun of the day. The name Brandberg means Fire Mountain, referring to the brilliant red and orange glow as the rocky mountain reflects the first and last light of the day, making it almost appear that the mountain is on fire.
An hour or so into the walk, we came to a small climb and a set of steps, leading us around a few large boulders to a partially sheltered tiny cove in one of the boulders. Behind a small guard rail, Colin pointed out some of the ancient rock art on the walls. This legendary art is known as the White Lady of Brandberg, along with a few other sketches of wild animals, livestock and humans. The White Lady was first examined in the late 1940s, thought to be of Mediterranean origin due to the style, though this idea was later dismissed, though it is significant for showing a fairly un-African style of hair, though the presence of male genitalia also brings up some questions about how it even got the name White Lady in the first place. Alongside the "lady" are a few other drawings of hunters, cows and wildlife of the region, though some of the historic paintings have been damaged by careless visitors who have thrown water or other liquids on the art to help darken them for pictures. We spent a few more minutes inspecting the art before walking just around the corner for a nice view of another dry river bed and a few empty rock slides that would be quite impressive during the rainy season when the river would be flowing. Colin then informed us that we had to hurry to get back before the sun set, so we headed off, speeding our way along the trail, past a bit of birdlife and more hyraxes before getting back to the truck and our resting driver (he's been there quite a few times before, so he didn't join us for the walk) and giving Professor Colin a lift back to the campsite. Unfortunately, we missed the sun setting on the mountain, so we couldn't see if the side of it actually glowed as is the legend.
While we were away, we apparently missed a cute game of chase between an adorable labrador puppy and the resident meerkat that was not that much smaller, as Bruce showed us in some of his videos. We had an authentic bush dinner that night, getting kudu stew, though the tasty antelope relative tasted very similar to beef, especially with the surrounding stew. Just as we finished dinner, one of the workers at the campsite came up and invited us to a concert for the evening, joining us with the other overland truck at the site for a few songs. The worker, along with about five other men and three women, explained to us a bit about their culture and soon began with traditional a capella songs and dances, stomping and clapping to the beat as the partially synchronized dancers strutted around with varying levels of interest. The voices harmonized well, mixing songs in their local language (it sounds hard to sing in a language with clicks) with a few simple English songs about the area, the White Lady of Brandberg ("I'm a white lady. I'm a white lady."), and even a Toyota Cressida. All the while, the dances involved were mostly just a few simple steps from side to side or shaking of the legs; nothing too elaborate. To finish the night, the group sand the Namibian national anthem and then asked our groups to sing a few of our own, finally getting a groups of Aussies to sing both the Australian and English anthems. In addition to that, our groups were invited/pulled up from our chairs to join in with a bit of the dancing on their last song, making two nights of dancing in the past few days for me (which is much more than normal for anyone that knows me).
The next morning, we woke before sunset and packed up our tents to get on the road, going only about 20 minutes up to a scenic spot of vast yellow grasslands and a few piles of boulders with the massive Brandberg in the background to watch the sun rise. Pulling off the main dirt track, we moved onto a small trail of two wheel paths and then tried to pull up onto the sandy plain before sinking down a bit into the loose ground. Though the truck was stuck, this is where we were intending to go, so we got out and set up breakfast, watching eagerly as the large red sun came up over the horizon, shining through one of the nearby boulder stacks. The soft morning light brilliantly illuminated the huge fields around us, giving a warm yellow glow to the whole area. Most of us wandered off to take pictures (Simon and Slavek making their way off to a faraway stack of rocks for an epic nude shot - tastefully shot from behind, of course) of the beautiful morning while Jo and Will gathered rocks to stack underneath the tires and get us out of the rut. (Apparently Jo had told Will that he'd be fine to go off the track, so he was a little upset with her for that.) Jo also managed to look up just in time to see Simon standing naked far off in the distance, shouting out for everyone to look at him as he tried to take his discrete shot of man and nature. As we were packing up and getting ready to go, two locals who had been walking from a long way off finally made it to the truck holding a shovel, saying that they had seen us get stuck and came to try to help us dig out of the sand and rocks, though they were obviously too late. The friendly men talked to a few of us for a little while, one of them claiming to have predictive abilities, though his guesses about me and a few of the group members weren't all that accurate. We chatted for a little longer, and then we were off, heading back down the isolated dirt roads, making our way towards the coast. The grasslands soon disappeared, leaving flatlands of slightly rocky plains and gravel as far as the eye could see, topped by a gritty blue sky, darkened by the omnipresent dust in the air.
(Our group walking through the bush towards the base of Brandberg Mountain to see some of the ancient rock art of the area. The afternoon walk was a little hot but quite scenic.)
(Despite looking uninterested, the rock art here was pretty nice. I guess I always look like that...or maybe just when I'm talking to you...)
(The most famous of the various paintings of people, animals and prints is the White Lady of Brandberg, which is very obviously a man, anatomically speaking.)
(The next morning our group headed out from our campsite and had breakfast on the side of the road, under the watchful eye of Brandberg. Sitting in the dry yellow grass, we watched the sun come over the horizon and cover the area in warm orange light...quite a pretty place. Though our truck is actually stuck in the sand in this picture, but Will and Jo eventually got it out.)
(Brandberg, Namibia's highest mountain, on the right and puny mountain on the left. Just offscreen is Simon posing for a tasteful nude shot of him facing the mountains, with Jo yelling "Hey, isn't that Simon naked?!?!")
(Narrow sand tracks are quite popular in this area. I guess a huge paved highway would be a little out of place.)
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