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Rock Art of Namibia 16th - 30thJune, 2023 Site references based on numbering system of Harald Pager (Upper Brandberg) and Ernst-Rudolf Scherz False colour images processed with dStretch, a freely available software developed by Jon Harman

Day 0. - Windhoek

With Magdi we were back in Windhoek the day before departure to pick up the second car and do the needed shopping. Lorraine arrived the same day due to some flight cancellations and schedule changes, so we went together to the Namibia Scientific Society where I did a talk on Saharan rock art that evening.

Day 1. - Windhoek - Rostock Ritz

All the rest of our party arrived together with the early morning Eurowings flight from Frankfurt, after collecting them from the airport we started out together with the two cars from the Safari Court (now becoming the Mövenpick) hotel. Learning from the 2021 trip, we reversed directions in the three day Sossusvlei part and only went till the Rostock Ritz, a much shorter and more comfortable journey than going all the way to Sossusvlei on the first day. We were there by midday, after lunch we set out to visit the main attraction of the place, the Oase Grotte, one of the few larger sites with paintings in the southern half of Namibia.

On the way back we saw a flock of at least five Lappet-faced vultures (Torgos tracheliotos), an increasingly rare sight. Apparently there is still a healthy population in the adjacent Namib-Naukluft national park.

With a stop for a sundowner it was almost dark by the time we reached the Hotel, with the long overnight flight and jetlag everyone was quite happy to settle in early after dinner.

Day 2. - Rostock Ritz - Sossusvlei

With only a little over a hundred kilometres left till the Sossus Dunes Lodge at Ssesriem we could afford a late breakfast and a lazy morning, a welcome opportunity for the jet-lagged members of our party after traveling for nearly 48 hours from the US west coast. We reached the Lodge by early afternoon. The rooms were not yet ready so we went straight for lunch before settling in and enjoying the superb view from the bungalows.

Mid-afternoon we set out for the remaining 60 kilometres to Sossusvlei. As we reached the end of the track, we encountered a herd of Oryx who put up a superb show, posing in front of the dunes in the perfect afternoon light.

We left the car at the parking spot beside the dry lakebed, and spread out for everyone to find their favorite spot to marvel at the scenery. Only Peter took the courage to go right to the top of the big dine, everyone else was quite content to watch his slow progress ever higher along the crest.

I have never noticed them before, but now the sand near the lakebed was full of huge ants with a striped abdomen, Namib Desert Dune Ants, endemic to this single patch of dunes along the southwest African coast. We also saw a pair of Pale Chanting Goshawks picking their way across the playa, I'm not quite sure what they were looking for, but they appeared awfully busy.

The oryx also followed us, I hid behind a small dune and they nearly bumped into me. They startled but did not bolt on seeing me, only turned around to slowly trot away. Very clearly they were used to the presence of humans.

The whole point of staying at the (otherwise overpriced and rather run-down) Sossus Dune Lodge was to allow us to stay at Sossusvlei till sunset, while other visitors staying outside the park had to leave earlier to reach the park gates by sunset when they are locked. We could have our sundowner by the playa, then slowly started on our way back to the lodge in the evening light. There was still much action, the oryx re-appeared, and we also encountered a herd of springbok walking in front of the red dunes.

Day 3. - Sesriem - Windhoek - Ameib

This day was all about traveling, first back from Sesriem to Windhoek, where we traded our two 4wd pickups for a Toyota Quantum minibus. We had lunch at Joe's Beerhouse, a Windhoek institution, then we continued to Ameib for the night, reaching it in the late afternoon.

Day 4. - Ameib

In the morning after breakfast we set out to visit the Philipp Cave, the best known attraction of Ameib. We climbed up to the large granite cave and spent the whole remaining morning photographing the scenes.

There are new surprises on every visit. I never spotted the two handprints between the two large white elephants, and in the extreme left side of the shelter Evelyn found the five handprints on a very dark smoke-discolored section of the wall which were copied and published by Breuil, but I have not seen them before.

After lunch with special permission (as it is closed to the public) we set out with Pieter to visit the Jatow Grotte, the other principal site of Ameib. It is a relatively short but steep climb to reach it, again we spent a long time photographing all the fine details.

It was close to sunset by the time we returned to Elephant Rock and Bull Party. We made one last stop at the "Geisterkampf" (Ghost-fight) site before continuing back towards the farmhouse.

On our previous trips we have encountered giraffe almost every time we returned in the evening. I half-heartedly promised to everyone that we'll see the giraffes, and much to my surprise this was the case again, we came upon the herd next to the road just before we reached the gate of the farmhouse enclosure.

Day 5. - Grosse & Kleine Spitzkoppe

We departed Ameib at breakfast, making our way to Spitzkoppe via Usakos (for a quick fueling stop). At Spitzkoppe they made some sensible changes, instead of needing to pick up a guide to visit the paintings at the gate (and having to wait if all are out with a party), now there is a guard post at the start of the climb to the "Bushman Paradise" site. Evelyn decided to stay at the car, the rest of us made it up to the site with some huffing and puffing for another lengthy photo session.

Reaching the car safely, we continued to "Sphinx shelter", the other big site at Grosse Spitzkoppe, with the strange human-animal (?) figures. Here too we found a permanent guide, plus a large group which fortunately moved on quickly.

After lunch at the community restaurant we drove to the foothills of the Kleine Spitzkoppe, to the White Ghost shelter, one of the strangest sites of the area, with the big club (?) wielding white figures, clearly superimposed over some earlier small figures.

We finished the day at the Fine Giraffe shelter on the far side of the broad plain, where one needs to wait until mid-afternoon for all the panels to be in the shade.

It was another good hour to reach the Bush Camp at Omandumba, where we were to spend the next three nights.

Day 6. - Omandumba West

We spent the whole morning in the Südtal (south valley, site 131), going through the long list of sites recoded there by Scherz. Most of the sites here are easily accessible, requiring just a short walk from where the car needs to stop. As usual we finished at the biggest site, "Torchbearer's rock", which only moves into the shade around midday.

After lunch we continued visiting the Omandumba West sites near the border with Ameib, encountering a large herd of springbok along the way. Starting at the "Scherz fissure", we slowly worked our way back along the sites recorded by Breuil near the present San Living Museum, then along the border fence close to the Omandumba farmhouse.

Day 7. - Springbokfontein

We made an early start to reach the amazing unpublished sites north of Tubusis village, just over the high granite ridge to the west of Omandumba.The main attractions are all facing west, but there is a fine panel of paintings on the eastern side of the therianthrope boulder, we just reached it to allow a few quick photos before the sun rose above the ridge and obliterated the scene.

A lengthy photo session ensued on the far side of the rock. This unique giraffe headed therianthrope was found by Harald's father, and was unknown to both Breuil and Scherz, it was never published.

We continued to the nearby big boulder site, spending again a long time at the numerous panels scattered about on the huge rock and adjacent boulders.

It was close to midday by the time we returned to the minibus, and drove the short distance to the Springbokfontein sites along the western edge of the Erongo. After a quick lunch at site 98/O we spent the rest of the afternoon visiting the series of fine sites, most of which were recorded by Breuil.

On our way back to Omandumba we stopped at the hill next to the D2315 road where in 2019 we found the cave with bats, plus a couple of paintings. Now the bats were gone, but Evelyn found a curious new panel of paintings (incomplete giraffes?) not far from the known sites.

Day 8. - Omandumba East - Anibib

In the morning Deike took us for a special treat, a very fine site that was only discovered recently at Omandumba West, at the rear side of a small hill not far from their new house near the Bush Camp.

Mid-morning we made a visit to Omandumba East, the farm of Didi Rust (brother of Harald), to see the "Glockengrotte", a very large fine site with multiple panels of paintings.

We continued to the Ai Aiba lodge at Anibib, the farm neighboring Omandumba. After a good lunch and settling in to the rooms, we drove out with Emmanuel, now the lodge manager, to see the principal sites recorded by Breuil in the western part of the property.

On this occasion we had some time to visit "Explorer's cave", a large shelter that requires some scrambling through the bush and rocks to access. The paintings in the shelter are a bit of a letdown, there is only a very small group of human figures, most of what once probably existed is now obliterated by the excrement of the dassies.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the sites west of the road leading from the property gate. As sunset approached we made our retreat, encountering a family of Bat-eared foxes right next to the lodge.

Day 9. - Anibib - Ekuta - Eremutua

In the morning before breakfast and sunrise we made a quick round of the three sites behind the Ai Aiba lodge, straddling the border with Omandumba, all of which were copied by Breuil (Scherz "Grosse wand" - 125).

After a nice lazy breakfast we set out towards the Ekuta farm, located in the central basin of the Erongo. Reaching the Erongo Lodge we were delighted to be met by Karl Hinterholzer, a little frail but still in an excellent shape. Before lunch Karl took us to see the engravings near the border with Ombu farm, which were recorded by Scherz as Otjimisauna before it was merged with the Ekuta property.

After a fine lunch in the lodge we drove to the farmhouse, from where Karl took us to the spectacular Ekuta cave, which he himself found as a child nearly 80 years ago. This site is perhaps the finest among all the spectacular painted shelters of the Erongo, and unlike many others it is in a near perfect state of preservation..

Returning to the farmhouse we said good bye to Karl and spent the rest of the afternoon driving to Eremutua (with a brief fuel stop in Omaruru), arriving just before sunset, with Jens & Inken expecting us with a splendid braai.

Day 10. - Eremutua - Uis

We spent the morning visiting the fine sites scattered about on the granite knoll adjacent to the farmhouse. We started at the main site (Scherz 106/A), with its frieze of fine giraffe.

The baboons, which were conspiciously missing just two weeks earlier, were now back in full force, by the sund of it rather displeased with our presence. They kept us in sight from prominent rocks all morning as we moved from site to site, yelling select curses and insults at us in baboontalk. Mid-morning we were joined by Jens and Inken, and we continued around the hill, before moving to the two knolls to the north where with Uwe we found a couple of unrecorded sites on the last visit.

Midday we returned to the farmhouse. The change over the past couple of years is really impressive, Jens and Inken have put in a tremendous effort. The five new guest rooms were now ready (we were the first ones to use them), and the landscaping of the new garden and camping area is near complete. We had a pleasant lunch, before setting out in the afternoon to Uis via Omaruru.

From Eremutua, Uis is quite a distance (over 200km), it took all afternoon to reach our destination, the White Lady Lodge in the Ugab river near the northern side of the Brandberg. It was the first time to stay here, as Analene's place (the White Lady B&B) was completely full on this day, however it did have the added bonus of being very close to the Tsisab entrance, allowing for a quick start the next morning while the temperatures were still low. The lodge itself has a very nice central building with a splendid garden, but the "chalets" are not quite up to standard, they are very cramped and unpractical, probably not our place of choice on further trips if avoidable.

Day 11. - Brandberg, Tsisab gorge

The next morning was very different from what we experienced so far on the trip, it was distinctly cold with a low cloud obscuring most of the Brandberg, the first proper winter day. The open dining room was chilly, with all guests having breakfast wearing hats & down jackets...

Usually such clouds dissipate quickly after sunrise, but now they persisted as we drove to the Tsisab entrance, and started walking up along the riverbed. We were extremely lucky, as usually the morning sun heats up the east-facing gorge very quickly, making it unpleasantly hot by midday. Now it was perfect walking weather, and we did not have to worry about the sun making some of the rock art panels invisible.

John was again our guide, we started at the famous "White Lady" site (which in fact is neither white, nor a lady...), one of the few sites where the choice of pigments combined with the thin calcitic veneer (the result of multiple wetting by researchers and tourists alike in the past) make dStretch almost useless, only the negative filters reveal some finer detail.

We continued further upstream to the Tsisab Island sites, where we sent most of the late morning and early afternoon taking our time at all the fine panels. The cloud cover remained unbroken till mid-afternoon, permitting good photos at several sites which are normally invisible, out in the sun all day.

We finished off at the splendid "Girl's School" shelter on the north bank opposite the island. As we started making our way back to the entrance of the valley and the car park, the clouds finally started to break up, but the weather still remained pleasantly cool. I made another attempt to find "Rainmaking boulder" somewhere along the northern bank facing the White Lady site, but Scherz's description is very vague, again I could not locate it despite checking out what appeared to be all likely boulders.

By the time we reached the minibus the clouds were all but gone, and we drove back to Uis under clear blue skies. It remained cold though, as we took our sundowner by the pool at the White Lady B&B the conditions were distinctly Antarctic...

Day 12. - Uis - Twyfelfontein

In the morning as we drove towards Twyfelfontein there was still a few low clouds around the Brandberg, but by the time we reached our destination they were all gone, it was to be a proper warm but not too hot day.

We spent the late morning taking a leisurely circuit along the main panels of engravings, passing several which I have not spotted before despite numerous previous visits, as they are usually skipped by the guides.

Finishing with the main engravings, we moved to the Twyfelfontein Country Lodge, which itself incorporates a fine ensemble of engravings (Scherz's "Ceremonial place") into its grounds. After lunch we had a lazy afternoon, a nice change from the previous packed days.

Mid afternoon, once the midday heat passed, we made the short drive to the "Siebenplatte" site, a series of seven vertical rock faces formed from a huge boulder that split and flipped like a book with some very fine panels of engravings.

We finished the day at the huge boulder not far towards the west from the Lodge, with the fine panel of painted giraffe, and several engravings. This time in a different light Evelyn spotted a huge engraved rhinoceros that we completely missed on our visit just two weeks earlier.

Day 13. - Twyfelfontein - Okakuejo (Etosha)

With the rock art part of our trip over, mid-morning we left Twyfelfontein towards Etosha for some game viewing. We had lunch at the very pleasant Toshari lodge just outside the park gates.

After lunch we continued through the park entrance to Okakuejo, where we were to spend the night. After settling in to the rooms, we drove out to the nearby waterholes for the rest of the afternoon, but aside a pair of elephants at Nebrownii there was not much action, save for the usual suspects and many more tourists than during our tranquil last visit during Covid.

There was much more action at the Okakuejo waterhole, both before sunset and dinner, then later in the dark, when the rhinos made their appearance.

Day 14. - Okakuejo - Namutoni (Etosha)

In the morning our party split, with some taking the park game dive (which may leave the gates before sunrise, so there is more chance to see something, but it is bitterly cold in the open game viewing vehicles), while others electing to stay with the well heated minibus, with which we left the gates as soon as they opened. We made the longer drive to the Aus waterhole, but there was very little game about, all we saw was a herd of Impala and a single giraffe. The ones on the game drive were a luckier, they did get to see a family of lions not far from Okakuejo just as they were returning.

After breakfast and packing up, we started our slow drift towards Namutoni, taking frequent detours to different waterholes. At Gembsbokvlakte, which was completely empty earlier in the morning, there was quite a bit of coming and going, as well as at the aptly named Olifantsbad. As we moved closer to Namutoni, a herd of elephants blocking the road created quite a traffic jam.

We reached Namutoni mid-afternoon, after settling in and taking a little rest we headed out to the Chudop waterhole. Rather than moving about, we just settled down and waited for the game to come and go. It was very amusing to watch a young male Impala, arriving with a big herd of females, to attempt to mate only to be snubbed at every occasion. Despite the setbacks, poor Romeo never gave up... However the show was certainly stolen by a large family of banded mongoose, which approached the waterhole stirring a huge dust cloud wile being hardly visible themselves.

With sunset approaching, we started back to Namutoni, and not far from the gate we encountered a lone spotted hyena, moving purposefully in one direction, not bothered by anything or anyone. It had a perfect backlight in the setting sun, and we even managed to get ahead of it as it passed us, illuminated perfectly from the other side.

Day 15. - Namutoni - Windhoek

With everyone taking a flight the following day, we were in no hurry to reach Windhoek. After a leisurely breakfast and morning at Namutoni, we made a small detour from the direct route to visit the Hoba meteorite, the largest known iron meteorite still in one piece (the Cape York meteorite was probably larger, but it is in several fragments, and a considerable portion was used for making iron tools). In all fairness, the visitor center and the packs of noisy tourists taking selfies while climbing on the meteorite greatly diminish the experience, we were fortunate to have a brief window of about five minutes when we had the place to ourselves.

We made another stop at Otjiwarongo to have lunch at the restaurant of the Crocodile Farm, where unsuprisingly it was mainly cocodile on the menu (tastes just like chicken...), then continued to Windhoek for a night at the Safari Court Hotel before everyone taking their flights home the next day.

For June 2024 we are planning a similar 16 day circuit to see a wide selection of the Rock Art sites of Namibia plus some of the natural wonders of the country, staying at lodges and guest farms along the way. Please visit the News page for any updates (or "follow" the FJ Expeditions FaceBook page).