Rock Art of Namibia June, 2020 Participants:  - confirmed     - tentative  Trip Status:  TENTATIVE

Day 0 - Windhoek

Arrival to Windhoek. With the varied schedules from around the world, this day is just to allow for everyone to gather in Windhoek and have some rest after the long flights. There is not much to do and see in Windhoek, but for those who arrive early and have some time to spare, the National Museum (in the old German fort) and the downtown area with the Handcrafts Centre is within walking distance. We will stay overnight and have dinner in the Pension Moni, a very pleasant small family-run hotel just to the south of the downtown area.

Day 1 - Windhoek – Spitzkoppe

With a start after breakfast, we will drive along the B1 to Okahandja, then continue towards Usakos on the B2. Our objective will be the the Spitzkoppe, a series of high pointed granite mountains rising cathedral-like from the flat surrounding plains, with a number of rock art sites scattered about the foot of the mountains. We will stay at the Spitzkoppe Tented Camp, a lovely wilderness camp with permanent tents with bathrooms and a terraced restaurant overlooking the mountains. Using the camp as a base, in the afternoon we will visit a cluster of sites around Klein Spitzkoppe, where Abbé Breuil copied two very interesting paintings ("White Ghost" and "Fine Giraffe" shelters). Scherz located several more sites subsequently which, time permitting, we will try to locate.

Day 2 - Spitzkoppe - Omandumba

In the morning We will make a visit to the two most important sites of Spitzkoppe, the "Big Rhinoceros shelter" (also known as "Sphinx shelter") with the strange sphinx-like figures, and "Bushman's Paradise", both of which were copied by the Abbé Breuil, and published (posthumously) in the sixth volume of "The rock paintings of southern Africa" series. The latter takes some effort to get up to on a steep granite slope, fortunately there is a chain installed to aid the ascent. In the afternoon, after lunch at the camp we will continue to Omandumba West, a little over an hour’s drive away. We will stay at the recently developed Bush Camp, with permanent tents and adjoining bathrooms.

Day 3 - Omandumba West

The Omandumba West farm, ran by Harald and Dieke Rust contains several dozen sites, some of the finest quality. Harald’s father hosted the Abbé Breuil when he visited Anibib and Omandumba farms (though most of the Omandumba sites were recorded by Scherz later). We will spend the morning and the afternoon visiting various areas of the farm, cherry-picking the finest sites (and returning to camp for lunch).

Day 5 - Springbokfontein

In the morning we will round the outcrops of the Erongo Mountains to the Western side to the village of Tubusis, from where we will take a track leading in towards the edge of the Erongo (in fact just on the other side of the ridge delimiting Omandumba to the West). This area, called Springbokfontein on account of the spring on the plain, contains a good dozen fine sites recorded by both Breuil and Scherz. We will spend the day visiting the best of them, returning to spend the evening, and have dinner at the Omandumba Bush Camp with Harald & Dieke.

Day 6 - Omandumba East - Ekuta

In the morning we will drive to Omandumba East, the adjacent farm now run by Harald’s brother. This farm too contains a number of fine sites (and the original farmhouse where Breuil stayed), the best being the "Glockengrotte" with a lovely frieze of giraffe. From Omandumba East it is about a 45 minutes drive to Ekuta Farm in the interior of the Erongo, ran by Karl & Helga Hinterholzer. The farm contains one of the most spectacular sites of the region, Ekuta cave, discovered by Karl himself when he was a small child more than 60 years ago. The track is not passable for our minibus, Karl will drive us there with his 4WD, we may spend a long time marveling at these superb paintings. For the evening we will return to Anibib (the farm adjacent to Omandumba), to the Ai Aba lodge built in a very picturesque location among huge granite boulders.

Day 7 - Anibib

There are several sites within walking distance of the lodge which we may see in the early morning (before breakfast) as later in the day thet are in direct sunlight. After breakfast we will make a drive to the Northern part of the farm, to the sites recorded by Breuil in the late nineteen forties. The sites are very rich and varied, we can spend the entire morning visiting them.

After lunch we pass to the western edge of the Erongo then will turn north towards the Brandberg Mountain to reach Uis by sunset. We will stay the coming three nights at the While Lady B&B.

Day 8 - Brandberg, Tsisab Gorge

With an early morning start we will drive to the entrance of the Tsisab Gorge on the Eastern side of the Brandberg, to spend the entire day in the valley. We will require about two hours to get up to the Tsisab Island, including a long stop at the White Lady site. There are a number of principal sites (and several minor ones) on the Island, we will spend the late morning and early afternoon visiting them, with a pause for lunch (which we will carry with us, together with about 3 litres of water for the day) at one of the sites. In the afternoon we will climb up to the "Girl's School" shelter, which is above the valley on the Northern Side, then return to the car park and Uis by sunset.

Day 9 - Brandberg, Numas Gorge

Another early morning start, this time to drive to the Numas Gorge on the Western side of the Brandberg, which will present a very different landscape than we have seen before. The Western Brandberg approaches true desert conditions, with the most prolific concentration of Welwitchias one can see in Namibia. Once reaching the Numas, we will stop at the end of the driveable section and visit the sites recorded by Scherz in the lower Numas (less than an hour's walk upstream), returning to Uis late afternoon.

Day 10 - Uis - Twyfelfontein - Kamandjab

After breakfast we will drive North to Twyfelfontein, the finest site with engravings in Southern Africa. We will move to a very different landscape, leaving the granites and entering a golden sandstone country. We will spend the morning visiting the row of engravings at the base of the cliffs, having lunch at the nearby Twyfelfontein lodge that sports its own rock art site at the entrance.

In the afternoon we will visit some less visited panels of engravings on the western side of the Twyfelfontein valley, then continue to Kamandjab, staying at the Oppi-Koppi Rest Camp for the night.

Day 11 - Kamandjab - Etosha

In the morning we will visit the nearby Peet Alberts Koppie engravings, which are second only to those at Twyfelfontein. The engravings are scattered about on both flat horizontal surfaces and on standing stones on a low knoll, spread over a fairly large area, we will need several hours to see all.

In the afternoon we will continue to Etosha Park, staying at Okaukuejo for the first night, converging on the lodge waterhole for sunset when there is the greatest activity. If we are lucky, there will be more action at the waterhole after dinner.

Day 12 - Etosha National Park

We will spend the day at Etosha, making a morning game drive to the various water holes around Okakuejo, returning for a late breakfast. Checking out, we will drive accross the park towards the East, making loops to waterholes and scenic spots along the way, and stopping for lunch at Halali. In the afternoon we will continue to Namutoni, again spending time at the various nearby waterholes until sunset when we must enter the lodge grounds adjacent to the old German fort.

Day 13 - Etosha - Windhoek

Make the long drive back to Windhoek (~380 kilometres), with a stop in Okahandja for lunch, reaching Windhoek by mid-afternoon. For the night we will again stay at the Pension Moni.

Day 14-15 - Sossusvlei - Namib Naukluft National park (optional add-on)

Sossusvlei is picture-book Namibia, with the huge red dunes of the Namib Desert towering over the riverbed disappearing among the sand. For those having more time, there will be an option to make a two day excursion to Sosssusvlei, driving in the morning of the first day to Sesriem at the entrance of Sossusvlei via Rehoboth and the C24/M47, staying at one of the lodges near the park entrance, and after driving to the dunes and spendin the rest of the afternoon there till sunset.

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