Brandberg

Brandberg consisted of three special things: the climbing, the Damara guides, and the rock art. With six people (Mary and Beatrice had to stay back because of the flu) we climbed up in a day and a half (1800 meters, heighest point 2500 meters) and just as fast down again. The three guides were Erik (the manager), Karel, and Siegfried. The names still clearly showed that Namibia had been a German colony. The native tongue however was Damara, a language with clicking sounds (4 of them) that is very hard to mimic for western people. They spoke English fluently and told us that the Damara people had been living in the area for a very long time.

The climb up was tough. Walking up a slope of 30 to 40 degrees with a backpack of 15 kg is not easy. Still, one of the guides was suffering the most: Erik. As a manager, he had never been up and had always said that he would just do it one day. Karel and Siegfied had managed to get him to go along this time. Erik did manage, but only just. Karel and Siegfried even had to take over his pack at the end. The rest of us were having a tough time, but we were more worried about going down again. Our concern had been justified. Walking down such a steep slope for a full day is rather painful on your toes. Thankfully, I had been smart enough to buy my shoes one size larger, which meant I had no trouble at all.

The rockart that we saw close to the top was phenomenal. The animals had been painted with such a sense of detail, and so live like, that you instantly saw that they had not been painted by primitives. Much to my surprise, the animals often had been depicted in three dimensions. This was not the work of school kids, but had been done by true artists.