Next on our itinerary was Damaraland Camp, situated in the Huab River valley of the Kunene Region of north-western Namibia.
Due to the airstrip being repaired, we landed at an airstrip that was a 2 hour drive to camp.
This was fine with me since this gave us the opportunity to enjoy a game drive along the way.
Despite its dryness, a surprisingly high diversity of wildlife is found here, including the desert-adapted elephant, giraffe, gemsbok, springbok and occasional cheetah.
Our first stop of course was lunch. Our guide set up a table and chairs in the dry Aba-Huab riverbed, shaded by tall Ana Trees, and proceeded to cover it with plates full of pasta, chicken and fresh fruit. The Aba-Huab River is nearly always dry, as with most rivers in Namibia, but the day after we left the river flooded.
After lunch, we continued our drive to the Twyfelfontein valley to see the ancient San Bushman Art Rock, one of the oldest cultural groups in the country.
Twyfelfontein is an ‘open-air gallery’ displaying one of the largest concentrations of rock art engravings in Southern Africa. With over 2000 rock engravings and a few rock paintings, it was proclaimed a National Monument in 1952, and UNESCO approved Twyfelfontein as Namibia’s first World Heritage Site in 2007.
The engravings on the massive rocks depict a diversity of wild animals – rhino, elephant, giraffe, oryx, ostrich, flamingo and zebra, with free-standing boulders towering above.
There is archaeological evidence of human habitation here for at least the past 6000 years. The engravings could be as old as this, although no one knows since there is no way of dating them.
But they believe the paintings are at least 2,000 to 2,500 years old.
One engraved design that consisted of lines, holes and circles, really caught my attention. And I couldn’t help but wonder….did this represent the solar system, or was it the first map every drawn? I was fascinated and could have spent hours wandering around through the red rocks and dome shaped hills, but knew we still had a 2 hour drive to camp, so had to leave this amazing natural rock gallery for prehistoric artists.
We arrived at Damaraland Camp in time for our traditional boma dinner, and enjoyed delicious food and good conversation with the other guests under the clear African night sky. It was a perfect ending to an already remarkable day.