Rock Art Hunting on Brandberg Mountain

IMG_0139, originally uploaded by Benjamin Long.

After travelling through Kaokoland for a couple of weeks, I was dropped of in Windhoek. I had 10 days and nothing to do. That problem was quickly solved after the first night. I went to a restaurant called Joe's Beerhouse, a very nice local place that serves wild game and local dishes. I devoured my Oryx fillet, hung out for a while at the bar and then planned to go home early. Standing in front of the restaurant trying to wave down a cab, a rickety old lime green VW minibus pulled over to give me a lift. The driver's name was Mark and he was a local Nambian of German descent. He was a great guy and offered me a ride back to the hostel. I was more than happy to catch a free ride and go to bed but then he invited me to a private party at the local club. I couldn't say no to such an offer and went along for the ride. It turned out to be a great night and it soon turned into something much more. At the bar we were making small talk when he invited me to go hiking with him in the desert for a week. Seeing how I only knew him for a total of 2 hours, I was a little cautious. He then informed me that Brandberg Mountain would be our destination. Brandberg is the highest mountain in Namibia with over 50,000 documented cave painting scattered across various caves and overhangs. The most famous cave painting on Brandberg is the ‘white lady’. Its name speaks for itself. I half jokingly asked him, ''are there any cows in the paintings?'' He informed me that numerous paintings depicted nomadic herders with their livestock. That is all I needed to hear. We made plans that night to leave two days later into the desert.
The two days preceding our departure, I was still a little wary about our plans. Mark was either the nicest guy I have ever met or a serial killer trying to isolate me in the desert. Before we departed into the desert, he let me stay at his parents place for a day to save money. This really set my mind at ease because after spending a whole day with his parents showing me countless baby pictures and recounting their entire lives to how old Mark was at the time. I scratched the serial killer option, a good feeling to have.
We set off in his 1974 Range Rover equipped with all the camping gear we could possibly need for a week. We camped in a cave for the first night on the way to Brandberg. Once arriving at the mountain, we set up camp in a dried up river bed using a tree to aid us with protection from the sun. We would hike very morning and evening using the middle of the day to rest and hide from the sun. I was amazed at the number of painting we were able to find. Mark was very experienced in looking for the paintings and was able to just look at a feature on the mountain to locate the paintings. They were usually located under an overhang or in a cave. One painting pictured a snake, animals and people. I had no clue what it meant and I don't think anyone can be exactly sure what it means because we don't know exactly who even painted them in the first place. But, Mark told me that the snake represented water and the direction of the livestock told the direction to find it. It sounds reasonable enough. Out of curiosity, we decided to hike in the same direction the animals were facing to see if our assumption was correct. Further up the canyon we were able to find a spring. It could be a coincidence, most likely, or we have found our calling in life, interpreting thousand-year-old rock paintings. Who knows???
I was always a little on edge during the hike due to the numerous leopard tracks scattered across the mountain. Seeing how we were usually camping in and around caves and overhangs, a perfect den for a leopard, we were always on guard. The hike was exhausting and after a week we decided to head to the coast and camp on the beach for a couple of nights. It was a great way to relax after the unbearable heat on the mountain, reaching close to one hundred degrees most days. It was a great excursion and experience. I soon realized that Africa has many different climate and landscapes. Namibia is basically one huge desert with many different features within it. I have been told it is the oldest desert in the world but I have not been able to confirm that yet. The coast is a big tourist destination spot, especially Swakopmund. Swakopmund is an adrenaline junkies dream come true with skydives, quad riding on the sand dunes, sand boarding, and just about every other extreme sport you can think of.
A I have said many times the global culturization is taking place all over the world. I have been shocked to come across it throughout Africa and Namibia was no different. The first day I was in Swakopmund I was in a coffee shop with Mark when the waiter realized I was a foreigner. The first thing that could come to her mind was not “welcome to Namibia” or even “what do you think of our country.” It was, “Did you know Brad and Angie had there baby here?” “No, I didn’t know that and thank you so much for telling me” She was pleased with herself and scurried away without taking our drink order. That was almost as bad as when I was on Manyara ranch in Tanzania riding with a local driver to get supplies for the night. The driver was Maasai and could barely speak English. To my surprise he was able to name every nominee and winner of the 2007 MTV music awards that happened the previous night. So, there I was looking out the window at zebras, giraffes, and acacia trees and this guy is telling me how Justin Timberlake is his idol now. Go figure…