Friday 12 January 2018. Photos.
Highlights: Spitzkoppe landscape and rock paintings

Despite having a comfortable room I got little sleep last night due to the group bonding session next door and the 5.35 am alarm today. This meant the unusually for me I did doze off a few times when crossing the amazing Namibia landscape. I couldn’t however but be impressed whenever I did look out the truck windows and this started from our first landscape stop just for photos.

We got up early so that when we stopped off at Spitzkoppe it wouldn’t be too hot as it would still be morning, despite this I did find myself sweating a but during our 2 hour visit to this stunning place. Spitzkoppe is the location of great rock formations. Several of the group including myself opted to pay for a guided tour of the rock paintings in this area. It amazing to think that 4,000 years later some of these paintings are still with us. The guide explained how these were used to communicate messages including providing directions to water and letting the San people know if one of their guides have passed away.

Our guide Frans also took us though the uses of various plants and trees. The scary one was this plant that when you cut it weeps a liquid that will kill you very quickly if it gets into you blood system or blind you permanently if it gets into your eyes. The Hans people used this poison to hunt and would quickly cut out the infect area of the animal that they used the poison arrow on. Swakopmund

Frans then took us up one of the rock formations and we got the survey and amazing landscape that photos don’t do justice to.

From here we hiked back to our main group and everyone moved to another rock formation this one with a rock arch or bridge.

Once finished with Spitzkoppe we then drove to Swakopmund our home for the next two nights. The temperature here is very mild, around 22 compared to 30-38 elsewhere in Namibia. Everyone was provided with a room for this stay so no tents being used and lunch and dinner for the next two days is at own expensive. I organised for the hotel to clean my dirty clothes (hopefully for the last time on this trip). At night the entire group went out to a restaurant for dinner with some staying on for a drinking session which I left after the first round of shots, exhausted from the long day and the earlier heat.