We left the Skeleton Coast after sunset, low on gas and looking for a campsite. We came across two 4x4s pulled off the road so we stopped if we could help. They had three punctured tires and no more spares; we offered a ride but they had called someone for assistance. I made a mental note that we sure were lucky -- we haven't had a flat in Africa yet. Our time will come, I'm sure.
We pulled into a campground called "Xaragu" at 19:00. It was pitch black, no moon, and nobody home. The campground was empty -- as in desserted. There was no water at the restroom facilities. The only sign of life was a stray cat which was clearly looking to be adopted.
We rose early and headed out, nursing our way to Twyfelfontein, only to be informed there was no place to buy fuel -- "A long time ago they used to sell petrol, but not anymore." Ugh. I looked some more at the fuel gauge, calculated a bit, and we decided we were very close to Burnt Mountain and Organ Pipes and we may as well see them before continuing on and looking for gas. Fuel stops in Namibia are few and far between; I figured if we were going to run out of fuel, a few km one way or the other probably wasn't going to make a difference.
On our way to Burnt Mountain we came across a lone elephant heading cross-country. It was cool to see this big animal on his way across the world, definitely heading somewhere. Imagine what it was like several centuries ago, when they were much more numerous and there were few impediments to their movement.
We arrived at Burnt Mountain just before sunrise, but it was a disappointment. Maybe this was just not a good day -- too much haze; or maybe we were expecting too much. It wasn't a sunrise over the Grand Canyon.
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| Burnt Mtn |
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| Flower Xxx Lavender |
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| Burnt Mtn |
Then we headed just down the road to Organ Pipes, a place where basalt columns had crystalized to form tall columns. It was a cool little mini-canyon. I especially liked the way one tree root had crawled up the cliff.
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| Organ Pipes |
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| Organ Pipes |
I wanted to take a scenic backroad on our way to Brandberg Mountain, but we needed fuel and the closest fuel we knew about was on the main road at Khoriaxis, so we headed that way. Along the way we crossed the Aba Huab River, a tributary of the Huab River. We had spent a delightful three days in the upper reaches a month earlier at Huab Lodge.
We had been carrying two small pebbles with us all around Namibia; we tended to forget about them, but they had been given to us by our neighbor kids when we embarked on this journey. We decided the Huab River watershed was a good place to deposit them, and left them sitting high and dry on a log at the edge of the Aba Huab riverbed, waiting for the January rains to briefly fill it with water. I don't think there's such a thing as "Invasive Rocks," so had no guilt. We picked up a couple of Huab River rocks to return to Montana. Some future geologist may spend a lot of time worrying about where those rocks came from...
Our map showed a Petrified Forest on the way to Khoriaxis, and we decided to stop on the way.
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| Blackfoot Pebbles Waiting for the Huab River | |
This page last updated on 2015-02-16.
