*~Namibia - Part 3 - The Spitzkoppe~*

Spitzkoppe was our next destination. It is situated approximately 250km from Windhoek, which was a long drive for us that day... It is just off the B2 road on the way to Swakopmund. From the B2, you can clearly see the odd shaped heads of rock. It truly takes your breath away! On arrival to the Spitzkoppe campsite, we were greeted by the very friendly community who runs the entire campsite. Years ago, the NACOBTA (Namibian Community Based Tourism Association) gave back this land to the Damara community to run. The Spitzkoppe were formed many years ago due to volcanic erosion's.  

Spitzkoppe: view from the B2

Once we had paid for our stay, we headed off to look for a campsite to spend the night. This campsite was the most natural and untouched piece of land that I had seen in a long time. There are no toilets and showers, which made it an interesting stay for me ;), but I truly had an amazing experience here. Once we found the perfect camping site, we headed back to the reception area for a 'game drive' with one of the head tour guides, David. I found it so interesting that even though their skin is black of colour, that they spoke Afrikaans above English. Their first language is Damara, which is a kind of mixture between Xhosa and Sesothu - David explained...

The sun setting on the Spitzkoppe

We drove around this amazing piece of land, visiting different rocks with different names and meanings. He took us to a rock which had rock paintings on from thousands of years ago which were done by his ancestors. He told us that the rhino picture was a symbol to the other tribes who also passed along the area which told them that there was water nearby. The direction in which the rhino was facing, meant the direction in which the water was. Similarly, the next rock which we visited, had a very long snake on, which was a warning to other tribes passing that danger was near.

David, our tour guide, telling us about the history of the rock paintings...

We then went on to a private piece of land where some wild animals were grazing. David told us that the movie 10 000 B.C was shot there and that their community took part in the filming and some were even featured on the film itself. The film crew spent one month shooting there and brought wild animals with them. They then left some of the animals there for David and his community. The sad thing to me was how little they were paid. This community does not have much, and yet American film industries take advantage of this knowledge. Each person who worked on the set got paid R650 a week and this is normally the average of a person working on set per day. Yet, they were happy to have been part of such an amazing experience, but it still upset me (I didn't tell him this though).

The famous 'rock arch'.

After our tour, we headed back to our camp where we started with our dinner for the evening... Because of the absence of street lights and city lights, we were honoured to have the most amazing view of the milky way. I don't think I have ever seen the sky as clear and the stars as bright! While enjoying nature, a couple of bugs decided to intrude on our property for the evening. The 'vet-gat kriek's were enjoying the steep rock which was our shelter for the evening, and every time they got too close to the edge, fell onto us. This was when Kylan (my boyfriend) started his new profession of being my 'bug bodyguard' for the rest of the trip. ;)

Our campsite, the next morning. Enjoying our cup of coffee :)

With the absence of water, I used some facial wet wipes to wash my face and brushed my teeth with a bottle of Valpre water. :p I was then ready for bed! I felt pretty safe in my zipped up tent and had the most amazing sleep among nature! :)

The road to our camp site, beautiful :)