This is a gorgeous bird and is a good size with a very large bill as seen above. Next we came across a Back-Chested snake eagle and later a Tawny Eagle. We discovered early on that Africa has a good variety of birds and because we had many participants in our tour that were interested in birds Malven our tour guide made every effort to point out every bird he saw. He was very knowledgable and knew his birds.
This is the root.
Here the members of the village line up with their handcrafted items to sell to us. You can see the headdress of the man here.
Today on our travels as we left Brandberg White Lady Lodge made our way to Twyfelfontein where we would take a walk into this national monument to see the rock engravings.
This area was declared a national monument in 1952, Twyfelfontein rock art locally known as ,,/Ui-//Ais" meaning " a jumping fountain" in the Damara Language and "doubtful spring" in Afrikaans, is Namibia,s only world heritage site declared by Unesco in 2007. It is located approximately 90km west of the town of Khorixas, in the Kunene Region, an area formerly known as Damaraland. The rocks containing the artwork are situated in a valley flanked by the slopes of a sandstone table mountain. An underground aquifer on an impermeable layer of shale sustains a spring in this otherwise very dry area.
Twyfelfontein was known by its earliest inhabitants as /Ui-//aes, which means "a place among packed stones" in the Damara-Nama language. In the late 19th century it acquired the name Twyfelfontein which means doubtful fountain because it only had water periodically.
The slash/ marks indicate a clicking sound in this language. I will add a link to hear this interesting language spoken by a local during our tour.
About 2000 engravings have been recorded so far which are estimated to be 6000 years old depicting hunter-gathering ritual practices.
In this area you will find the Desert Elephant as well as springbok and Kudu and a variety of colourful birds, small animals, insects and reptiles.
The San People (the hunter-gatherers) are believed to have been the earliest inhabitants of this area. They are regarded as the cultural artists of the prehistoric rock art.
In the engraving above the circles indicate the location of water holes. The dot in the middle is thought to indicate permanent water holes and a circle crossed out indicates that the water hole has dried up.
In this engraving you can see the animals are all matched with their footprints. This was a form of communication to help others know what animals are around and how to track them.
In 1946 the first White colonists, David Levin arrived with his family, livestock and belongings. The ruins of his house are still visible today.
David Levin gave the farm it's name Twyfelfontein because of his struggle with water supply for them and his livestock. Drought caused him and his family to move to better grazing areas.
We continued our travels after lunch to the petrified forest which was situated in Damaraland in this North West portion of Namibia not far from Twyfelfontein. Here we find fossilized trees dated as early as 250 million years old (Permian geologic period). This site covers approx 20ha in the valley of the Anabib River. This trees are members of the early Cordaites family that grow up to heights of 40 metres and are ancestors of present day ferns and conifers. Petrified Forest was declared a national monument on march 1, 1950.
During the Permian period Namibia formed part of the ancient continent of Gondwana and was situated further south towards the polar region. About 270 to 320 million years ago the southern regions were gripped in the Great Gondwana Ice Age, covered in ice fields and glaciers.
When the climate warmed up a great thaw caused floods that washed over the land, carrying ice , rock debris and salt. The water was excessive at times and caused everything to tear as it moved along. The flood ripped the trunks at there roots and carried them to where they are today. The wood was buried under thick layers of sand and rubble and therefore was not exposed to decomposition and ravaging insects. Sedimentation occurred over million of years until trees were buried under meters. The pressure caused the quartz present to dissolve and this silica solution permeated into the wood. The acidity of the solution dissolved the organic matter and replaced it with crystalline quartz.
Due to the many changes in the climate the continent of Gondwana eventually divided and the surface levels rose. Erosion by water and desert winds uncovered the tree trunks and they were exposed.
The longest log stretches over a distance of 35 metres and the largest log is 1.2 metres thick. They have let the trees uncover naturally. No digging or escavating of the area has been done nor will be done.
We also saw the Welwitschia Mirabilis in this area. This is the desert plant that is estimated to be about 1500 years old. They grow very slow. This particular one is thought to be about 60 years old. It is only found in a 1000 km lland strip on the south west coast of Africa that stretched from Kuiseb River, just south of Walvis Bay to the Nicolau River in Angola. It is thought that the fog is an important source of water for this plant. It's habitat is extremely arid - annual rainfall is 10-100mm during the summer, but some years there is no rain at all. It just so happens that there had been no rain for the last 2 years. This plant grows on gravel or rocky ground and has a long taproot to take underground water and the fog contributed with about 50mm dew a year. This plant can stand extreme temp between 7degrees At night to 50 degrees C during the day.
The plants are either male or female and they have cones that produce nectar. They rely on beetles to pollinate this plant. The seeds germinatation depends directly on the rain and it must rain heavy for several days.
We continued on our travels but before checking into our lodging for the night we went to visit a Himba village. The Himba are indigenous people of about 20,000 to 50,000 living in northern Namibia, in the Kunene region and on the other side of the Kunene River in Angola. They are mostly a semi-nomadic, pastoral people, cloely related to the Herero, and speak Otjihimba. This is similar to the Herero languange therefore the himba people pull the bottom 2 teeth out of their children at a very young age so the language have a slight difference. They breed cattle and goats. This is the school. I brought a few supplies for this school as well. What I could find on route as I had given my full duffle bag to the first school in Langa township in Capetown. This particular village sends 3 children to the western school a year. These are usually children that don't show an interest in carrying on the culture. They don't return to the community. The rest of the children are taught here in this little one room school house. They are taught basic English and math. They counted to 10 for us.
Here two Himba women are making the necklaces that they wear around their necks. Notice even the small children wear these. In this tradition the village work as one.
They don't wear much for clothes nor do they bath. Tradionally both man and women go topless and wear skirts or loincloths made of animal skins. Adult women wear beaded anklets to protect their legs from venomous animal bites. They grind up ochre and mix it with butter fat to come up with otjize paste, which they put all over their bodies. This never comes off. They just reapply daily. It helps to keep sun off their skin. In order to cleanse they use smoke. As you can see from the picture below they use it in their hair as well. Women braid each others hair that they extend with plastic hair that is usually purchased, and cover it except the ends with otjize. The hairstyles of the Himba indicates age and social status. Children have two plaits of braided hair. From the onset of puberty the girls plait are moved to the face over the eyes. Married women wear headdresses with many streams of braided hair, colored and put in shape with otjize. Single men wear one plait backwards to their necks, while married men wear a turban of many otjize-soaked plaits.
This is a Himba women crushing the ochre. You can also see her ankle jewelry and headdress.
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This is the kitchen or cooking area.
We saw Kudu today. Notice the curly horns.
Warthog
And our first Giraffe. This baby was on the roadside and was scared of us. He ran up and down the road and finally jumped the fence to get back to mommy.
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