Namibia is a large country where the physical features of the landscape are drawn with a broad sweeping brush. There are many areas where the mountains and plains provide a majestic panorama from horizon to horizon. It is also empty country, with long stretches of road between towns. There are a variety of places to visit, and the trip through the country was one of many more memorable holidays spent in southern Africa.

This is a view of a mountain range just outside Windhoek on the way north to Etosha. While not one of the more outstanding views, a panorama is provided from three stitched photos faded at the edges.

The first two pictures were taken while driving through the Kalahari between Maun in Botswana and Windhoek in Namibia. The extent and colours of the grasses were striking. The pictures do not really do the scenery justice. Just before reaching Etosha there are two lakes, Guinas and Otjikoto, both in the craters of old volcanoes and both containing a species of fish found nowhere else in the world. For this reason it is thought that the lakes, about 10 miles apart, are connected underground.

The first picture is of a camping site in the Etosha game reserve. The second photo was taken from the old German fort that is part of one of the rest camps. The Etosha park is in very flat terrain with a large salt pan in the centre of the park, shown in picture three. While driving out of the park, we came across this sociable weavers' nest seen in the fourth picture. Just visible is a leguaan climbing into the nest to forage for eggs.

Pictures of just a few of the many animals in Etosha; a lion; elephants at a water hole; a ground squirrel and zebra. There are many other animals, kudu, springbok, gemsbok, giraffe, other predators, etc, but not many good pictures were taken.

This is another picture that was stitched together from faded photographs. While the quality is not that wonderful, it does give an idea of the Brandberg (Burnt Mountain) as it juts out of the surrounding landscape. It is apparently volcanic in origin. At the left of the picture is a group of people examining a Welwitschia plant.

The first picture is of a Welwitschia plant. There is a parking area outside the Brandberg, from where it takes an hour and a half to walk to the site of the famous rock painting, the "White Lady". The second picture is of the scenery of the Brandberg on the way to that painting. The next two pictures are of the rock art; the first of the "White Lady" and the second of antelope, possibly eland. The "White Lady" is not a lady, but a hunter with daubed white legs.

After visiting the Brandberg, we drove to Walvis bay, a town practically built on sand. The sea fog came tumbling in during the late afternoon. The sun disappeared behind the fog shortly after the picture of the "sunset" was taken. The next place of interest was Soussusvlei. While there is apparently a resort nearby today, when we visited the area it was a well-kept secret. Only a single party could visit at a time, and we had to pick up a key to a gate that prevented unauthorized entry. At the farm where we obtained the key, there was a young gemsbok being nursed back to health after its mother had been killed. Soussusvlei is an area of magnificent, slowly shifting, red dunes.

The left picture is a composite from two photographs. The size of the dunes can be judged from the height of the trees growing nearby. The last picture is that of the dune in the panel above, taken from a different angle.

A place that should not be missed is the Fish River Canyon, shown in the first three pictures. In the fourth, a Quiver tree Kokerboom). The last picture is of a weathered piece of rock that no longer exists as shown in the picture; the top part collapsed in December, 1988. It was called "The Finger of God (Mukurob)" by the Bushmen. It is located about halfway between Mariental and the Fish River Canyon.

The Brandberg
The Brandberg is an island mountain in the surrounding landscape, almost perfectly circular. It is the highest mountain in Namibia and a National Monument. The Brandberg is apparently a granite plug, pluton, that was pushed out of a volcano's pipe. The 120 million year old granite of the Brandberg is younger than the dolorite around the mountain. The circumference of the Brandberg is 100 miles. The mountain has numerous ravines, with ruins of some former inhabitants on the highest plateau, some 2,000 metres high. The name is derived from the meaning of its Damara name, "Dâures", which means "burning mountain" for the fiery orange appearance of its bare granite slopes. The Brandberg is best known for its rich diversity and quality of the rock art. There are a large number of rock art sites, with the Hungarob ravine having 62. The most famous rock painting is that of the "White Lady", which is neither white nor a lady. The Brandberg is being promoted as a possible World Heritage Site.

The Welwitschia Mirabilis
This plant was first discovered in Angola in 1860, and is only found in the Namib desert and Angola. It has two large, leathery leaves that grow to anything from two to four metres in length, and are unique in the plant kingdom because they are the original seedling leaves. The plants consist of only the two leaves, a stem base and a root. The leaves grow from the base but wither at the ends where they lie on the ground. Because the leaves lie low on the ground, the plant can absorb heat from the "clothed" ground in the cool, foggy areas in which it grows. The fog also condenses on the leaves, and runs off onto the ground to be used by the roots. The plants live to an age of from 500 to 1000 years and are male or female. It belongs to the gymnosperms, a group of cone-bearing plants that dominated the earth during the time of the dinosaurs.

The Kokerboom or Quiver Tree
Excerpted from "The Land God Made in Anger" by Jon Manchip White, George Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1970

"For me, the king of this tribe of gnarled and heroic growths is the Kokerboom or Quiver Tree. It derives its name from the fact that the Bushmen and Hottentot cut off its branches to make containers for their arrows. The kokerboom flourishes - or rather, maintains a precarious grip on life - in the southern part of the Namib. It is unique to South West Africa [Namibia] - a strange symbol for a strange country. With its gray bark streaked with white, its short branches tufted with dabs of dusty olive and crowned with yellow panicles, it stands erect on the ribs of the mountains, stark and dignified. I developed a strong affection for the kokerbooms, with their unforgettable outline and brave blossoms. They are like the centurions of a forgotten legion, inured to wind, sun, thirst, and freezing nights. From a distance they seem immensely sturdy: but when you come close you see how feeble and fragile they area, scarcely able to cling to the rock. Their trunks are peeling away in scabrous patches, and the ground around them is strewn with their snapped-off branches, like fallen weapons. They are sustained in their proud stance not by stout roots, but by nothing more than a stringy mass of weak fibres. You could knock them over with ease. Several times I saw one that had been blown down on its side, its clubbed foot ripped out of the sand, or one which had simply collapsed and died at its post. The sight always made me melancholy. Birds love the kokerboom's branches, and the bees swarm brightly around it to fest on its blossoms: and now there would be one place the less for the birds to rest, and the bees to suck their nectar."

The Bushman say of Namib desert, because of its dryness that "When God made this land, he must have been very angry".

An Introduction to Namibia
www.geographia.com/namibia

Lonely Planet World Guide | Destination Namibia
www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/africa/namibia

CultureFocus - Namibia
http://www.culturefocus.com/namibia.htm

The Brandberg Mountain
http://www.natmus.cul.na/daures/index.html

The White Lady
http://www.wits.ac.za/science/archaeology/whitelady.htm