4 September 2025
Today we travel north to Damaraland via the picturesque Brandberg, Namibia’s highest mountain, and hope to see the unique desert elephants.
We head north along the coast with beach on one side and flat sand desert with sparse low clumps of vegetation on the other. We see waves breaking on a reef out to sea; later we see the reef rock formation come across and out into the desert on the inland side. We also see brown lichen fields (lichen is fungus and bacteria growing symbiotically together).
On the way we pass a German holiday home village that is all off grid with solar panels and water tanks; a desalination plant (the only one in Namibia) for a uranium mine; and also some sort of Chinese ‘military’ base or some such (no one is allowed to go there).
We have a quick stop at the 2008 shipwreck of the Zeila for some photographs. There is a memorial with a skeleton made of seal bones.
Our main stop for morning tea is at Henties Bay, a small town (population 16,000) where Wian grew up and has his house (also off grid) now (lock up and leave for when he is on the road).
As we continue on our journey we cross a dry river bed – river hasn’t reached Atlantic since 1980s or 90s because of a hydro dam upstream. There is still water underground and large power pylons stretch across the desert to bring power to support the bore holes that supply water to Swakopmund and the surrounding area.
We reach the end of the tar road and have to detour around where they are completing a road to a port in Angola. It is very hazy from smoke from fires further north and it is very difficult to see Brandenburg Mountain – Namibia’s highest peak (2500m). We pass an old tin mine that was abandoned but reopened in 2015 – we can see the ‘slag heaps’
At a stop at the Brandenburg White Lady Café in town of Uis we see a rock in shape of the mountain and a board explaining the White Lady. The Brandberg is a spiritual site of great significance to the San (Bushman) tribes. The main tourist attraction is The White Lady rock painting, located on a rock face with other art work, under a small rock overhang, in the Tsisab Ravine at the foot of the mountain (with a difficult walk over rough terrain). The ravine contains more than 1000 rock shelters, as well as more than 45000 rock paintings.
There are lots of Euphorbia damarana bushes that are very toxic and one of the theories behind the ‘fairy circles’ that we first saw in Sossusvlei. These are round patches in the grass where nothing grows – but things will grow if take soil and plant something. We heard the story of a busload of soccer players that were all found dead in their sleeping bags outside bus. One theory is that they touched (perhaps ingested) Euphorbia.
The scenery changes again: it is more undulating with more grass and more scrub. There are goats grazing. It is very hot (34C).
Then when we reach Damaraland we see strange rocky hill formations. This is a pre-volcanic landscape that used to be under the ocean. Round granite rocks caused by erosion – expanded when pressure released. Piles of rocks were also caused by erosion.
We are staying in the Ondjamba Hills Camp which has some circular main buildings surrounded by tents (with attached ensuites). After lunch we are going to go out for a drive but we are very disappointed to hear that we will not be able to see the unique desert elephants that have adapted to their semi-desert environment by having a smaller body mass with proportionally longer legs and seemingly larger feet than other elephants, meaning they can travel vast distances over arid dunes to reach water. Only 5 days ago they have walked back closer to the ocean.
Even though this was our main reason for coming here, our guides Emmanuel and Unity take us all around the area, telling us about the elephants and the local peoples. There are three different tribes in this area: the Mara, the Himba and the Herero. Emmanuel is Herero, Unity is Himba.
The Ugab River is the border divide between regions inhabited by different tribes (as well as being where the desert elephants usually are). On one side of the river are the Himba people who we hear generally don’t believe in modern life, don’t send kids to school and marry at around 10-11 yrs. Lack of education means they are less able to survive e.g. don’t think they can sell some of their animals to get food in drought relying on the fact that they reproduce every year. And on the other side of the river are the Herero people who have many traditions from the Germans. Men wear suits, shoes and hats, and the women wear long dresses and peculiar horn shaped hats.
The town is split on both sides of river: Gariseb A and Gariseb B. Gariseb A has power, water, a school and medical clinic. Kids from Gariseb B stay in a hostel on other side so that they don’t have to run gauntlet of elephants in river when they go across to school.
The Damara people are more like the Herero: have education etc. Their favourite meat is donkey and they eat lots of local fruits — dried and fresh. Their language uses clicking sounds.
We saw abandoned houses where 25 yrs ago elephants arrived in the area: many people left because they were afraid of them despite a research organisation that tried to show how they could coexist with elephants. But sadly for us no elephants here today – although we see old tracks and poop. They have gone elsewhere for the moment and haven’t been seen for a week. Elephant-Human Relations Aid organisation has trackers on them: they are 100km downriver towards the sea. A bull elephant is with herd at this time of year. There are usually 18 in the herd; unfortunately only one baby has survived in recent years, 7 have died because it is too hot and dry. For 7 years the river hardly lasted very long, then last December there was a flood with water coming from everywhere. They are anticipating strong rain this year. There are Ana trees here, an Acacia species related to the camel thorn but better adapted when there is lots of water. There are also poisonous cactus that we stay clear of.
Although we don’t see any, we learn that there are also desert-adapted horses – originating from a Portuguese shipwreck where the horses swam ashore into desert and are now a wild population. We see lizards, ground squirrels, a bird called the Ruppels Korhaan, an ostrich with chicks, lots of goats, snake eagles, grasshoppers, and tiny stingless bees that plague us as we stop for a drink in the river bed. We also see some weird tubes that we learn are from the desert termites that are much smaller and live underground.
At dinner that night, the staff perform songs for us. We spend time looking at the stars afterwards.
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