What makes this a tourist hotspot is that it's not too far from the Twyfelfontain Rock Paintings, the biggest National Heritage Sight in these here parts. The mountains boast over 50 000 primitive sketches, so every oomie's advertising his farm as a viewing spot.
We decided to stick to a more formal setup, choosing to go see the 'White Lady' hidden away in the Brandeberg. We were issued a small local guide, who turned out to be the only person I've met that actually walks faster than Kevin. In the afternoon sun, it was sweaty work keeping up with him, and my litre of water seemed to practically evaporate as we rushed through the rocky pathways. What made things worse was that I was still wearing the jeans I'd donned to protect me from the chilly sea air this morning, so I felt like a real Sandton Kugel - entirely inappropriately dressed for hiking in the bush.
Our mini guide talks as fast as he walks, so I didn't catch everything he said. Nevertheless, he seemed quite knowledgable and had keen bush eyes, pointing out lizards and dassies as we went. From what I can gather, though, the White Lady actually turned out to be a medicine man on closer inspection. Poor thing's suffering from an identity crisis because the ancient artists got too abstract with his male bits, confusing the original archeologists.
Overall, this didn't turn out to be the best use of our time. The sweltering 5km jog under the African sun to see that handful of stick figures could've happily been skipped. Before lunch, we were an hour ahead of Kevin's famous schedule, but after this we were two behind, so there was no chance of me seeing the other attractions in the area. We needed to get to our rest camp quickly so that he wouldn't have to drive in the dark.
This means that we didn't have time to look for the elephants in the dry Ugab riverbed near Sorris Sorris, which was a bit unfortunate since they're my favourite animals. However, it was suprisingly essential that we make good time, so it was still light as we checked into our little self-catering hut. The facilities were a bit wasted on us, though, since we dined at their restaurant instead. I'll reserve any comments about their 3-olive-no-tomato salad, except to say that I'd done a better job in the car earlier today.
A nice hot shower washed away the rock painting ordeal, and I'm now ready for bed. Kev's already asleep because we're planning to get up early tomorrow to see everything we didn't have time for today. We're not even waiting for breakfast, although judging by the lunchboxes they've given us to have on the road, we're not missing much. At least an earlier start will mean less of a rush tomorrow. Or so I hope.
