Author: kmcgee

After our brief but pleasant visit to Spitzkoppe, we headed northwest for a few hours along some more lonely gravel roads to the Brandberg Massif:

The Brandberg Massif is a giant granitic intrusion (which is typically created by magma that boils up from below but doesn’t emerge to flow as lava on the surface) that forms a dome-shaped massif, with a smattering of basalitc rocks (which form from lava flowing on the surface). It originated during the Early Cretaceous period about 130 million years ago during the rifting that led to the opening of the South Atlantic Ocean. Here’s a satellite image (borrowed from the internet) to give you the full impression of what this dome-shaped massif jutting up from the surrounding plains looks like – pretty cool hey:

Here are a few more pictures of the Brandberg and surrounding plains. Note the Green Dragon on the plains below in one of the pics, where it is thoroughy enjoying driving the sand tracks across the plains.

Like the Spitzkoppe, the Brandberg is a spiritual site of great significance to the San (Bushman) tribes. The most famous rock art is known as “The White Lady” located on a rock face with other rock art under a small rock overhang at the foot of the mountain. The White Lady, after it’s initial naming, was later determined to actually be a male shamen. Some of the monochromatic drawings in the panel are dated to more than 5,000 years old, while the polychromatic (i.e., multi-colored) drawings date to around 2,000 years old. There is even a penguin painting on the panel suggesting there was some trans-continental communication (nearest penguins are in southern South Africa) even during these early times. We have seen a lot of rock art panels, both here and in the American Southwest, and I must say this is one of the most impressive set of pictographs that I have ever seen. The ravine it is located in contains more than 1,000 rock shelters, as well as more than 45,000 rock paintings (although we have read and heard variations of from 20,000 to 100,000 paintings) – clearly, this was a very important place for the San! Of course, we did the 2.5 km trek up the valley to the White Lady rock art panel. Here’s some pics:

We camped in the Brandberg Nature Reserve at the White Lady Lodge and Campsite. Our site was situated under a huge acacia tree on a sandy floodplain. We had lots of avian visitors to the trees around us, which provided some good midday entertainment:

From the Wildside:

Next stop, a UNESCO World Heritage Site – you guessed it, because of the ancient rock art. See you there!

With Nancy by my side at last (see photo proof below), the two of us did NOT spend a comfortable night in Bella’s mini house near the Windhoak airport to give Nancy a comfortable bed to recover in after the long overseas flight BECAUSE her flight to Cape Town was delayed in Washington DC and she missed her evening flight to Windhoek. SO, I enjoyed – and I really did enjoy – Bella’s mini house alone – Argh!

After collecting Nancy from the airport in Windhoek, we left for a 3-week journey through the northwestern section of Namibia, traveling through Damaraland and Naokoland up to the Angola border. In stark contrast to southwestern Namibia, which you will recall was virtually uninhabited except for a few scattered small settlements, Damaraland, and to a lesser extent Naokoland, is supposedly where the bulk of the human population lives, although we have yet to see many people or inhabited landscape other than along the main highway north of Windhoek. Despite the relative density of development in this region, there are some remote and wild places that we targeted on this part of our Namibian journey. Our first stop after leaving Windhoek was the Spitzkoppe Mountains:

The Spitzkoppe (German for “pointed dome”; also referred to as the “Matterhorn of Namibia”) is a group of bald granite peaks or inselbergs (isolated mountains or outcrops, or what we might call “monadnocks”) located in the Namib desert. The granite is more than 130 million years old and the highest outcrop rises 5,669 ft above sea level and 2,200 ft above the floor of the flat surrounding desert below.

Aside from the stunning geology, the Spitzkoppe is renowned for its many examples of ancient San (Bushman) rock art. Another fun fact: photographs of the Spitzkoppe Mountains were used as backgrounds for the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey in the “Dawn of Man” sequences. We did a short hike to a rock art panel that involved a chain-assisted climb of a couple of hundred of feet up a steep rock incline. Here’s pics of the climb and the cave with the rock art:

We camped for two nights at the base of the Spitzkoppe in one of the nicely private campsites nestled up against the rocks, and had one surprising campsite visitor, as seen below:

Unfortunately, despite my plans, we didn’t get the opportunity to do much hiking because it was all guided technical rock climbing, which was beyond our capabilities. So we simply enjoyed the landscape and the really fine camping weather. We had fun naming some of the rock features, such as this one:

We did manage to pick up several new bird species though, which was nice. OK< we are off to the Brandberg Massif for more rocks and rock art. See you there!

New Species:

• Sociable weaver
• Rosy-faced lovebird
• White-quilled bustard
• White-tailed shrike
• Feckled nightjar
• Chestnut-vented warbler
• Rupple’s parrot

This post is not my typical post because it has almost nothing to do with overlanding Africa – well not entirely nothing, I guess, since it is about a reality of this overlanding trip. Instead, it is a short post dedicated entirely to Laura! Why Laura, I will tell you.

Nancy’s flight to Cape Town was delayed and she missed the flight to Windhoek, or at least that is my expectation as of right now while I write this post. In any event, she is almost certainly going to miss staying in this really incredible mini house. Bella’s mini house is close to the Windhoek airport and I booked this place so that Nancy would have a comfortable bed and accommodation to recover from the long journey. Well, that’s not happening it seems.

When I arrived at Bella’s mini house and did a quick reconnaissance I immediately thought of you, Laura, and how this place was made for you. Laura, I know you would just be happy beyond belief staying here. Indeed, it’s almost worth a plane trip for you just to experience this place!

This place is a few kilometers into the bush with nothing and nobody around or in sight. There is a mini house and a separate mini-mini house – Laura, this is analogous to our (your) hobby house apartment at our home in Colorado. I will mainly let the pictures do the talking, but let me briefly say that this place is immaculate and meticulously aranged and has every conceivable ammenity, including covered verandas, outdoor bathing tub and loo, swings and recliners of all sorts, braai cook area, campfire seating area, stone walks to and from everything, and views out over the bush and a small reservoir. The frig and freezer are stocked with all sorts of foods and drinks too. There’s even a strong WiFi. Check it out:

This post is mainly a photo journey of my road trip up through southwestern Namibia from the South African border in the Ai/Ais-Richtersveld Transfrontier Park to Windhoek, mainly to give you a visual picture of what the landscape is like in this section of the country.

After leaving the Transfrontier Park, I drove about 6 hours north and overnighted at a wonderful private campsite called Tiras just north of the town of Aus. There were only two fully equipped sites nested in the rocks of a hill on the edge of the Tiras plains. I was the only camper and had the elevated site perched up on the rocks overlooking the plains and the mountains beyond. Check out this site – if only Nancy were here with me to enjoy a glass of wine on the deck:

The following day I drove another 6 hours or so to just north of the town of Solitaire (near Sesrium on the map) to another wonderful campsite called Bushman’s Desert Camp. This time I opted for the exclusive bush site in a little riparian oasis in the desert a few kilometers from the main camp. Check out this for desert solitaire:

I left campsite before sunrise to get an early start on my last 5-hour leg of the drive to Windhoek and look who I ran into just outside my campsite:

For the remainder of this post, I am simply going to upload random pictures of the landscape along my route. No descriptions other than to say that this area has some spectacular desert mountain landscapes almost completed uninhabited by humans. In fact, in the 16 or so hours of driving I passed a couple of small villages and perhaps a dozen vehicles. That’s right, less than 1 vehicle per hour! And these are on the main roads between the widely scattered “towns”. This puts to shame the “loneliest highway in North America” (i.e., Hwy 50 in Nevada). This is true lonely driving at its best:

Next stop, Windhoek and happy reunion with Nancy!!!

From the Wildside:

After leaving Namaqualand, having had to skip my intended visit to Namakwa National Park, I headed north to the transfrontier park known as Ai-Ais/Richtersveld National Park on the border between South Africa and Namibia:

This transfrontier park, encompassing 2,334 square miles, was formed in 2003 by combining the Namibian Ai-Ais Hot Springs Game Park and the South African Richtersveld National Park. Most of the Park forms part of the buffer zone of the Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape World Heritage Site. The most distinctive features of the Park are the hot springs (Ai-Ais translates as “fire-fire” in the native tongue) and the Fish River Canyon, purported to be the largest canyon in Africa and is considered the “Grand Canyon” of Africa.

Fish River Canyon is the second most visited tourist attraction in Namibia, after the dunes of Namib National Park (to be seen later). The canyon features a gigantic ravine about 100 miles long, up to 17 miles wide in places and up to 1800 feet deep – nothing to compare with the dimensions of the Grand Canyon in the U.S., but spectacular nonetheless. Fish River itself is the longest interior river in Namibia. It only flows during the summer months; during my winter visit, it was just a series of long narrow pools.

The Park landscape is extremenly dry (~5 inches of precip on the high, but less than 2 inches in much of the park), stony and sparsely covered with hardy drought-resistant succulent plants, including some unique plant life, such as the critically endangered giant quiver tree (which I showed you in my previous post) and some other tall aloes sparsely distributed among the sem-desert shrub vegetation. Another of the so-call mega-succulants is the “half-mens” tree. The local Nama community hold the half-mens tree in high regard, believing that the human-like figure it assumes is their ancestors longing for the Namibian home. Here’s a not-to-great shot of one:

Given the aridity of the environment and sparse vegetation, it is amazing that this ecosystem can support much animal life. Amazingly, however, I saw 4 kudu, 1 gemsbok (photo below), 1 springbok, and 3 klipspringers on my drive between campsites this morning. I don’t know how these animals scrape a living off this barren landscape, but it demonstrates the incredible evolutionary adaptations of the animal kingdom. Not the best picture, because gemsbok generally like to only show you their ass as they move away from you, but here it is nonetheless:

I had orginally intended to spend several days in this transfrontier park to take advantage of the opportunities to get in some nice desert canyon hikes, but I had to reduce to two full days due to my delay in Cape Town. I spent my first night at the Hobas campsite located close to the Fish River Canyon. Here are some photos of the upper portion of Fish River Canyon, that is very reminiscent of the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona, but on a much reduced scale.

My second day I did a half-day hike up the lower Fish River Canyon and then move farther down canyon to near the confluence of the Fish River and the much bigger Orange River (which forms the border between South Africa and Namibia) to a campsite call Boplaas, which I had entirely to myself. The campground sits adjacent to the Orange River and I opted for a solo morning kayak trip on the river for a change of activity. Darn, another camper just pulled in – Europeans no doubt, as they seem to be the dominant tourists here, so it looks like I will have some company tonight. Here are some pictures of the desert drive to Boplaas, my campsite, and the river from the kayak.

Next, 3 day road trip to Windhoek to pick up Nancy!

From the Wildside:

New Species:

• Pale-winged starling
• Ruppell’s bustard
• Karoo long-billed lark
• South African shelduck
• Mountain wheatear
• Southern masked weaver
• Common reed warbler
• Lark-like bunting
• Short-tailed rock thrush

As the picture above reveals, I am “On the Road Again” – I can’t get Willie Nelson’s song (or at least his version) out of my head. Finally got that precious document that I needed (2.5 weeks later) and then spent last two days driving north to Namibia.

In addition to the hiking I reported on last time, I should note that I did use that extra time in and around Cape Town to work some more on the Green Dragon by installing a new solar charge controller (regulates energy flow from solar panel to liesure battery) and DC-to-DC charger (regulates energy flow from the engine’s alternator via the duel engine batteries to the liesure battery) and, of course, a new water filter and pump for the potable water tank in the vehicle. All good things to have and to have working well.

This is a short post just to catch us up on the past couple/few days before I go dark for the new few days – or at least I am expecting to be dark, but you never know. Now that I am in Namibia, I don’t know how well the cell service will be, so I could be surprised. BTW, I just crossed the border post and cruised right through in about 20 minutes. No other vehicles crossing at this early hour so it was a very relaxed and pleasant experience.

Basically, I just wanted to post a few pictures about the region I drove through known as Namaqualand. This the northwest corner of South Africa in the Northern Cape Province. Unfortunately, due to my delay in Cape Town, I had to bypass my planned visit to Namakwa National Park, but I did manage to glimpse some of what the Park is famous for. The Park and surrounding region is part of the Karoo semi-desert and is dominated by succulent vegetation. The succulent Karoo is dominated by dwarf, leafy-succulent shrubs, and annuals, predominantly Asteraceae, popularly known as Namaqualand daisies, which put on spectacular flower displays covering vast stretches of the landscape in spring-time (August–September) after good rains in the winter.

To my good fortune – and I needed some after Cape Town fiasco – I caught a few glimpses of early flowering in a few patches, which was a tantalizing tease of what will undoubtedly follow in several weeks. Here are a few pictures the tease. Note, it is possible that later in September, when Nancy, Steve and Ki are passing inland through the Tankwa-Karoo section of the desert we might catch more of the display.

Here’s a picture of my “wild” campsite my last night in South Africa. Simply drove a few km off the highway into the boulder-strewn hills for a nice hideaway.

New Species:

• Dusky sunbird
• Karoo eremomela

I am entering the country of Namibia for the first time on my African overland journey, so as per my custom it is worth sharing a few factoids about this country to put things in better context and to educate myself (and you, if needed) a little about this corner of the world. Here is what I learned from my research.

• As you can see in the map above, Namibia is a coastal country located on the southwest coast of Africa between the latitudes 18-28 degrees south, which in terms of distance from the equator is the southern hemisphere roughly equivalent to central and northern Mexico in the northern hemisphere. Namibia borders Angola to the north, South Africa to the south, and Botswana, and has a small border with Zambia along the Caprivi Strip – a very narrow strip of land along the Chobe River separating Botswana and Zambia.
• At 318,772 square miles, it is about 20% larger than the state of Texas.
• Roughly 3 million people, compared to ~332 million in the U.S., and is one of the 10 least densely populated countries in the world.
• English is the official language, but there are several other recognized national and regional languages. Only 3% speak English as a home language. Oshiwambo is the most common language spoken and Africaans is the most widely understood national language similar to South Africa.
• Government is described as a unitary dominant-party, semi-presidential presidential republic with both a president and prime minister and a bicameral legislature. The parliament has a lower house (or National Assembly) of representatives elected via proportional representation – just as it should be done in the U.S. -and an upper house (or National Council) comprised of members indirectly elected by regional councils, each with duties roughly comparable to our House of Representatives and Senate. There is an independent judicial system similar in structure and responsibilities as the U.S. system. 
• Currency is both the Namibian Dollar and the South African Rand.
• Major exports include diamonds, uranium, gold, fish, and petroleum oils, with China being the major receiver of exports.
• The unemployment rate is alarmingly around 34% and almost half the population lives in poverty. Not surprisingly, there is a huge income disparity between the rich and the poor, which not much in between – a disparity that is growing each year here and elsewhere throughout the world, including in the U.S.
• Like most of the region, it was occupied by humans for probably 10,000 years until it was “colonized” by the Bantu people in the 14^th century from west Africa. The country was ruled by separate tribal kingdoms until 1884, when the German Empire established a white-minority apartheid rule over most of the territory, forming a colony known as German South West Africa. Between 1904 and 1908, German troops waged a punitive campaign against the Herero and Nama which escalated into the first genocide of the 20th century. German rule ended during the First World War with a 1915 defeat by South African forces. In 2021, German and Namibian diplomats created a “reconciliation agreement” acknowledging atrocities from the German colonial period. In 1920, after the end of the war, the League of Nations mandated administration of the colony to South Africa. From 1948, with the National Party elected to power, this included South Africa applying apartheid to what was then known as South West Africa. In the later 20th century, uprisings and demands for political representation resulted in the United Nations assuming direct responsibility over the territory in 1966, but South Africa maintained de facto rule until 1973. That year the UN recognized the South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) as the official representative of the Namibian people. Namibia gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990, following the South African Border War. However, a couple of areas on the coast remained under South African control until 1994.
• As of March, 2025, Namibia has its first female president, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah.
• Namibia is considered to be one of the most free and democratic countries in Africa.
• Namibia has one of the highest rates of literacy in Africa, estimated to be >92%.
• Namibia has a high HIV/AIDS prevalence rate, with an estimated 12% of adults aged 15-49 living with HIV!
• Namibia is the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa and hosts the famous Namib desert along the coast, considered the oldest desert in the world, and the southwestern-most part of the Kalahari Desert.
• Namibia has the largest free-roaming cheetah population in the world and is one of only two countries to support desert elephant populations!
• Depending on the source, Namibia has between 17-40% of its total land area protected in some form, such as national parks, reserves and community conservation areas. Based on the World Bank’s estimate of nearly 40%, it is one of the highest rates in the world. Interestingly, Namibia was the first country in the world to explicitly include environmental protection in its constitution.

As the title implies, yes, I am still hostage in Cape Town. I am told via a second party that my license disc (the registration document I need to legally drive here) is coming today or tomorrow, but that is according to a third party. Do I believe it? Not until it is in my hands. So, in the meantime………

Now, the sole purpose of this post is to follow-up on my “2 lies and 1 truth game” – and yes this is a real game, which a few of you will recall we played around the campfire on our “brothers plus” sea kayaking trip in Prince William Sound, Alaska.

First of all, I was shocked by how many of you thought I would actually cheat and give you three truths instead of only one. Would I really do that to you? Some of you thought I either did all three or should have. I deny the former and probably should have done the latter, as they all had strong merits. The honest truth is that I did option #3, the all-day mountain climb to Perdelop Peak off of Franschhoek Pass, and staged the other two. Specifically, after my hike, on the way back to my campsite I stopped off at a winery and had a glass of wine solely for the purpose of this game (well, not solely, but mostly), and as soon as I got back to camp I staged the first option (reclining chair with book and binos). I think Brenda knows me best as she was smack on with her conclusions (see her comment in the post if you like).

OK, shall we play again? No, let’s not. I will simply tell you the truth that I spent a second day doing another long hike, but this time up a mountain valley (off Bainskloof Pass) to several waterfalls, including one that was the perfect representation of what inspired my patio waterfall at home. Here are some pictures of my hikes. Enjoy! And I very much hope that my next post is from far down the road on the way to Namibia.

And let’s not forget that in Africa you have to share the roads with baboons at times:

New Species:

• White-throated canary
• Cape white-eye
• Yelloq bishop

What do you do when you are frustrated beyond belief and downright angry at the incompetent and ridiculously slow and antiquated system for processing vehicle license registration requests, and consequently, are kept hostage to the system and unable to go anywhere too far from Cape Town, and certainly not across an international border, for fear of getting stopped by the police and either given a hefty fine or thrown in jail? Such is my state of mind, as I am STILL in Cape Town waiting for my vehicle registration, which was promised to me more than a week ago, and then promised me again a few days later, and then again, and again. I want to scream at someone, but it wouldn’t do any good and probably would delay the process even more. So all I can do is work really hard on my patience and understanding – which can be very difficult for me at times – and wait for the “system” to eventually bear fruit.

SO, if you were in my state of mind and had time, days possibly, to kill in the vicinity of Cape Town, what would you do? I thought of three viable options:

First option: find a nice campsite, preferably next to a stream or river, nested in the mountains and surrounded by nature’s majesty, and just kick back on my reclining camp chair with binos by my side and let the birds come to me while I read “Cry of the Khalahari” for the third time. And let the story of the Khalahari and the birds bring peace to my mind.

Second option: visit half a dozen or so of the hundreds of wineries in the area and sample some of the incredible wines – and there are literally hundreds of wineries of all sizes and varieties to choose from, and they are usually situated in a beautifull setting with a lodge, restaurant or cafe, and wine tasting all to be had – and let the wine dissolve my troubles away, at least after the second or third glass.

Third option: go on a really strenuous mountain hike involving physical exertion and lots of sweat – and there are lots of private nature reserves in the mountains surrounding Cape Town with lots of hiking trails and peaks begging to be climbed – and let the mountain splendor melt away my troubles.

OK, these are the viable options that I thought of. Let’s do pros and cons:

Option 1: PROS: there is nothing so relaxing as lying back in the recliner listening to the birds sing, with the sound of running water and a light breeze blowing through the trees in the background, especially with the sun shining and warming the body to a comfortable temperature when the ambient temperature is around 60 degrees Fahrenheit. And sometimes the best birding is to sit still and let the birds come to you. And Cry of the Khalahari is an epic wildlife adventure story that resonates. CONS: the only exercise obtained from this activity is the arm bringing the mug of hot chocolat, or sweet apple juice once the ambient temperature rises enough, to the mouth every so often. And the pastries (i.e., homemade doughnuts and cinnamon rolls from the several visited local bakeries) eaten over the previous couple of days simply turn into fat deposits. And when there are breaks in the bird song, or the Khalahari story gets too familiar, the mind can wonder back to why you are so miserable being hostage to the system.

Option 2: PROS: There’s nothing like a good glass of red wine straight from the winery to remove stress, and after enough glasses the whole world looks beautiful and perfect and troubles simply float away to oblivion. And when you’re in outstanding wine country, it just makes sense to experience the local culture, doesn’t it – “when in Rome”. CONS: There’s nothing worse than drinking your troubles away by yourself; it’s one thing to do it with good company, but quite another to be that loner getting sloshed all by themself. And if money is a concern, it is a very expensive treatment for anger; indeed, it would be cheaper to pay for the therapy session.

Option 3: PROS: Physical exercize is a proven effective method for stress reduction, and it comes with the added benefit of being really good for you. And there’s no better way to ensure a good night sleep than to tire out the body from a good day of exercise. And pure untrammeled nature is the greatest thing that the world has to offer, so what better way to counter negativity than immersing ones self in nature. CONS: climbing mountains is damn hard and can be dangerous, especially when hiking alone. And there is always the chance of getting bitten by a poisonous snake – and there are plenty of them out there, most notably the Puff Adder, which is extremely aggressive and highly poisonous – and dying a slow, painful and agonizing death – all by yourself.

SO, there we have it: three plausible options for dealing with the frustation and building anger at being held hostage in Cape Town by “the system”. Let’s play the “2 lies and 1 truth” game to see how well you think you know me. Here are photos depicting me after choosing each option. Two are lies, one is the truth:

Now it is up to YOU to decide which one of the options above I actually chose. For those of you still reading this post and interested, send me your guess as a comment and I will compile the results and post the truth on my next post.

Good luck!

Here’s a quickie post to keep us all engaged while I remain hostage to the vehicle registration system for another couple of days. To kill a day, I decided to take a quick one day and night trip up the west coast to none other than the West Coast National Park, located roughy 200 km from Cape Town. But instead of heading inland to the Cederberg Mountains like last time, this time I headed over to the coast to a rather small Park that straddles a large shallow lagoon and supports one of only a handful of remaining patchs of coastal lowland fynbos vegetation. You might recall that last year I visit the De Hoop Nature Reserve in the Eastern Cape; this Park is a very similar landscape in terms of terrain, vegetation and wildlife, but located on the west coast.

This Park, as I said, straddles a large shallow lagoon, but it is connected to Saldanha Bay, a deep-water bay that has an important and storied history. Because the bay is protected from the storms on all sides, except for the narrow inlet, it provided a perfect safe harbor for boats partaking in the East India trade during the 16-18th centuries before passing around the Cape of Good Hope out on Cape Point near Cape Town, which was notoriously hazardous to ships under sail.

The Bay area was, of course, inhabited by natives (including the San) and early humans for more than 100,000 years before the Europeans arrived. Some of the earliest human archeological sites can be found in this area. But the European’s quest for trade with the East Indies brought the Portuguese, Dutch, French and Brittish to these shores, and they fought over possession of the Bay multiple times, with the Brittish ultimately winning out. There are all kinds of stories about ships from one country getting caught in the Bay by another and crews taken prisoner. There were even periods when pirates ruled the Bay. There are stories of starvation and disease among the sparse inhabitants because of the harse climate, scarcity of food sources and lack of fresh water, etc. They even had a colony site for people with small pox who were sent here to either die or recover. Anyways, lots of exciting things happened in this Bay years ago. Now, it’s mostly surrounded by upscale vacation communities, and the Park itself on one side.

I spent half a day in the Park, mainly visiting three different bird blinds and looking for wildlife – my first focused wildlife observations since returning to Africa this year! Saw Eland, Red Hartebeest and Bontebok antelope and lots of birds, including a few new species. The Park has no camping, so I found a campground just outside the Park on the bay shore in the town of Langebaan. Nothing too noteworthy, but I had it all to myself, so that’s a plus:

To close out this quickie, here are some pictures from the Park:

New Species:

• Levaillant’s cisticola
• Karoo scrub robin
• Angulate tortoise