#4: [25-Apr-21]

#3: [29-Jul-06]

#1: [23-Dec-01]

03-Jul-2003 -- On the last leg of our holiday trip to Namibia, we spent two days camping at Spitzkuppe. Hendrik van Eeden and his daughter Jana completed an awesome climb to the peak of the Spitzkuppe the previous day (see report of 22S 17E). This fired up the enthusiasm of the other children in our party, and Hendrik decided to teach them some rock climbing skills on a rock face right next to our campsite. Dirk and I decided to re-visit 22S 15E while they were busy, as it was only 25 km south of us.

At the gate of the Spitzkuppe reserve we asked the gatekeeper whom the land belonged to where we intended to visit the confluence point, and he told us that it was communal grounds of the Damara tribe. We followed the D1918 route west in the direction of Hentiesbay for a short distance, and got to a point where the CP was exactly 14 km south of us. We tried to locate some kind of road that would lead to the point, but there was none, only some vehicle tracks going in that direction. Normally I wouldn't drive off established tracks, so as not to damage the environment, but I noticed a lot of vehicle activity in the area. The gravel plains in this part of the Namib desert also forms a run-off area for (very infrequent) rainwater from the higher lying areas, and I realised that our tracks would be erased by the next flooding.

We crossed numerous dry rivulets and passed many mining-claim beacons that dot the landscape. Following the vehicle track leading in the direction of the CP, we stopped when we got close and soon saw a stone cairn left by the previous visitor, amazed once again by the accuracy of the Global Positioning System. I struggled to get full zeros on my GPS receiver, the last digits of latitude and longitude constantly changing. I think this was caused by the fact that it was receiving strong signals from eight satellites. After taking pictures, we returned to Spitzkuppe, which can be seen to the right on the picture of the view North.