Spitzkoppe - December 31st, 1999
The Spitzkoppe is a mountain (or perhaps a small range of mountains) in west-central Namibia. The area all around is extremely flat, so the rocks and mountains that jut up here out of nowhere, and the boulders scattered around the near-desert landscape, altogether make for a pretty cool scene. Oh, and the stars out there are as clear and bright as I have seen anywhere. It's great as a weekend getaway from Windhoek, or as a first stop on a longer trip around the country.
Justina and I spent New Year's out at the Spitzkoppe with our friend Graeme Bruce, his two daughters Laizer and Mandi, and the Nikki the dog (who, for the first time in our acquaintance, didn't seem to regard me as an enemy). Despite claims that the place would be crowded with other people escaping the firecracker-throwing maniacs of Windhoek, the only people we encountered the entire day were off in the distance, and there was no one camped within sight of our campsite.
These give you some idea of the place.
Justina up on one of the rocks, at about sunset. The wind that is blowing her hair so prettily in this picture...
... also made camping on top of that rock rather impractical, as seen in this picture. The tent has a mattress, two sleeping bags and a pack in it here, and still blew over on its side. We ended up camping in a cave at the base of the rock instead (incidentally, directly under an old cave painting of a snake - there are also cave paintings around the area.)
Graeme's four-year old daughter Mandi is cute as anything, and she knows it. She's also a great traveller on this kind of excursion: loves climbing on all the rocks, never once complained in the car, etc.
Justina likes her too.
Here's the Bruce clan: Nikki, Laizer, Mandi and Graeme. Only Selma is missing - she stayed at home, camping's not really her thing. (And as Graeme says, if you had lived in a refugee camp for five years it might not be your thing either.)
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