First call of the day was Twyfelfontein for its world-renowned rock-art gallery. And no, I don't mean Andy Warhol. Reinholdt was our guide around the very many examples of the carvings of the San people of Damaraland, making use of quartz tools and the flat, tabular surfaces of the sandstone boulders. The majority can be dated as approximately 6,000 years old. The World Heritage site, although already extensive, nowhere near covers the entirety of the artworks and is to be extended in the not-too-distant future.
Picnic lunch was taken under a Boma at Brandberg, the setting for the afternoon's entertainment, a two-hour walk to see the White Lady. Noel Coward would have been proud of us, setting off at roughly 1445 with the gauge hovering at 37 deg C. Our guide Gabriel set off at a sensible pace, however. At the first shady stop he gave us a short demo of his people's non-verbal language, intriguingly based on just four different click sounds. There are many interpretations of The White Lady rock paintings. Over time a succession of experts has come up with explanation after explanation, each one debunking the previous. Present-day thinking suggests that a White Lady is actually the least likely of the contesting theories.
Tonight's campsite was the dustiest of the dusty. Even Urs had to switch from contact lenses to spectacles. Downright nasty. But, as Forest would quite rightly say, it is what it is. What ya gonna do?
During dinner, a group of the site's employees put on an impromptu performance of song and dance. Clearly only amateur and sparsely rehearsed, they were just naturally talented and thoroughly entertaining.
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