FRIDAY 25TH - PETRIFIED ROCK AND ORGAN PIPES

We spent a long time in The Beast today but didn't travel very far. We had been warned about the roads we travelled and the warning was well and truly warranted They were perhaps the worst we have ever travelled on but The Beast handled them OK, albeit at very low speeds.

This morning we visited an area known for its petrified trees. The trees were about 300 years old when, in a monstrous flood millions of years ago, they were buried in sediment and eventually turned into rock. The rock is very tree like complete with bark and knots. Some have now been unearthed. It is not known how many more remain buried in the vicinity.

We enjoyed lunch on the side of a dry stream bed, very reminiscent of the Australian Outback.

We are now settled at the very novel Twyfelfontein Country Lodge. It is in a truly spectacular setting nestled into a rock escarpment on the edge of a very broad valley.

 

This afternoon, we explored the Twyfelfontein Visitor Centre where there is a walking track up on to a rocky hill where there is a significant of bush art done between 2000 and 6000 years ago by the bushmen who used to live and hunt in the area. It is carved into the rock, not painted, so is enduring very well.