A mystery debunked

The last two weeks were very hectic with the installation part of the project starting. We all have lots to to and with us on the road most of the time, the places we visited did not have Internet access, so I can only update the blog now.

Back to the story.

During my high school career I travelled to, what was then called, South West Africa. We visited Windhoek, Swakopmund, Ai-Ais Hot Springs, Etosha Game Park and my dad’s relatives who lived on a farm between Outjo and Kamanjab. That, and the fact that we were pulling a caravan, meant that we stayed mostly on the main roads and never ventured into the deep interior parts of, what is now called, Namibia.
Somewhere in this same part of my life I read books about the country and always wanted to visit two specific areas. One of these is the Brandberg and the other is Spitskoppe.

Brandberg had special significance because I read that a rock painting was discovered depicting a white women and the author left the impression of this lonely white women that must have lived with the local tribe and was therefore drawn by a local artist around 2000 years ago. Spitskoppe is a rock formation that rises out of the level ground to enormous height and is apparently something to behold.

I still have not been close to Spitskoppe and would very much like the opportunity to go there if the official part of my job affords me the opportunity.

During the previous week Regina and I were however given the job to go and visit the Brandberg White Lady Lodge, the only lodge in the Brandberg conservancy area. I was really exited because at last I was able to visit that part of Namibia.

We had a very warm and friendly reception at the lodge and ended up spending two nihts at the lodge. Aubrey de Jager, the owner, as well as all his staff, really make an effort to let everybody feel at home and have a good time. The result is a relaxed atmosphere where adults and children relax.

Aubrey told us that he believes the name of the Brandberg (direct translation: Fire Mountain) is derived from the fact that the mountain is coloured red by the rising sun. We got up early the next morning and managed to get a couple of stunning photos of the mountain at sunrise. I stitched together this one to give you an idea of what we saw. It was just much more spectacular than the picture manage to reflect.


We also took photos late in the afternoon to show what the mountain look like under different lighting.


After breakfast we went to see the White Lady of the Brandberg. We were warned not to go to late in the morning since it is a stiff walk of about 2.5 km from the parking spot to the site of the rock paintings. Even in winter it can get very warm in the ravine where one walk.

In earlier days people apparently poured water on the paintings to make it more visible, with the result that the main figure is now very faded. Since the site has been declared as a Namibian Heritage, visitors are only allowed to view the paintings when accompanied by a guide.

On the forty five minute walk to the site, the guide told us that the whole thing is actually a misnomer. The White Lady is neither white nor is it a lady. He gave us a long explanation about various people that visited the site from around 1917/18 to 1947 and published documents about the paintings. You can read the story on wikipedia.org but I have my own interpretation.

I believe that the drawing depicts a hunter who told the story of the day’s hunt and coloured his legs and lower body to represent an antelope, perhaps a springbok, which he shot during the hunt.

This picture shows the White Lady in the lower left corner with, what appears to be, a springbok just above it. Note the white legs and tummy of the springbok. In the top part of the photo is an antelope with legs like a human, also in white.


There are lots of controversies surrounding these drawings because it apparently dates from different times, about 3000 years apart and some are in brown monochrome while others are in three colors. Different people claim that it was painted by their ancestors but it looks very much like Bushmen/San paintings to me.

All I will remember about the outing is that the whole mystery turned out to be just somebody’s flight of fantasy. It also did get pretty uncomfortable on

Now I just need to get to Spitskoppe.....