Brandberg 2009 Day 2

I always find that the first night you camp, you don't sleep well. The luxury of your own pillow was out of the question but our granite bed covered with a thin inflatable hiking mattress was probably as comfortable as one could wish for.

There were a haziness in the air making the stars less impressive than what we hoped for. Nonetheless it was a privilege to do a bit of star gazing every time you wake up from having to turn from one sore hip to another.

Luftholle was a magnificent place to wake up in - a room with a view!

Thinking the worst of the climbing and bouldering was over we looking forward to the day's hike on the plateau climbing slightly until we reach Obere Kaskaden some 12 km away.

From Luftholle you are on a little plateau consisting mostly of large granite slabs from which you first drop into the next valley before walking up the Katarakt Ravine. It took some scrambling to find our way down the slab but once we were in the valley the going was easy and we were in high spirits.

The grass was tall and even green in some places, trees had lots of green leaves and the Quiver trees were blooming with bright yellow flowers. We could have been in the Bushveld for a short while.

This is also where we saw our first Elephant's Foot (Adenia pechuelii). According to Wikipedia this plant is endemic to Namibia and a rare sighting in rocky areas.

The Katarakt Ravine had lots of water and we stopped at some of the bigger pools to cool off. Keep in mind that 2009 is an exceptionally good year for water and we found at least 5 pools in this stretch of the river.

Parts of the ravine were littered with boulders and walking on the ridges proved to be more economical. We soon realized that for flatter sections of the ravine it is best to walk in the river and on steeper sections outside the river. There was constant rivalry between us for the most economical route as there are no paths in this section of the mountain.

We arrived at Obere Kaskaden late in the afternoon tired after a day which was much harder than we anticipated. That evening the whiskey went down very well.

We had fillet steak with pasta-and-sauce. Credit to Aisie, our 'braaier', for making do with a flimsy rig held together with two Leathermen. It was surprising to see how hungry we were once we started to eat and I had to make a second batch of pasta. We finished this off with some stewed dried fruit and custard.

That night we slept well. I found a little indent in the rock which was a perfect spot. We also spread out a bit to make the snoring more bearable.