Bullsport Guestfarm

Naukluft Mountains

Namibia

May 31, 2024

Hello,

Today my geo tour group departs Windhoek.  We drive southwest towards the Naukluft Mountains.

Our first stop is the Aris Quarry.  Here we find Tertiay-aged phonolite lava that is being quarried for road aggregate.

Our guide cracks open a rock.  Using a loupe my companions find minute evidence of ancient water!

I am delighted to watch them as they are delighted to peer into the deep past.

I am alone in my interst in the quarry itself: the masssive machinery that grinds the rock; the monstrous trucks that haul the small stones away.  I spot workers on the trucks and wave my camera.  One fellow cheerfully poses for me.

Our next stop is an outcrop of a one billion year old granite. In this arid environment the granite has weathered into a wondrous series of rounded shapes.

And for who knows how long the site (or pre-modern landmark?) has been home to the Laurel fig (Ficus ilicina) - a species of rock-splitting fig that is native to the semi-desert regions of southwestern Africa.  The figs are eaten by birds and people

We end our day at the Bullsport Guestfarm.  We spot no wildlife.  However my friend Alice from England befriends the horses.

Jan

PS  I almost forgot.  We stop for fuel and a loo break at  Rehoboth, a town known for the Basters, a mixed race population that was founded in 1870 by immigrants from the Cape Colony, modern South Africa.  

As is my wont, I gather up a group of local guys who also cheefully pose with me.