Richtersveld - April 2009 By Pam & Rodney Dennis The trip started at the Springbok Lodge at 8am on Friday 10th April when we all met for breakfast The six vehicles were on their way shortly after 9am heading towards Port Nolloth. We were the 4x4 ‘rookies’ in our Landcruiser 62 – so we followed right behind the trip leader, Russell De Wet in his Land Cruiser 80. Then came Schalk and Rieta in their Toyota Hilux 2.7.DC, Fanus and Pieter in Fanus’s Hummer H3, Dewald, Annatjie and their young children, Anja and Déan in an Isuzu D/C, and finally Johann and Mariette Viljoen bringing up the rear in their Landcruiser 80 with the most reassuring information written across the top of their windscreen in big red capitals – ‘RESCUE’. We knew we were in very safe hands! We turned off onto the gravel road about 50 kms before Port Nolloth, deflated our tyres and headed towards Lekkersing. It was hot – and it got hotter - but the Richtersveld’s rugged landscape was breathtakingly beautiful. This unspoilt wilderness was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007. Valley to valley the vegetation changes, and each one has its own distinct and surprising character. We lunched at the spectacular Bakkrans Cave, headed across Wildeperderant and camped the night at Tierhoek Campsite, a truly beautiful remote campsite and wonderful end to our first day. Day Two was even hotter! We headed east across the Black Hills, then on towards the Stinkfontein Berge, through Eksteenfontein towards our campsite in the Rooiberge. We never quite made it to the intended spot due to the road having been washed away at some point, so we backtracked into another valley and camped in a riverbed in the shade of a majestic black outcrop of rock. Day Three started with an early climb to investigate a ‘halfmens’ tree. This rare succulent (Pachypodium namaquanum) found only in this area is tall and thin with a rosette of leaves that looks almost like a ‘head’. Then we headed towards our final campsite on the Orange River travelling north in and out of a river bed and navigating the rocks under Russell’s expert instruction. Arriving out of an almost lunar landscape to see the blue river with its green banks was the final surprise. Before you could blink, we were all swimming! It was an absolutely brilliant weekend and all thanks must go to Russell for his patience, his expertise and his kind consideration. And thanks too to the whole group who were such great company and so full of fun.. Hot tip: In the dark of the Orange River campsite, Russell used his mini ultra-violet torch to show us a big scorpion sitting in our midst. Almost invisible in ordinary torchlight – but brilliant blue under ultra violet light. A ‘WOW’ moment. He found this on the web: ‘All scorpions glow in the dark—even after death, even fossilized! A thin, transparent film (hyaline) in the outermost layer (cuticle) of their exoskeleton contains a protein that fluoresces. At night in the Arizona desert, you can see scorpions within a 20-foot radius by shining a black (ultraviolet) light around. They glow bright green-blue or green-yellow like scorpion jewels.’ Russell got his "scorpion light" from a group buy from the Landcruiser Club - they were imported. Local option: http://www.uvequip.co.za/products.htm And for those interested in Rodney’s ‘bannock’ recipe (a bannock is a bread cooked in a frying pan over an open fire), here it is: 1 cup self raising flour ½ cup powdered milk 1 teaspoon bicarb 2 Tablespoons sugar 3 Tablespoons Raisins or sultanas 1 Tablespoon butter for frying Mix all dry ingredients and store in Ziplock bag till ready to use. Put dry ingredients in a bowl and stir in water slowly to make a dough. Tip dough out into buttered frying pan and spread it out with a fork. Cook over fire for about 5 minutes and then flip and fry the other side.