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Things to do in Spitzkoppe

Why you should go

Ninety seconds on Spitzkoppe

Granite domes stand some seven hundred metres above the gravel plain here, worked into arches and stacked boulders by a very long spell of weathering. The rock turns orange in the last hour of light, which is what most visitors come for. A conservancy runs the campsites and supplies the guides, and San paintings survive on the rock at Bushmans Paradise. There is no piped water at most pitches and no light after dark beyond a fire.

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Things to do

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  1. Bushmans Paradise

    Archaeological Site · 2 hr

    San painters worked an overhang in an enclosed basin reached by a chained scramble up the rock face. Vandalism has damaged much of what survives, so a conservancy guide now accompanies visits. The basin itself holds trees and grass that grow nowhere else on the massif, which is how it got the name.

  2. Groot Spitzkoppe

    Landmark · 3 hr

    The larger of the two granite inselbergs reaches 1,728 metres and stands clear of everything around it, which is why the comparison with the Matterhorn attached itself. Reaching the summit is a technical climb. Walking the boulder field at its base takes a morning and needs no equipment beyond water.

  3. Spitzkoppe Community Campsite

    Hotel

    Pitches are scattered among the boulders with no neighbours in sight, run by the local conservancy and paying into it. Most have a long drop and a fireplace and nothing else, so water and food come in with the vehicle. Sleeping out among the granite is the whole reason to stay.

  4. Spitzkoppe Rock Arch

    Landmark · 1.5 hr

    Weathering has left a slender bridge of granite spanning a gap in the rock, low enough to walk up to and photograph against the plain behind. It sits a short scramble from the track. Late afternoon puts the sun through the opening, and the arch is the most photographed thing on the massif.

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