Things to do
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Twyfelfontein Rock Engravings
Twyfelfontein puts more than 2,000 engravings of animals and their tracks on sandstone slabs above a desert spring, and a guide walks you to the Lion Man or the Dancing Kudu.
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Aba-Huab River
The dry bed of the Aba-Huab runs past the lodges north of the engravings, and water below the sand keeps its trees green enough to draw desert-adapted elephants. The lodges run afternoon drives along it in open vehicles. Elephant movements change week to week, so a drive is never a promise, and the sand is soft after rain.
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Burnt Mountain
Heat from an intrusion baked the shale of this ridge into blackened hornfels, leaving a slope that carries almost no plants. Come at sunrise or in the last hour of light, when the slope shows reds and purples. A viewing point sits beside the road and the walking is limited.
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Camp Kipwe
Rooms are tucked among granite boulders east of the valley, a short drive from the engravings, the Organ Pipes and Burnt Mountain. The camp runs drives along the dry riverbeds in search of desert elephants, and the boulders behind it make a natural sundowner spot.
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Damara Living Museum
Watch Damara men and women light a fire with sand and sticks, forge tools and name the bush plants that feed and heal.
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Doro Nawas
On a low ridge about fifteen kilometres north-west of the engravings, this camp lets guests pull their beds out onto the deck and sleep under the stars; between May and August that means a night near freezing. Guided drives run to the engravings and along the Aba-Huab and Huab riverbeds after the elephants.
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Doros Crater
A ring of dark volcanic hills about 18 kilometres south of the engravings, reached on a rough track that needs a high-clearance vehicle and a GPS route. There is nothing out there, so carry in all the water and fuel for the trip.
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Mowani Mountain Camp
Thatched domes are set among granite boulders on a ridge above the Aba-Huab, so the rock screens most rooms from each other. A sundowner point looks west over the valley. Drives run to the engravings and out along the riverbed after the elephants.
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Organ Pipes
Dark volcanic rock cooled into tight, many-sided columns that now line the walls of a small gorge. A short path leads down from the parking area. The columns are only a few metres tall, so pair the gorge with Burnt Mountain next door.
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Petrified Forest
Trunks turned to stone lie half buried across a slope west of the town, carried down by floodwater from far away and fossilised where they stranded. The growth rings and bark are still legible in the rock. Guides from the community walk each group round, and welwitschias grow among the trunks.
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Twyfelfontein Country Lodge
Set against a red sandstone outcrop under three kilometres from the engraving site, this is the closest bed to the rock art. It runs its own elephant drives, and a gravel airstrip beside it takes the charter flights that fly-in safaris use.
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Ugab Terrace Lodge
Rooms sit on the edge of the terrace looking across at the pillar, with a restaurant built on the clifftop above them. A path runs along the rim from the lodge. It is the closest bed to the Vingerklip, which is how guests come to see the valley at either end of the day.
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Vingerklip
A limestone finger left standing when the rest of the Ugab terrace eroded away rises about thirty five metres out of the valley floor. A short steep path climbs to its base. The surrounding flat topped hills are the remains of the same surface, which makes the whole valley read as a scaled down Monument Valley.
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Wondergat
A collapsed sinkhole drops into darkness a short walk from a parking spot off the D3254, about four kilometres north of the engravings. The rim is loose rock, so stay well back from the edge and keep children close. It makes a quick stop on the way to or from the lodges.
