Up for breakfast at 8:00 AM. Enjoyed the comfort of the A/C. The Quiver Tree Forest (Kokerboomwoud) Lodge a throwback to our western highway tourist attractions of yore: “Trees of Mystery”; “Knott’s Berry Farm” (1950’s vintage) and the “Sea Lion Caves”. The central attraction is the grove of giant aloe trees – the quiver tree forest amidst a jumble of black rocks (ysterklip).

(The Quiver Tree Forest - 'Kokerboomwoud with Ysterklip' - near Keetmanshoop, Namibia)

(Giant Aloe: a kokerboom tree at the Quiver Tree Forest, Namibia)

(Quiver Tree: detail of branches and leaves -- the branches were used as arrow quivers by the San people)

(Detail of the bark on the tree trunk: Quiver Tree)

The lodge also has a pet baby eland; a tame wart hog; and two cheetahs.

(Two springbok heads and one pet cheetah - Quiver Tree Forest Lodge, Namibia)

(Beauty and the Beast: a close-up of a cheetah and the warthog, Quiver Tree Forest Lodge, Namibia)

Our host and her daughter provide us breakfast and some history both of the forest, the lodge, and their family. After visiting the lodge attractions we head north after a fuel and ATM stop in Keetman’s. We hit the road – a trip highlighted by big baboons scrambling over the road side fences, Wimpy’s mega-coffees in Mariental, the Hardap Dam, Rehobeth at dusk, and Windhoek at night. Wilkie, the friendly night clerk at the Kleines Heim Hotel http://www.kleinesheim.com/ suggests several restaurants. We settle on O Portuga: open late; cosmopolitan feel; good food.

(Hardap Dam reservoir near the B1 Highway to Windhoek, Namibia)

Labels: Hardap Dam, Kokerboomwoud, Quiver Tree Forest Lodge, Windhoek

¶ 1:28 PM