No Fixed Abode: Petrified to Death

Fri 01 Jul 2016 - Petrified Forest

With only a short drive to Khorixas, our next destination, we took our time getting ready, spending some time in reception keeping abreast of the unfolding fiasco that is post brexit Britain - honestly, you couldn't write this stuff. Oldest democracy in the world? More like most idiotic. Today being Glenn’s 56th birthday he enjoyed receiving messages from his boys.

We finally left mid morning and took a steady drive for the 120km to Khorixas passing several ‘craft’ stalls at the side of the road, all with topless tribal women in traditional garb, which does not cover very much, pleading with outstretched arms for us to stop. Much as we’d like to support them there is really nothing we want to buy and we were really unsure if was safe in this crazy African continent, so we smiled and drove on by, debating our guilt as we did.

By lunchtime we had reached, the surprisingly large, town of Khorixas and, on the second pass up the main street, found the iGowazi Hotel (the leading ‘i’ is one of the click sounds), our home for the next two nights. We pulled up to the closed gate and waited for it to open - a hat showing through the window revealed a guard that was not altogether with it. After a short while, and with Glenn just about to step outside to investigate, the guard sprung to life and ran to open the gate in a mixed state of bewilderment and embarrassment. Luckily our smiling faces conveyed he would not be in any trouble.

In the heat of the midday sun we hastily unpacked the car then went in search of a cuppa from the tea station in the restaurant. As we sat in the warm shade we noticed a couple of springbok and a very large ostrich in what appeared to be some sort of paddock next door. Glancing at the large brai we wondered if they were dinners for the next three nights.

Now that the sun was past its most fierce we drove the 40km to the Petrified Forest along a dirt road with some of the largest dips and most rocky sections we’d yet encountered. Fortunately, the worst was pre-empted with a warning sign advising a speed of 30kph otherwise our poor little Corolla could have taken a right battering - the suspension is already making knocking sounds of wear.

After the usual information exchange we were introduced to Rodney, our guide, who immediately warned us of the severe consequences of trying to take some of the fossilised wood home, despite the logistical challenge of lugging a heavy lump of stone in our increasingly heavy bags. The fossils were created 127 million years ago when a forest was flattened by lava and ash from a volcanic eruption, swept down a valley then swiftly buried in silt and ash. Over the ensuing years minerals of silica and quartz slowly took the place of the wood leaving the remarkable stone replicas that have come to the surface after eons of erosion.

Having seen other petrified forests in the USA and New Zealand, this is easily the best. The stone trunks are incredibly life like in every detail, from the cracked and chipped bark to the age rings - one particular log even had a rotten hole at it’s core. Further along was a broken log that looked like it had just been chopped up with an axe: the splintered wood at the centre perfectly preserved. Some of the trunks are still partly buried in the surrounding rock while others are lying totally on the surface. It really is a most fascinating and impressive site and we were both rather surprised when the tour finished. It had taken the promised 30mins but we could have spent much longer marvelling at these stone facsimiles. What a shame we weren’t permitted to wander around by ourselves.

During our tour we discovered, unsurprisingly, that Rodney was a Man Utd fan, and a well informed one at that. He had welcomed the arrival of Jose Mourinho, was pleased with the signing of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and knew the opponents for the first game. We took his postal and email addresses and told him we might send him a shirt.

Returning to Khorixas we tried to find somewhere to eat tonight, as we don’t have a self catering unit, but drew a blank. Looks like we’ll be forced to eat the three course dinner on offer at the iGowzi!