A geological illusion in Namibia [S5 - Eps. 43]

Not sure where the path went actually Must be this way but.. It's getting to a little bit of rock climbing here Good morning Internet, it 8:45 in the morning and welcome back to the channel I am still in Lüderitz in Namibia and today, it is time to move on. I have already packed Savannah as you can see I already have the map ready to show you where I am going today It is a little windy so it's a bit of a challenge But I am here, right here at the coast in Lüderitz And today I am going to Keetmanshoop which is all the way over here So I have a fair bit of backtracking to do Back to Aus and then I will continue here to Keetmanshoop Okay Let's go So today I am riding 374 kilometers which is a fair distance but.. It will all be paved. It will all be tar So that's already.. kind of the second day that I am riding tar in Namibia which is quite rare because in fact by far the large majority of roads are all unpaved but there isn't really an alternative route to get to Keetmanshoop so uh..

It will be fine And after that, there is gonna come a lot of unpaved challenging stuff coming so I will get my fair share of oh.. There is another dog I will have my fair share of.. adventurous roads still coming up I have reached Aus Let's go and fill up here Oeh, there was such a strong northern wind today Good morning - Good morning Fine, how are you? I am good thanks and you? - So far so good Hello - Hi How do you do with the gasoline? Huh? The gasoline? - Yeah How do you do? You have to go to a station every day? - A lot Yeah, yeah, twice a day sometimes Twice a day? - This is only 7.7 liters And you don't have any other tank? 3 and 3 Is this for gasoline? - Yeah But even then I have to stop a lot Where are you from? From France - France Have a nice trip - Thanks Have fun Walking on the middle of the road I have arrived in Keetmanshoop Quiver Inn Guest House Let's try and stay here Ring bell Hello - Hi, hello! Oh here Yesterday, I said to the owners.. Wow it feels like I am in South Africa again with these high walls and gates and stuff " Is crime really bad here" I asked them And they said "No, the crime is not bad here, you get some petty theft" but you get that in every big city I guess But they said "No, we only put up these high fences and walls " "So that our South African guests when they come here that they feel safe" So I thought okay That's interesting In any case.. I am going to the place

The reason actually why I came to Keetmanshoop is to visit a pretty cool place It is a 100 kilometers from here I am going to do it as a day ride So I didn't bring all my stuff I was really hoping that today there would be no wind but .. Getting closer Alright there we go It's a bit of a rough track from here Oh dear Look at that This is pretty rough Pretty rough.. Alright, I am walking from here because.. it's all turning

very, very rough here I may have jinxed it a little bit when I was saying that I hope that today would not be too windy Every now and then the wind is gone for a few seconds so I will quickly use this opportunity to talk ' Cause otherwise you definitely can't hear me But I am now walking straight into the southern opening which is kind of a gorge into.. There we go Into what most people think this is an extinct volcano But in fact it's not It's kind of a geological illusion But.. this is not an actual extinct volcano It's something else And I will explain to you what it is Not sure where the path went actually Must be this way but.. It's getting to a little bit of rock climbing here Yeah, this is the path It's so beautiful here and it's such a unique place but the wind Is absolutely brutal Like I really hope it's going to go down 'Cause it's quite tough with this wind Oh my gosh Look at this wind! Unbelievable Check out this quartz vein Look here, look Cool huh? I am trying to find some relief from this insane wind Trying to find a little bit of shelter. I seem to be quite okay just behind these rocks here I just wanna make it over there 'cause that is actually the place where this gorge started so..

There used to be more water inside here but eventually that got all drained out of here through this gorge I have been walking for an hour now and.. I am getting super thirsty and hungry I just want to see.. There is no path here anymore See if I can.. get some shelter

From.. these rocks here This is a little bit harder than I anticipated to be fair First some water So I have something to eat. The place where I am staying, the B and B is run by an elderly couple They are so sweet. So I asked if they could prepare me a packed lunch which they did um.. With loads of goodies, some fruit some juice What else did they get me I think some sandwiches So yeah.. so nice So let me try to explain you, why I am even here and why this is such an interesting place Because most people think that this is an extinct volcano but that's in fact not the case Namibia doesn't have any active volcanoes and doesn't have any inactive volcanoes What this is, is something different. So 80 million years ago that was around the same

time when the Gondwana super continent was breaking up and South America was drifting away from Africa. I have been talking about this quite a bit because it is also the reason why we find the Fish River Canyon and why we find the Blyde River Canyon and also this place So it was a time when there was a lot of tectonic activity So what happened was, that liquid magma intruded into the earths crust but it didn't make it until the surface If it would have, it would have been a volcano But it didn't, instead it pushed up the rock layers that were above it until a sort of dome. So that enormous pressure from below pushed it all outwards and that pressure caused stretching of that surface and there were fissures created in those rock layers and that magma started to move up through those fissures until it encountered a rock layer which had ground water So suddenly this ground water was super heated and the pressure of this instant steam caused a huge explosion So the top of the dome came off during this explosion So what you see behind me Most people think that is the crater but in fact it's not a crater because it is not a volcano so this is called a caldera which is basically the empty space where a magma chamber used to be This is what most people think is the crater but is in fact the caldera There is my Savannah Oh, I am so happy to see you Let's go So the top of the Brukkaros is actually 650 meters above the plains here So it's quite high and even though I didn't go all the way to the top because the wind was just too dangerous actually I still climbed quite a bit It was quite a hectic hike And the entire morning that I have been here. There has been nobody else absolutely nobody What a place.. right? What a place

Now I am going to ride back to Keetmanshoop And there is one more cool place that I want to check out Which is about 20 kms from town So I will go there Giants Playground.. 3kms straight ahead Almost there So many Quiver trees And the rocks are just amazing Look at this place Super.. super cool So how is this for a unique landscape Wow, it is so so cool I have never seen anything like this before And just seeing all the Quiver trees in between the rocks as well Makes it like a real real Namibian landscape, I guess So there are two stories that explain why we find these rock formations here And the first one, is that the children of the giant Mbombo who is the creator God of the Kuba people in Central Africa That his children, were giant children, were playing around here and just stacking up the boulders here Look at this Quiver tree again It's so beautiful Anyway, the second school of thought which is geological explanation which resonates maybe a little bit more with me Is that in early Jurassic times so that is 180 million years ago There was magma coming up and this magma cooled relatively quickly and that cooling caused it to shrink and they were horizontal and vertical rifts created because of that shrinking Now much later in time the overlying Karoo rocks were all weathered away and the dolerite rocks became exposed to the elements So it was wind and water erosion that further kind of enhanced the those rifts which were already there originally and this type of weathering actually has a special name, it's called spheroidal weathering And that caused these rocks to look the way they do Fantastic right? What a place and it's a huge area 'Cause I already saw it like.. the dolerites from the road way before. I think this is the spot where most of them are and the most impressive ones But obviously the first story, that's where this place gets it's name from Giants Playground And I can.. I can see the story because it does look like somebody just stacked up these rocks but..

Obviously that was not the case Let's go back to Keetmanshoop It's only 20 kms away so it's not far And then.. yeah that was it for my kind of geological day trip, I guess I am exhausted I am really shattered. That hike was a little bit tougher than I thought So that was it for today, I really hope you liked this video If you did, please give me a big thumbs up and subscribe down below and then I will see you in the next video

2021-06-28 03:50

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