A Rock Bridge |
Broken Bridge |
If you are driving in the
Karibib /
Usakos area you should try to plan a visit to
the Ameib Ranch. It nestles in the magnificent Erongo Mountains.
Here you can see the famous Philipp's Cave
which has some excellent examples of Ancient Bushman Rock Paintings;
and also the area known as the Bulls Party where the surrealistic rock formations and massive
boulders perched precariously on top of each other will present a
challenge to your imagination and photography capabilities. Some of the
granite rock faces on the farm also offer an interesting challenge to
enthusiast rock climbers.
If you are not planning to overnight on the Guest Farm Ameib you should budget a minimum of 4 hours
which should just give you enough time to visit the Bull's Party and
the Philipps Cave. Mid day temperatures in summer can reach 40c.
There's an amount of reflection from the rocks, so wear a high
protection factor sun screen and carry enough water.
How the strange rock-shapes at the Bull's Party
were formed
The series of events that lead to
the strange rock shapes that can be seen today at the Bull's Party began millions of years
ago when the rocks were buried beneath the earth's present day surface
level. The ancient granite, in areas, was layered, and in wet periods
the underground waters would wash through the fissures and over a
period of time widened the gaps. The weight of the overlaying rocks
and overburden caused the rock layers to crack vertically in places
forming large rectangular shaped blocks. The ongoing surface erosion of
millions of years lowered the ground level and exposed the stack of
rocks to weathering that caused many of the boulders to eventually
disintegrate and fall away from other bodies of rock leaving the
bizarre rock shapes and configurations that can be seen today. The above boulder
is massive and rests on two narrow pedestals.
Weathering diagram |
Large Boulders |
Perched on small
|
While walking around the Bull's Party, pause and see
what is 'going-on' here. The erosion of the rocks is an on-going process,
even today. You will see huge boulders that
have cracked in half owing to temperature weathering. On a hot day the
sun can heat the rock to temperatures that make them too hot to touch. A sudden
heavy downpour of summer rain can suddenly cool the rock to a point where the
pressure caused by contraction can cause massive boulders to split, (core
cracking) or as can be seen below right the surface layer
of granite has exfoliated from the body of rock
