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Mountain Special - Aurus Mountains |
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Issue 33
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Diamonds in the rough. When diamonds were discovered in Namibia nearly a century ago, the government sealed the area. Even today only a select few, mostly miners, are issued with access permits. But that is about to change, as the Sperrgebiet is set to become Namibia’s newest national park, open to the public in limited numbers. Euan Murray introduces one of Africa’s untouched gems. Pictures by Caroline Mardon.
 Every day I spent in the Namibian Sperrgebiet, I felt lucky to be there. It wasn’t just the awe-inspiring desert landscapes and surprisingly abundant plant life. It was the liberating feeling of near-complete isolation in this dramatic wilderness.
Meaning “forbidden place” in German, the Sperrgebiet is a 26,000 sq km area of desert on the southwest coast of Namibia. The discovery of diamonds on the Atlantic coast in 1908 led the government to cordon off a 300km stretch of coastline. Unwanted prospectors, diamond thieves or anyone else approaching within 100km were arrested and liable to be fined 100,000 Namibian dollars or face 2 years in prison.
This deterrent worked – and it still does. While legitimate diamond mining continues on the shore, inland it is possible to go for weeks without seeing another human being. Signs of human existence are almost non-existent. This only helps to enhance the mythical character of the landscape. Towering, chocolate-coloured inselberg mountain ranges rise up from nowhere out of vast gravel plains. Crescent-shaped sand dunes travel with the wind across wide valley floors. At sunrise and sunset, the inselbergs turn a burning orange and the dunes are transformed from near-white to the deep red of their gigantic neighbours in the Namib-Naukluft.
The landscape and climate are important to the Sperrgebiet’s flora. There is minimal rainfall but nature gets its water from another source. Warm air travelling east from the Kalahari mixes with cold air from the Antarctic over the Sperrgebiet’s coast. Moisture in the air is condensed into thick early-morning mists. These mists drift far inland where the inselbergs absorb their moisture and feed the plants. The plants that have evolved are highly adapted, each finding their own niche. Many succulent varieties store their own water in thick, leathery leaves to minimise evaporation from the fiery midday sun.
According to the Namibian Government, the Sperrgebiet is one of the top 25 global biodiversity hotspots. The remoteness of each inselberg range has allowed plant and animal species to evolve in complete isolation.
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The range of flora is staggering: 776 species have been recorded, including 234 unique to the Sperrgebiet. Many are found on a single inselberg and nowhere else. They live alongside unique species of reptiles and insects, plus amphibians and larger animals including gemsbok, springbok, ostrich and brown hyena.
The Sperrgebiet is a highly individual and valuable environment. It is clear that opening it up for tourism could put much of it at risk. Thankfully, things are in the safe hands of Trygve Cooper from the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism. Trygve works to safeguard the region’s natural heritage by ensuring that all the development in the Sperrgebiet is sustainable. His mantra is an extract from the Land Ethic by US conservationist Aldo Leopold: “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”
Trygve has enlisted the help of Raleigh International, a UK-based youth development charity, to build much of the new infrastructure for the park. As a project manager for Raleigh International, I was able to visit many of the future attractions and play a part in their development.
Namdeb, the main diamond mining company in the Sperrgebiet, sponsors many of the projects. They have been instrumental in the new environmental centre at Ontanda and the restoration work to the Orange River estuary. But it is the Aurus Mountains that stand out as the highlight.
The Aurus Mountain inselberg range, isolated by the surrounding gravel plains, harbours several endemic plant species. They grow alongside the more common varieties found in the Sperrgebiet, all in enormous quantities. Aloes of all shapes, sizes and colours contrast with the coral-like euphorbia and the tylocodon, which looks like a miniature version of the baobab tree.
A newly constructed nature trail allows visitors to get up close to all these species. It culminates in a tour
of Africa Rock, a centuries-old sculpture carved out of the stone by the wind. The view from Africa Rock is of the Rotorkimm meteor impact crater and then across 50km of sandy plains to the sea. From here, Aurus is a bountiful oasis in the vast expanse of surrounding desert.
The Sperrgebiet has much to offer, from untouched landscapes to captivating plant life. There will likely
be a rush to book when the park opens in 2006. Visitors will be treated to a rare spectacle: one of the last true wildernesses in the world.
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