Climbing Naundofer Tower and Chessboard Wall – Erongo Rocks, Namibia

Mountain Lifestyle

Climbing Naundofer Tower and Chessboard Wall – Erongo Rocks, Namibia

We moved on to a new camp today at the Erongo Rocks Farm. As the daylight hours are quite short (about 11per day), we’ve resolved to make sure we are up and out at first light to make the most of our time here. Early up and early to bed is the new mantra.

We were on the move by 09:30 and called in at the farm to say thanks for our stay and to fill our water can. We were also able to book a camp for a few days time – having realised that our initial plan was unrealistic giving the time it takes to drive on the gravel roads. With that all sorted, we were on our way, but only a few minutes down the road to the very accessible Naundofer Towers.

Here we climbed a route up the front face which led into a small gap between two towers. After summiting the right hand tower, I looked over to see the left hand one was slightly higher and had both a belay bolt and summit book!

I tentatively retraced my moves and made the exciting final bold moves onto the correct summit.

Clare soon joined me and on reading and signing the summit book, we are the second team from the UK and I think the 40th people on top! It also turned out to have a much easier way up in the far side!

A 30m abseil got is back to the ground of a single but big bolt ring on the summit.

This landed us in the shade so we are our lunch where we landed. We are down to rations now as we’re still a few days away from any shops.

A short drive further got us to Erongo Rocks farm, where we were booked in to camp for a few nights. There is more climbing here but no day visitors are allowed. The owner said they hardly ever get climbers staying so we have a private climbing venue to ourselves! We hoped she might have some food to supplement our supplies. She didn’t, but did offer to cook up a chicken salad for lunch. We didn’t hesitate in taking her up on the offer and 20mins later were wolfing down an absolutely delicious meal!

On the drive over to our camp spot (about 3km away, we stopped at a small bird hide. There were soooo many colourful ones, we just watched rather than try and identify them. And across the dry river bed was a watering hole where about 20 Baboons were playing! Amazing to watch.

The camp feels even more luxurious than the last, but in a different way. Less ‘views’, but a new toilet and shower fitted between boulders.

About 200m is the closest climbing area, so after a coffee and a look around our new home, we went and climbed a couple of routes. They were good, if a little hard!

To squeeze in the most of the day, we returned to the hide at dusk to see if any bigger animals would arrive? Rhino, zebra and giraffes have all been seen there recently, but not tonight!