Fun things to do in Keetmanshoop

This camp is a farm owned by a very nice and hospitable africaaner family. They still run the farm and 1.5 hour tours of it where you will get the opportunity to see thousands of kookerbooms and millions of rock piles everywhere. The special part of the tour are the three or four fossils of 280 million year old lizard fish that are just sitting out in the open. They are in excellent condition. You can see the sedimentary layers of rock in which the fossils were once hidden. This whole region used to be a huge lake system when the African and South American continents were pulling apart. Included in the tour is a fossil of a plant that would have been found during the time of the megasaurus.

The cost is R30 per person.

Most Travel Books seem not to mention this. But it is worth a look and walk: the Giants Playground.

It is only a short distance further on the road you drove in to the Garingas Quivertree forest.
There are a lot of stones in this area, it actually looks like some giants have played with them, piled them up and made figures.

There is a shorter round walk through these piles and fairy-landscape. There are also Quivertrees here, but they do not grow as a real forest here.

Take some water with you anyway. It can get real hot.

By the way: if you see some white "stuff" on the rocks, that is from the rock dassies that live here. They look like guineapigs but are actually the closest relative to the elephant.
I had one guide joking that this was elefant shot there on the rocks, and how the elefant has gotten up there: maybe it was Dumbo?

No entrance fee (it is included in the Quivertree fee)

The Quivertree is not really a tree but an aloe that grows as high as a tree.
It has a special bark that is said to have been used by the san as a quiver for their arrows (hence the name).
The quivertree is found all over Namibia but it only grows as a forest in 2 places, both close to Keetmanshope.

In the evening sun it?s bark glows golden-red and is a beautiful contrast to the blue sky. You can walk right through the area which is really beautiful.

The sight is quite spectacular, so a lot of people come only out the 14 km gravel-road to the park (and campground) to watch this.

But they leave soon after the sun is down. If you can (wit a roof-tent or ten or camper) stay the night on the campground. It is a wonderful view you have on the quivertree forest while dining and having breakfast.

And in the morning: don?t forget to take the short round-walk through the "giants playground" see tip.

in front of the Keetmanshoop Museum. Below: Imperial Post Office