We found a lovely shady camping spot at Arnhem Rest Camp, some 2 hours away from Windhoek. Well off the beaten track, we did not pass a single other vehicle other than one donkey cart in 160 km of gravel road. Arnhem is known for its nearby cave system, the sixth largest on the African continent and home to over a million bats, so we duly booked what we though was going to be an hour tour to give us a taster.
Both our guide Basun and Cameron got a little carried away in their mutual enthusiasm for us to find as many of the 6 resident bat species as possible, so we spent a good three hours underground exploring 2 km of very dark passages. The echolocation ability of bats has always fascinated me, but to experience hundreds of bats flying around our heads and not a single one touching us, was quite impressive. The overwhelming ammonia smell built up after hundreds of years of guano (batpoo) deposits was not quite as enchanting. The guide told us stories of the Germans mining the guano to use in biological bombs and we could see the evidence of the mining operations for ourselves in the upper section of the caves. It was unanimously agreed that this was not a job any of us would aspire to and could not imagine anyone living long in such appalling and dangerous conditions. "It was pre-independance" added Basun, as if he needed to.Trying to clean away the dust and smell in the shower afterwards, it did cross my mind that some women may have been whisked off to Paris, or wined and dined on finest gourmet food for their Valentine's weekend, meanwhile, as I emerged scrubbed clean and smelling fresh again, Alan had the site filled up with woodsmoke as he struggled to light the braii and cried "did you pack any grub, Joey?"
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