CHAPTER X 



LANDS OF THE DAMARAS, OVAMPO, AND 

 NAMAQUAS 



Size of caravan Horrors of savagedom Ovambonde To the Ovampo 



on ride-oxen Back to Damara land Journey in Namaqua land 



Bushmen Large game Back to Walfish Bay Home Medal 



of Royal Geographical Society, and election to Athenaeum Club 



under Rule II. 



MY first objective was Ovambonde, a place which 

 proved to be of exaggerated interest. It is 

 marked B on the map. It was the only definite spot, 

 generally known to the Damaras, that I could hear 

 of in a northerly direction. Without some definite 

 goal it would have been necessary to travel unguided 

 through a country so choked with bushes bearing 

 cruel thorns that we might have found ourselves in 

 impassable blind issues time after time. 



The plateau on which we were to travel was 

 some 6000 feet above the level of the sea, as 

 calculated by the usual method from the temperature 

 of boiling water. It had a crisp sandy surface good 

 for travel, but the thorn-bushes were a serious 

 obstacle. Water was a daily cause for anxiety, and 

 was usually to be procured only at places where the 

 natives had recently dug for it with success. The 

 country is deluged at the time of the rainy season, 



and pools remain for a while at many places, but they 



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