#1: [03-Jul-03]

12-Aug-2006 -- This Confluence was visited on 12 August 2006 by Brian and Renate Roberts as part of our "5-confluence" weekend. Having visited 21S 17E on 11 August 2006, we travelled south on the B1 to the town of Okahandja and then on to the Von Bach dam/game park, which is situated a few kilometers outside the town, where we spent a pleasant evening camping.

The Von Bach dam is the main water provider for the city of Windhoek. It lends itself to a variety of water sports - water-skiing, windsurfing, yachting, and canoeing, as well as angling. The dam itself is located on the outskirts of the Auas mountains and belongs to the Swakop river drainage system. The construction of the dam commenced in 1968 and it was commissioned in 1970. The capacity of the dam is 50 million cubic meters. The game park covers 4300 ha. The wildlife of the park includes mountain zebra, eland, springbok, kudu, baboons and ostrich.

The following morning we contacted the local game ranger of the Ministry of Evironment and Tourism, Mr K.L. (Viva) Tjivikua, who was extremely helpful and offered to come along with us, as we would have to follow the rough tracks which were used to patrol the area as well as to check the fences. The area is very rocky with undulating hills and we required low-range, 4-wheel drive to negotiate the steep, stony tracks. The final part of our drive was along the boundary fence.

We managed to come within 80 meters of the Confluence. We left the vehicles and it was a short but hot walk through the grass and thorns to reach the Confluence. We were accompanied by Mr Tjivikua and his son Okeri. At the Confluence we were watched by a herd of zebra on the neighbouring hill as we took our photographs.

We returned to the camp along the track which followed the boundary fence - a wonderful 4x4 experience. On this route we spotted a troop of baboons on the rocks near the road. When we reached the camp, we thanked the game ranger for his assistance before proceeding southwards to our next confluence, 23S 17E.

Although we managed to reach within 2 km of confluence 23S 17E, we were unable to complete it as it was too late in the day and would have been dark by the time we reached it. Due to time constraints, we had to move on and the following day we proceeded to 23S 16E.