4×4 Routes

The turnoff from the C34 is north of Fishermen’s Inn, 300m after the” Cape Cross 20km” sign and is indicated by a heap of rocks with an arrow painted in white. Follow the track for 7.4 km to black volcanic rocks on your right hand side (not marked). Please stop on the track and walk to this outcrop where you can view bright orange crustose lichens growing on the rocks and interesting rock formations.

At an old rose quartz mine beautiful pink rose quartz chunks are still to be seen as it was sorted in size, but more interesting is the small outcrop where the rose quartz formation is very clearly visible.

The Strathmore South tin mine is an old worked-out mine.  Underground water filled up the excavation and due to the presence of various minerals the salinity is very high which causes one to float freely – from there the name “dead sea”. Locals claim it has healing properties.

Please take extreme care when moving around the mine as the sediments are very brittle and unstable.

From here you can follow any track back to the C34. The main track takes one past three old graves, conjuring up wild tales of miners and their hardship in a merciless desert environment, far from any civilization.

This track is NOW graded but please do not exceed 40 km/h as dust is extremely damaging to lichens and the Welwitschia plants