This is a beautiful piece of work . There is a great sense of presence from the mountain both which makes it feel peaceful but also powerful. Personally I think that the rocks look good whitish. I think if you were to darken them you’d risk losing some of the tonal contrast. Aside from that there is a lovely golden glow in general against which the rocks are almost a silvery white.

I find it interesting that they are quartz & assosciated geographically with the San rock paintings. I read a really interesting book called “The Mind in the Cave” by David Lewis Williams. There is one chapter on Southern African rock art. I’m not sure if he mentions quartz in that chapter but in another book i read by him -”Inside the Neolithic Mind” he talks about Newgrange in Ireland (a very important neolithic site)as being built of quartz.

Since reading this I’ve noticed in certain places near where I live (in the Basque Country/Western end of the Pyrenees )that near various stone circles there was quartz in the rock and yet not in other places away from the site. If you stare at a rock with quartz when the sun shines on it it becomes like a very brilliant white precise point. So i wondered if this shining light was seen by ancient peoples as some kind of entry into the rock given the rock was apparantly seen as an interface between different worlds.

Anyway I really recommend the book!

Thanks also for highlighting a confusion I could clarify in the post. I should have been more explicit in the posting, moving straight from Garies to Brandberg. You can also see it Brandberg at 21deg 08 S 14deg 30 E on Google Earth – or you can do a search on “Brandberg Mountain. There is a article in wikipedia with some photos of the mountain. In the article they talk about the Ga’aseb river valley, which we used a few times to climb the mountain. It is in the painting. Which I think is so cool.

I looked up the terrain to Garies on Google maps and got no hint of these sumptuous landscapes you’ve shared with us – thanks for taking us with you and entertaining us with the tales of your unusual adventures.