Near Berseba, a very impressive crater stands out of the plain. We learned that it is not a volcano, but caused by an explosion. We went to explore it on a hike.
The Brukkaros is over 650 metres taller than the surrounding area, and the crater floor lies 350 m below the rim. The mountain is a large caldera, in the form of a ring mountain with a diameter of about 4 km and has been formed by an explosion when rising magma met groundwater and superheated it.
When we arrived, a helicopter was recharging and taking some technicians up the mountain to service an antenna.
We were actually told by a local that we should drive up to this place. As we have a 4×4, that wouldn’t be a problem at all, he said. So we tried the road and at the third difficult section finally decided to reverse back down. It turned out, if we would have continued, it would have gotten worth. As long as you don’t drive a better off-road vehicle and like a challenge, stay at the bottom. When hiking this road up the next morning, we were happy we had not tried to go further.
It took us 4 hours to get from our base camp into the crater, up its ridge and back again. We camped here for 2 days and were the only people around.
From the Brukkaros Mountain, we will make our way to Aus and later to Lüderitz – more on our next post!