Tchitundu Hulu - Virei, Angola
After the 600 kilometers to Namibe from Huambo, we drove another 1.5 hours through the desert to the village of Virei. After gaining permission from the village and a police escort, we were on our way another 30 minutes through extremely rough desert terrain toward the painted rocks of Tchitundu Hulu. After only dreaming about seeing these rocks in person a year before, I was just minutes from laying my eyes on them. The last stretch we were literally driving on the bottom of a dry river bed, navigating between rocks and trees. At first we were distracted by an enormous mountainous rock that rose up before us. It had two large rock overhangs which made it look like a face with squinty eyes.
Although this mountain looked familiar from my research, I was worried for a moment because if the paintings were in those overhangs, I would have come all this way for nothing since I am not a rock climber and so did not bring rock climbing gear. But in all my research I had not read about anyone (of the two articles I found) having to climb to see the paintings.
We continued on the course which began to lead us away from the larger rocks. Thankfully and amazingly, the GPS took us within 10 yards of the opening of the rock overhang - which was at ground level!
I jumped out of the Land Cruiser immediately recognizing the shape of the rock’s opening and tried to contain my jubilance. While there was a cement wall coming out of either side of the rocks, possibly having held a gate at one point, there was nothing protecting the ancient paintings from the elements or humans. The art, up to 20,000 years old, was just sitting there - open and vulnerable.
As I walked up the dry river bed and onto the rock I noticed some Mucubal Tribal people making their way curiously over to our truck. It felt as though I had transported through time to the very moments after the paintings had been created.
The colors were vibrant, opaque brown, red and white pigment on top of a transparent white wash background. Although I had seen several pictures of the art, it wasn't until I saw it in person that I realized the entire surface of the rock had the whitewashed under-painting. I could still see the drips from the wash covering the original color of the rock.
There were creatures, like a sea turtle and a sand dollar, that made me think the river bed could have been salty. The browns and reds were the same colors as the dirt and sand on the ground around us.
I looked out from the rock at the Mucubal people and imagined people like them expertly mixing the crushed pigments with animal fat. Then I imagined the artist applying the paint with deliberate and controlled mark making to the smooth rock walls.
I thought about the physical distance I had come and all the red tape and obstacles I had been through to see this art. The fact that I may be one of only hundreds of people throughout the history of the world to lay eyes on this, to stand right where the artist had stood, was incredibly overwhelming.
I could have stared at the lines on that rock for hours. But the sun was high in the sky and beating down. So we packed up the Land Cruiser and began the 2 hour journey back through the desert.