WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.520 You know, I was messing around on my phone the 00:00:01.520 --> 00:00:03.720 other night just scrolling through satellite 00:00:03.720 --> 00:00:06.919 maps. It's a weird habit, I know. Oh, yeah? But 00:00:06.919 --> 00:00:08.980 there's this specific frustration that comes 00:00:08.980 --> 00:00:12.240 with it now. We have this illusion of total knowledge. 00:00:12.439 --> 00:00:15.199 You pull up a view, you scroll over a continent, 00:00:15.240 --> 00:00:17.359 and you think, okay, I see it. I know it's there. 00:00:17.519 --> 00:00:19.239 Right. The Google Earth effect. Yeah. We mistake 00:00:19.239 --> 00:00:22.820 visibility for understanding. Exactly. Just because 00:00:22.820 --> 00:00:25.440 you see a pixelated rock doesn't mean you understand 00:00:25.440 --> 00:00:29.210 its ecosystem. And that is why today's... deep 00:00:29.210 --> 00:00:32.890 dive is, I think, going to be so satisfying because 00:00:32.890 --> 00:00:35.670 we're looking at a place that, despite being 00:00:35.670 --> 00:00:39.109 right there on the map, remains a massive blank 00:00:39.109 --> 00:00:42.049 spot in our actual, you know, our real understanding. 00:00:42.289 --> 00:00:44.869 It is genuinely one of the last true frontiers 00:00:44.869 --> 00:00:47.509 in Southern Africa, a real edge of the map. We 00:00:47.509 --> 00:00:50.270 are heading to the absolute edge, northern Namibia, 00:00:50.390 --> 00:00:53.229 the CUNY region. Specifically, we are trying 00:00:53.229 --> 00:00:56.549 to crack the code of the Bains Mountains. Crack 00:00:56.549 --> 00:00:58.829 the code is a good way to put it. And I say that 00:00:58.829 --> 00:01:01.250 because the sources we've pulled for this, I 00:01:01.250 --> 00:01:03.030 mean, everything from the South African Journal 00:01:03.030 --> 00:01:06.709 of Botany to expedition logs and risk management 00:01:06.709 --> 00:01:10.109 studies, they all paint this place not just as 00:01:10.109 --> 00:01:12.950 a landscape, but as a fortress. That is the perfect 00:01:12.950 --> 00:01:15.530 word for it, a fortress. When you look at the 00:01:15.530 --> 00:01:18.189 geology, it's built like a defensive structure. 00:01:18.489 --> 00:01:21.430 So here's the mission for this deep dive. We 00:01:21.430 --> 00:01:24.109 need to understand how this fortress was built, 00:01:24.170 --> 00:01:28.659 the geology. Then what's trying to kill everything 00:01:28.659 --> 00:01:31.180 inside it, the climate. And then the survivors. 00:01:31.420 --> 00:01:34.620 The survivors. The incredible rare biology and 00:01:34.620 --> 00:01:36.920 the people who actually call this hazardous environment 00:01:36.920 --> 00:01:40.359 home. It's a classic story of adaptation. But 00:01:40.359 --> 00:01:42.400 to get the adaptation, you have to understand 00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:44.079 the pressure first. So let's start with that 00:01:44.079 --> 00:01:46.060 foundation, the geography itself. Because when 00:01:46.060 --> 00:01:47.659 I was reading the data, I kept getting tripped 00:01:47.659 --> 00:01:49.260 up on the terminology. They don't just call it 00:01:49.260 --> 00:01:50.739 a mountain range. No, they don't. They call it 00:01:50.739 --> 00:01:53.859 an escarpment plateau. And for you, the listener, 00:01:54.019 --> 00:01:56.650 trying to picture this. Why is that distinction 00:01:56.650 --> 00:01:59.469 so important? It changes the entire geometry 00:01:59.469 --> 00:02:01.450 of the landscape. I mean, you think mountain 00:02:01.450 --> 00:02:04.329 range. You might picture rolling peaks, maybe 00:02:04.329 --> 00:02:06.890 some valleys, things that undulate. Right. Something 00:02:06.890 --> 00:02:09.250 you can sort of hike up gradually. An escarpment 00:02:09.250 --> 00:02:11.810 is different. It's a shelf. It's a dramatic, 00:02:11.969 --> 00:02:15.629 sudden shift in elevation. A real break in the 00:02:15.629 --> 00:02:17.789 Earth's crust. So we are not talking about a 00:02:17.789 --> 00:02:21.250 gentle slope here. Not at all. In the Banes, 00:02:21.430 --> 00:02:25.680 you're looking at a variance that is, well. It's 00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:27.159 frankly hard to wrap your head around without 00:02:27.159 --> 00:02:30.719 being there. The base is around 700 meters. But 00:02:30.719 --> 00:02:33.900 the plateau itself spikes up to over 2 ,000 meters. 00:02:34.120 --> 00:02:37.639 Wow. That's a vertical gain of 1 ,300 meters. 00:02:37.840 --> 00:02:41.199 That's, what, over 4 ,000 feet? In a really compressed 00:02:41.199 --> 00:02:44.539 distance? That is huge. It is. And that verticality 00:02:44.539 --> 00:02:46.120 defines everything else we're going to talk about. 00:02:46.199 --> 00:02:48.789 It's a barrier. It affects wind, moisture, and 00:02:48.789 --> 00:02:51.030 it certainly affects human access. It's a literal 00:02:51.030 --> 00:02:53.689 wall. And it's not a soft wall, is it? This isn't 00:02:53.689 --> 00:02:57.949 just crumbling dirt or loose scree. The geological 00:02:57.949 --> 00:03:00.050 surveys are really clear. They highlight the 00:03:00.050 --> 00:03:03.550 composition as quartz sandstone. Now, I know 00:03:03.550 --> 00:03:05.770 quartz is hard, but what does that mean for the 00:03:05.770 --> 00:03:08.889 actual scenery? It means durability. Sandstone 00:03:08.889 --> 00:03:11.979 is sedimentary. you know, layers of sand compressed 00:03:11.979 --> 00:03:14.520 over millions of years. But when it's full of 00:03:14.520 --> 00:03:17.159 quartz, it gets tough, incredibly tough. It's 00:03:17.159 --> 00:03:19.840 very resistant to chemical weathering. It doesn't 00:03:19.840 --> 00:03:22.180 just dissolve or melt away like limestone might. 00:03:22.780 --> 00:03:25.300 It fractures. It breaks into these sharp blocks. 00:03:25.659 --> 00:03:28.099 So that explains why the expedition logs keep 00:03:28.099 --> 00:03:30.659 describing it as jagged. It's not smoothing out 00:03:30.659 --> 00:03:33.180 over time. Precisely. Because the rock is so 00:03:33.180 --> 00:03:36.439 hard, it holds these steep vertical faces. It 00:03:36.439 --> 00:03:39.400 allows for deep, narrow gorges that don't just 00:03:39.400 --> 00:03:41.680 collapse on themselves. And that geological toughness 00:03:41.680 --> 00:03:43.819 is, well, it's the only reason the Bains Gorge 00:03:43.819 --> 00:03:46.479 can even exist. Exactly. Let's talk about that 00:03:46.479 --> 00:03:48.639 gorge. Because looking at the maps and the photos, 00:03:48.740 --> 00:03:50.840 it really seems to be the centerpiece of this 00:03:50.840 --> 00:03:53.620 entire region. got this massive block of quartz 00:03:53.620 --> 00:03:56.120 and then the Cune River just slicing right through 00:03:56.120 --> 00:03:58.919 it. The Cune is the lifeblood here. It's the 00:03:58.919 --> 00:04:02.139 border between Namibia and Angola. But its interaction 00:04:02.139 --> 00:04:05.939 with the Bains Mountains is geologically violent. 00:04:06.860 --> 00:04:09.219 Violent. I like that. The river is flowing west. 00:04:09.300 --> 00:04:11.199 It's heading for the Atlantic and it has to get 00:04:11.199 --> 00:04:14.199 past the Zebra Mountains and then slam right 00:04:14.199 --> 00:04:16.579 into the Bains. It sounds like a clash of titans. 00:04:16.600 --> 00:04:19.120 The unstoppable force of the water meeting this 00:04:19.120 --> 00:04:22.339 immovable object. And the water wins. eventually. 00:04:22.949 --> 00:04:25.230 But in the process, it creates this dramatic 00:04:25.230 --> 00:04:28.850 high -velocity transition point. This gorge is 00:04:28.850 --> 00:04:31.870 the river's final major obstacle before it just 00:04:31.870 --> 00:04:34.290 spills out into the Namib Desert. That transition 00:04:34.290 --> 00:04:36.589 really stood out to me. The Bains Mountains are 00:04:36.589 --> 00:04:38.990 essentially the gateway to desolation. They're 00:04:38.990 --> 00:04:41.430 the last stand. Once the river passes the Bains 00:04:41.430 --> 00:04:44.350 Gorge, it enters one of the oldest, driest deserts 00:04:44.350 --> 00:04:46.290 on the entire planet. So the Bains ecosystem 00:04:46.290 --> 00:04:48.910 is effectively an island. An island of high -altitude 00:04:48.910 --> 00:04:51.410 rock. Exactly. Surrounded by arid plains and 00:04:51.410 --> 00:04:54.279 then just... Absolute desert. Speaking of arid, 00:04:54.319 --> 00:04:55.959 we have to talk about the climate. Because one 00:04:55.959 --> 00:04:58.019 of the most striking sources in our stack is 00:04:58.019 --> 00:05:00.740 a paper titled Risk Management in a Hazardous 00:05:00.740 --> 00:05:03.500 Environment. That sets a very specific tone, 00:05:03.620 --> 00:05:06.399 doesn't it? It does. When scientists use words 00:05:06.399 --> 00:05:09.660 like hazardous in the title of a paper, you know 00:05:09.660 --> 00:05:12.579 it is not a vacation spot. It implies that just 00:05:12.579 --> 00:05:15.699 existing there is an achievement. And the rainfall 00:05:15.699 --> 00:05:18.560 data really drives that home. The annual rainfall 00:05:18.560 --> 00:05:21.360 in the Bains is about... 200 millimeters. Which 00:05:21.360 --> 00:05:23.860 is only about 8 inches. 18 inches. For you to 00:05:23.860 --> 00:05:25.740 put that in perspective, that's the threshold 00:05:25.740 --> 00:05:28.600 for being considered semi -arid to arid. It's 00:05:28.600 --> 00:05:31.759 barely enough to sustain scrub vegetation. A 00:05:31.759 --> 00:05:33.660 tropical rainforest might get that in a single 00:05:33.660 --> 00:05:36.500 afternoon. And here, that has to last the whole 00:05:36.500 --> 00:05:39.699 year. The whole year. And yet, and this is the 00:05:39.699 --> 00:05:41.879 paradox that I just love about this place, you 00:05:41.879 --> 00:05:46.069 have this... Bone dry, sun -baked sandstone plateau. 00:05:46.829 --> 00:05:50.009 Getting maybe a cup of water a year. And cutting 00:05:50.009 --> 00:05:52.189 right through its basement is the Cuny River, 00:05:52.350 --> 00:05:56.230 a massive permanent water source. It's a juxtaposition 00:05:56.230 --> 00:05:59.009 of extremes. You have absolute scarcity on the 00:05:59.009 --> 00:06:01.509 peaks and potential abundance down on the gorge. 00:06:01.850 --> 00:06:05.279 But this is key. It's not easy to get to. The 00:06:05.279 --> 00:06:07.779 topography makes it almost impossible. Those 00:06:07.779 --> 00:06:09.959 steep quartz cliffs we just talked about, they 00:06:09.959 --> 00:06:12.279 make that water very, very difficult to access 00:06:12.279 --> 00:06:14.339 if you're up on the plateau. So it's a tease. 00:06:14.420 --> 00:06:16.439 The water is right there, but it's a thousand 00:06:16.439 --> 00:06:19.259 meters down a sheer cliff. Exactly. And this 00:06:19.259 --> 00:06:23.000 contrast, this tension, it creates niches. Biology 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:25.899 hates a vacuum. If there is a way to survive, 00:06:26.259 --> 00:06:28.759 something will find it. But the life that evolves 00:06:28.759 --> 00:06:31.819 there has to be very, very specific. Extremely 00:06:31.819 --> 00:06:34.699 specific. High altitude, quartz rock, low water, 00:06:34.860 --> 00:06:38.139 intense sun. Which brings us to the flora. I'll 00:06:38.139 --> 00:06:40.019 be honest, when I think biodiversity hotspot, 00:06:40.040 --> 00:06:42.699 I'm thinking, you know, the Amazon or a coral 00:06:42.699 --> 00:06:45.660 reef. A misty jungle, yeah. Not a dry rock pile 00:06:45.660 --> 00:06:48.759 in Namibia, but the Red Data Book of Namibian 00:06:48.759 --> 00:06:51.300 plants says otherwise. The Red Data Book is a 00:06:51.300 --> 00:06:53.199 fascinating thing. It's basically a dossier of 00:06:53.199 --> 00:06:55.120 the most vulnerable and unique life in the country. 00:06:55.660 --> 00:06:58.439 If a plant is in that book, it means it's rare, 00:06:58.620 --> 00:07:01.819 threatened, or endemic. Endemic, meaning it lives 00:07:01.819 --> 00:07:04.040 there and absolutely nowhere else. Right, which 00:07:04.040 --> 00:07:07.120 confirms that the banes act as a refuge. Because 00:07:07.120 --> 00:07:09.860 it's an island habitat, things evolve there in 00:07:09.860 --> 00:07:12.000 total isolation. Let's look at the headliner 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:14.939 here. Banesia luffifera. I mean, it's in the 00:07:14.939 --> 00:07:17.060 name. You can't get more on the nose than that. 00:07:17.139 --> 00:07:20.079 You really can't. When taxonomists name a genus 00:07:20.079 --> 00:07:23.389 Banesia, They're flagging it as the signature 00:07:23.389 --> 00:07:26.350 species of the entire range. It's a succulent. 00:07:26.350 --> 00:07:29.250 It's adapted to cling to those rocky crevices 00:07:29.250 --> 00:07:31.129 we talked about. What does it take for a plant 00:07:31.129 --> 00:07:33.149 to survive there? It can't just be about needing 00:07:33.149 --> 00:07:35.410 less water. It has to deal with the rock. Oh, 00:07:35.470 --> 00:07:37.810 it's about thermal regulation. It's about root 00:07:37.810 --> 00:07:40.389 systems that can penetrate microscopic cracks 00:07:40.389 --> 00:07:43.629 in quartz to find moisture. And it's about surviving 00:07:43.629 --> 00:07:47.389 insane levels of solar radiation. Panagia has 00:07:47.389 --> 00:07:49.170 solved all those problems. It's built for the 00:07:49.170 --> 00:07:51.860 fortress. And it's not alone. We've also got 00:07:51.860 --> 00:07:55.199 Euphorbia oheva. Now, Euphorbia is a huge family, 00:07:55.339 --> 00:07:57.879 right? I feel like I've seen that name on houseplants. 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:01.379 You have. Quincetias are Euphorbias. But so are 00:08:01.379 --> 00:08:03.800 these incredible cactus -like succulents all 00:08:03.800 --> 00:08:06.600 over Africa. It's a massive, diverse family. 00:08:06.860 --> 00:08:09.839 But oheva is different. Euphorbia oheva is a 00:08:09.839 --> 00:08:11.740 specialist. It was described relatively recently. 00:08:11.980 --> 00:08:14.240 And it's only found in this specific corridor 00:08:14.240 --> 00:08:17.019 of the Bains and just across the river in Angola. 00:08:17.310 --> 00:08:21.040 That recently part is what blew my mind. We were 00:08:21.040 --> 00:08:23.759 looking at citations from the South African Journal 00:08:23.759 --> 00:08:26.600 of Botany, and the dates on some of these discoveries 00:08:26.600 --> 00:08:30.800 are from the late 2000s. 2008, 2011. In the timeline 00:08:30.800 --> 00:08:32.919 of botanical discovery, that is yesterday. That's 00:08:32.919 --> 00:08:34.460 practically this morning. It just completely 00:08:34.460 --> 00:08:37.039 shatters that Google Earth idea we started with. 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:39.779 We think we know the world, but here's a distinct 00:08:39.779 --> 00:08:42.620 species of life, and we didn't even give it a 00:08:42.620 --> 00:08:45.100 name until after the first iPhone was already 00:08:45.100 --> 00:08:47.539 out. It speaks to those slang -clueth extinction 00:08:47.539 --> 00:08:50.059 logs you mentioned. The fact that we still need... 00:08:50.059 --> 00:08:53.059 to mount expeditions, capital E tells you everything. 00:08:53.340 --> 00:08:55.759 You don't discover new species in a city park. 00:08:56.000 --> 00:08:58.500 Exactly. You discover them in places that are 00:08:58.500 --> 00:09:01.960 physically hostile to human presence. The difficulty 00:09:01.960 --> 00:09:04.159 that protects the mystery. I like that. And to 00:09:04.159 --> 00:09:07.360 find something like Euphorbia oheva or Abrus 00:09:07.360 --> 00:09:09.580 cacoensis, that's another one, a legume species 00:09:09.580 --> 00:09:12.720 specific to the area, a botanist has to physically 00:09:12.720 --> 00:09:16.539 hike into a zone with no roads. minimal water, 00:09:16.600 --> 00:09:19.000 and vertical cliffs. It makes you wonder what 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:22.360 else is there. If we found a new euphorbia in 00:09:22.360 --> 00:09:25.440 2011, is there a beetle or a lizard or some kind 00:09:25.440 --> 00:09:28.200 of lichen that we just haven't seen yet? Statistically, 00:09:28.279 --> 00:09:30.879 it's almost a certainty. The Banes are what we 00:09:30.879 --> 00:09:33.960 call a center of endemism. The isolation and 00:09:33.960 --> 00:09:37.519 the unique geology create a laboratory for evolution. 00:09:37.940 --> 00:09:40.220 It's like a mini Galapagos. But instead of an 00:09:40.220 --> 00:09:43.259 ocean, it's surrounded by desert. I want to pivot 00:09:43.259 --> 00:09:46.519 a little bit from the plants to the people, because 00:09:46.519 --> 00:09:49.019 while we're looking at this as a scientific wonderland, 00:09:49.139 --> 00:09:52.960 for the people in the CUNY region, this is home. 00:09:53.059 --> 00:09:54.840 Right. And that brings us back to that paper, 00:09:54.980 --> 00:09:57.600 risk management in a hazardous environment. This 00:09:57.600 --> 00:09:59.919 is such a crucial layer to add. We can't just 00:09:59.919 --> 00:10:02.299 look at the rocks and flowers. This is a lived 00:10:02.299 --> 00:10:05.480 in landscape. Yeah. And that source. discusses 00:10:05.480 --> 00:10:08.019 pastoral societies, people who herd livestock. 00:10:08.320 --> 00:10:11.139 How do you even herd livestock in a fortress 00:10:11.139 --> 00:10:14.100 of courts with eight inches of rain? With incredible 00:10:14.100 --> 00:10:17.220 difficulty and profound traditional knowledge. 00:10:17.279 --> 00:10:19.320 The risk management the paper talks about is 00:10:19.320 --> 00:10:21.360 all about diversification and mobility. You can't 00:10:21.360 --> 00:10:23.120 just stay in one spot. You have to know where 00:10:23.120 --> 00:10:25.759 to go. You have to know where the water is in 00:10:25.759 --> 00:10:28.440 the dry season. You have to know which of those 00:10:28.440 --> 00:10:30.960 obscure plants are good for your goats and which 00:10:30.960 --> 00:10:33.879 ones are poisonous. So the pastoralists are essentially 00:10:33.879 --> 00:10:37.500 practical botanists. They have to be. Their survival 00:10:37.500 --> 00:10:40.000 literally depends on reading the signals of the 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:42.940 environment. The Bains Mountains might look like 00:10:42.940 --> 00:10:45.519 a barrier to us, but for the local populations, 00:10:45.740 --> 00:10:48.580 they're part of a complex resource map. It redefines 00:10:48.580 --> 00:10:50.480 the word hazardous, doesn't it? It's not just 00:10:50.480 --> 00:10:53.519 dangerous. It's unforgiving of mistakes. That's 00:10:53.519 --> 00:10:55.799 it. Exactly. In a city, if you make a mistake, 00:10:55.879 --> 00:10:58.049 you miss a bus, you forget your wallet. It's 00:10:58.049 --> 00:11:00.509 an annoyance. Yeah, an inconvenience. In the 00:11:00.509 --> 00:11:03.870 Bains, if you misjudge the water reserves or 00:11:03.870 --> 00:11:06.450 the grazing for your herd, the consequences are 00:11:06.450 --> 00:11:09.350 immediate and severe. There is one little detail 00:11:09.350 --> 00:11:11.450 in our research stack that I found kind of funny, 00:11:11.490 --> 00:11:15.370 but also oddly poetic. The main encyclopedia 00:11:15.370 --> 00:11:17.889 entry we found for the Bains Mountains was flagged 00:11:17.889 --> 00:11:21.710 as a stub. Ah, the dreaded stub. For anyone who 00:11:21.710 --> 00:11:23.809 doesn't spend their life on wikis, a stub basically 00:11:23.809 --> 00:11:25.970 means we know this thing exists, but we don't 00:11:25.970 --> 00:11:28.250 have enough information to write a real article 00:11:28.250 --> 00:11:30.870 about it. It's a placeholder. It's a watch this 00:11:30.870 --> 00:11:33.970 space. And I just love the irony. We have terabytes 00:11:33.970 --> 00:11:36.309 of data on, I don't know, the fictional history 00:11:36.309 --> 00:11:39.169 of movie characters. Sure. But for this massive 00:11:39.169 --> 00:11:43.009 2 ,000 meter high geological feature that dictates 00:11:43.009 --> 00:11:46.070 the flow of a major river and hosts unique species. 00:11:47.000 --> 00:11:49.840 We have a stub. You know, I actually find that 00:11:49.840 --> 00:11:52.519 really reassuring. How so? It confirms that the 00:11:52.519 --> 00:11:55.120 world isn't fully consumed yet. The fact that 00:11:55.120 --> 00:11:57.419 the Bains Mountains are a stub means they haven't 00:11:57.419 --> 00:11:59.299 been commodified. They haven't been turned into 00:11:59.299 --> 00:12:01.940 a tourist trap with a paved road and a gift shop. 00:12:02.080 --> 00:12:04.019 They're still wild enough to be unknown to the 00:12:04.019 --> 00:12:07.139 algorithm. Yes. The stub is a badge of honor. 00:12:07.240 --> 00:12:09.580 It means the mountains are still winning. And 00:12:09.580 --> 00:12:11.919 it also highlights the value of the sources we 00:12:11.919 --> 00:12:15.799 do have. That paper on pastoral risk. Those botanical 00:12:15.799 --> 00:12:18.200 descriptions, those are the flickering lights 00:12:18.200 --> 00:12:20.299 in the dark. They're the only reason we aren't 00:12:20.299 --> 00:12:22.259 completely blind to what's happening there. Exactly. 00:12:22.740 --> 00:12:24.720 Without those expeditions, we wouldn't even know 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:26.559 what to put in the stub. We wouldn't know about 00:12:26.559 --> 00:12:29.220 Banesia. Science is the first step in filling 00:12:29.220 --> 00:12:32.409 in the map. So let's try to synthesize this picture 00:12:32.409 --> 00:12:34.769 we've built of the Hidden Fortress. We have a 00:12:34.769 --> 00:12:38.250 geological anomaly, a massive uplift of hard 00:12:38.250 --> 00:12:41.110 quartz sandstone. Which creates a vertical world 00:12:41.110 --> 00:12:44.549 of cliffs and gorges rising 2 ,000 meters into 00:12:44.549 --> 00:12:46.750 the air. We have a cli - That's the right question 00:12:46.750 --> 00:12:50.889 to ask. Is a Banesia flowering? Is a herd moving 00:12:50.889 --> 00:12:53.769 up the slope? The map can't tell you that. And 00:12:53.769 --> 00:12:55.710 that leads me to a final thought I want to leave 00:12:55.710 --> 00:12:57.990 with you, the listener. We've talked about how 00:12:57.990 --> 00:13:01.419 recent some of these discoveries are. 2011. In 00:13:01.419 --> 00:13:03.779 the grand scheme of things, we just got here. 00:13:03.940 --> 00:13:06.820 We have barely scratched the surface. So if we've 00:13:06.820 --> 00:13:09.960 found entire new species of plants in the last 00:13:09.960 --> 00:13:12.340 decade just by hiking a few of these gorges, 00:13:12.639 --> 00:13:15.600 what is happening on the peaks that no one has 00:13:15.600 --> 00:13:18.139 climbed yet? It's highly probable there are species 00:13:18.139 --> 00:13:21.080 up there. Insects, maybe small reptiles, other 00:13:21.080 --> 00:13:23.980 succulents that have never been cataloged by 00:13:23.980 --> 00:13:26.220 science. So the next time you feel like the world 00:13:26.220 --> 00:13:28.320 is fully explored or that there are no mysteries 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:31.659 left? Just remember the Banes. Remember, there's 00:13:31.659 --> 00:13:33.659 a fortress of rock in Namibia that is mostly 00:13:33.659 --> 00:13:36.220 just a stub in our collective database. And it's 00:13:36.220 --> 00:13:38.340 perfectly happy staying that way. Yeah. The silence 00:13:38.340 --> 00:13:40.580 of the sandstone doesn't need our approval. Not 00:13:40.580 --> 00:13:42.539 at all. Thanks for taking this trip to the edge 00:13:42.539 --> 00:13:44.480 of the map with us. It's a good reminder that 00:13:44.480 --> 00:13:46.440 there's always more to find. Always a pleasure. 00:13:46.919 --> 00:13:49.379 We'll see you on the next deep dive. Stay curious.