The original drum was a red Caltex 44 gallon drum that Mr Ben Van Zyl (Van Zyl's Pass) put down there after using it as a petrol stash. In those years you could actually leave petrol like this there without being stolen!! In the end he used it as a marker and called it Rooidrom. The original drum at Rooidrom was taken by Herero's penetrating from the south in their bakkies. They would fill it with river water and take it to their cattle in the Marienfluss. This is one reason why the area about 20km from Otjinungwa is so badly overgrazed. Chris Eyre, who was the nature conservator there, replaced it with a new drum that he painted red and it was immediately taken again. The last and third drum, he made full of holes and put gravel inside. A joker came by in about 1997 and installed a neat telephone on the drum plus the little metal extension where he put a neat menu with all types of food that you could order by phoning. This was destroyed by vandals.

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