Re: [T4A Sales Group] Urgent request Online, GPS and App maps - Lone men of Kaokoland, Namibia

[Johann Groenewald]

Hi Andreas,

Thank you for your email and for your long-standing support of Tracks4Africa. It is truly a community of travellers that has grown together since 2000.

I am quite familiar with the story of the Lone Men and have followed it for nearly 15 years. For a long time, I shared your sentiment that these sculptures should remain unmapped, allowing travellers to experience the magic of stumbling upon them. Having travelled to Kaokoland for over 20 years, I have witnessed how GPS technology and social media have fundamentally changed the landscape of tourism, increasing both the volume and concentration of visitors.

When we began mapping Africa, we established rules on the Tracks4Africa forum to allow the community to influence the map’s evolution. We have always strived to balance various opinions, and I hear your concerns clearly.

However, our primary philosophy has evolved toward conservation through information. In Kaokoland, we have seen significant "track pollution" caused by travellers searching for specific locations. We believe most people do not intend to harm the landscape; they cause harm because they aren't properly informed on how to reach a destination using existing tracks.

While the Lone Men are beautiful and thought-provoking, they have unfortunately become key features in social media posts, leading to a surge in "mass tourism". During a trip I took in 2025, I was shocked by the environmental impact: campsites are forming near the sculptures, and tracks are now converging on them from all directions. The "cat is out of the bag," as locations are already widely shared via GPX files and dedicated commercial tours.

I have made the difficult decision to place the sculptures on the map not to spoil the legend, but as a management tool to protect the environment. By providing the exact locations, we can ensure travellers follow established tracks and reduce the dust and destruction caused by off-track searching.

I am copying this mail to our forum to invite further discussion. I hope you understand that this decision is made with the best intentions for the long-term preservation of Kaokoland.

Kind regards

Johann Groenewald

On Sat, Aug 15, 2026 at 1:40 PM Andreas Zimmermann <andreas_z...@hotmail.com> wrote:

Dear Sirs and Mdmes.

I'm an active member and a keen self-driver mostly between the remotest areas of Namibia and Botswana since many years now. one of the gratest tool I have for my adventures is actually the tracks4africa App which I use for navigation all the time and purchased the online maps and get all the updates. Use tracks4africa also for trip-planning and with the app I drop-pin locations to keep a trace of the best sights during game drives. On top of that I own all papermaps and guides about Botswana and Namibia.

This community enbodies the true spirit of overlanding and I'm glad it exists.

After a recent check for a possible future trip in Kaokoland, I've made a shocking discovery. The famous Lone men of Kaokoland are pinned on the online map with the exact location, number of the plate and even the hidden messages written on the plate.

I don't know what you know about the story behind this man-shaped stoney-sculptures, so let me explain to you.

The artist is unknown and as he placed his sculptures in all Kaokoland.

He never discolosed the exact location.

Each of these "lone men" hold a little plate with a number and a message which are hidden hints to find the next one.

It is unknown how many there are in all Kaokoland, the highest number that has been found was "nr. 42" so it's believed that they might be 40+ laying around. Nobody ever found or saw all of them.

 

In the following years a "code of honor" spreaded out amogst the overland community: If you find one, you can take pictures but you are not allowed to tell anybody the exact location where you found it.

Kaokoland is possibly the most beatiful place to self-drive in alla southern africa, because of the remotness, the beauty of the landscapes, and magic surrounding the area which includes the intriguing story of the Lone men.

As one of the largest 4x4 community, representing the spirit of all overlanders, I ask you to honor this code and remove all tagged pins of the Lone men of Kaokoland from the online maps (see attached).

One of the main reasons people travel to this area is because of the magic surrounding this story, spoiling the legend of the Lone men by marking their location, equals to an oil tanker leaking its oil in the ocean causing a massive ecological disaster.

I encourage you to do researches about the Lone men of Kaokoland and have first hand knowledge about it. But you actually should know the story!

On your own papar guide Namibia Self-drive guide: Edition 2 edited by Neil Harrison check page 171 where you write about the story and specifically mention the fact that on the App and GPS map, the location of the Lone men are not disclosed!

I therefore ask you to embody once more the overlander's spirit, and eliminate all tagged Lone men from the online and GPS maps.

Thank you for your time.

Yours,

Andreas Zimmermann

Andreas Zimmermann

In Léra 16

6583 Sant’Antonio – Vellano

+41766794901

andreas_z...@hotmail.com

 

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Kind Regards

Johann Groenewald

[Hannes Kritzinger]

Hi Everybody,

Both Andreas's and Johann's arguments are, in my view, reasonable. But as Johann says: "the cat is out of the bag" and we cannot return to the situation as it was before. In fact, I am pretty sure the situation is only going to become worse.

In my view, a possible (or only?) solution would be for the creator of the Lone Men to remove them, because they are clearly no longer making Kaokoland a better place.

Regards,

Hannes

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[De Waal Basson]

I agree with you.Remove it. It should never been there in the first place.

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tracks4africa/f6a5560c-bbf5-418d-baf5-0ab8bdf17afa%40gmail.com.

[Danie Kotze]

Sjo, 

This is now a catch 22 situation. I agree 100% with both viewpoints, but that does not give an answer or my opinion on the way forward. 

Unfortunately it must be said that not all travellers are responsible travellers. I am sure it can also be said there are many travellers who does not necessarily use T4A also. So, on the one hand I want to say that regardless of what T4A decide people it may not necessarily make the situation Johan describes better or worse. 

But if I had only 1 vote, I think I would vote to then rather keep the locations on the map with a dedicated route to that location. It does take away some of the mystery, but it will still remain on my bucket list to see some of them in real life. But then we have also learned over time that many of our favourite places started to loose its appeal as they became more known and visited or worse still closed for public access. 

A truly difficult one. 

Danie Kotzé

Sent from Outlook for Android

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From: tracks...@googlegroups.com <tracks...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Johann Groenewald <joh...@tracks4africa.co.za>
Sent: Sunday, 16 August 2026 11:19:32
To: sa...@tracks4africa.co.za <sa...@tracks4africa.co.za>; andreas_z...@hotmail.com <andreas_z...@hotmail.com>; Tracks4Africa <tracks...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [T4A] Re: [T4A Sales Group] Urgent request Online, GPS and App maps - Lone men of Kaokoland, Namibia

 

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