Something ate my shoelaces!

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Today was another long drive, over the normal 4 hours! The road from Luderitz was mainly tarred so it was an easy drive. We stopped on the way to see some Desert Horses; these have evolved to go without water for up to 4 days, far longer than Tim can go without a cold Windhoek lager on this trip!

We arrived in time for lunch at Canon Lodge, one of the most attractive places we've stayed, it's lots of bungalows built around huge rock boulders that sometimes are partially built into the rooms.

We spent a lot of time watching the Rock Hyrax (also known as dassies) which are related to Elephants but look like fat Guinea Pigs.

After a trip through the Valley of Salads (their name for a salad buffet!) we went to bed. When we woke up I was shoelace-less. Something had nibbled them clean off my shoes and ran off with them!

After I had made some repairs to my shoes, the Lodge claimed to have no string to fix them, we went on a long walk up to the top of a plateau. It was a steep climb and we lost the path several times, and have the scars from the prickly plants on our legs to prove it. Every plant we encounter seems to have huge thorns on them designed to rip flesh, they've stolen my hat from my head twice already! It was a good walk though and we celebrated the Sprite-ing hour (the time we feel justified drinking an Afri-Can of Sprite or similar) with our traditional drink overlooking the African Plains.

We drove to the actual Canyon in the afternoon, it was spectacular but windy. The mighty Fish River, which has created the canyon, seemed to contain no water but it must have been big once.

On our arrival back to our room in the evening the bedroom mirror was swaying from side to side, which seemed strange until we saw a mouse (fat from the shoelaces he'd eaten) scrambling up the frame back to his hiding place in the thatched roof! We tucked the mozzie net in around the bed tight that night!

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