Sesriem to Fish River Canyon

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Sesriem to Fish River Canyon

There is another overland group paralleling our trip from Acacia Overland. Their vehicle, White Nile, passed us when we were broken down on the way to Solitaire. We found out later that he wondered at the time why we were having lunch at the side of the road at 3:00 pm. But he continued driving anyway. 

Their driver has a long whip, which he cracks at every opportunity when in camp, much to the annoyance of all. We first encountered him at Lake Malawi, and we've seen him off and on ever since. We call him 'whip man'.

This was a very long day over some very rough roads, rivaling the road into South Luangwa, only much longer - 600 km. Toilet stops along the road - ladies behind the truck, men in front. There were no bushes for our 'bush stop'. A fees bumps were so bad, some of our group came perilously close to hitting the roof of our passenger compartment. Two breakdowns of the truck, but by now our crew knows how to do the temporary fix.

In spite of the distance, we arrive at the Canyon Road House by mid- afternoon. It was much cooler here, and cloudy enough for us to wonder of it would rain that night. Windy too. There was time for a shower and brief rest before driving the rough road into Ai-Ais National Park, which it turns out, was dedicated as a National Park just that afternoon. 

For the record, Ai-Ais means very hot and this place has a reputation for temperatures as high as 47 c (120+ f.). So we were very pleasantly surprised to have the opportunity to see the second largest canyon in the world in cool, windy, cloudy weather. It was impressive, and we enjoyed walking along the rim and reading the information panels for about an hour, although one of our group wanted more time because this was one of the trip highlights for him. Kayla understood his frustration, having just experienced it herself just the day before. Not enough time to really enjoy the place we were visiting. Just a tantalizing taste. Will we ever be back for a more in depth visit?

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