Day 8: Orange River - Fish RIver Canyon

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Well, that was a frustrating day (to begin). Our first stop was the South Africa/Namibia border. The border officer on the Namibia side muct have woken up on the wrong isde of bed, because she was quite rude. She made us list the make/model, serial number and RRP (in rand) of all cameras, lenses, iPads and laptops we were carrying as "part of the import rules", even though we were not importing them since we were leaving the country with them too. The worst part was, once we listed them, she then went on to input most of the stuff incorrectly in the computer system! Anyway, that was a total waste of 2 hours.

Eventually we arrived at our camp. It wasn't too late but it could have been earlier if they were kinder to us at the border. After setting up camp and chilling out for a bit we headed off to the canyon rim. I've got to say, Fish River Canyon is amazing! It is much more spectacular than the Grand Canyon. The thing that impressed me was the openness of it. At the Grand Canyon (at least the section I saw), it is so twisty-turny that it makes it hard to get perspecive of how big it actuall is. Fish River Canyon is much more open and therefore you can see all the way to the bottom and you can see how wide it is.

The most fun part of the day wasn't actually seeing the canyon, but enjoying all the company. Riccardo and I had a great time taking photos, both of us being hobby photographers, trying to out do each other. I also enjoyed seeing Brendon and Anna trying (and succeeding) to overcome their fear of heights. Both of them managed to get close to the edge of the Canyon to get some nice photos.

We ate dinner at the canyon by sunset, complete with a mug of bubbly. Who says camping can't be classy? Thanks to Hettie for organising it, it was really special. That was until the sun went down and it became bitterly cold very quickly. We ended up eating in the truck because it was so cold!

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Photos

The emptiness of Namibia
The emptiness of Namibia