Blogs from Fish River Canyon, Namibia, Africa

Cederberg to Fish River Canyon was a full day driving, 8 hours in total. We stopped off at Springbok just before the border, a small dusty place with a frontier town vibe. The local industry seemed to revolve exclusively around vehicle repairs, luckily for us. After fixing the lock the previous day, we’d uncovered another car problem. The fridge in the back should run off a second car battery, which didn’t seem to be working. It functioned fine while driving, but cut off as soon as we killed the engine. We had the battery tested at a branch of SupaQuick and were told it was working but flat, meaning there must be a problem with the charging circuit. Off we went to find the local electrical mechanic. He identified the problem almost immediately, when an important ... read more

An amazing start to today, as we were on our way to breakfast this morning we spotted wild love birds feeding in the garden. After breakfast we explored the quiver tree forest. These trees got their name from the fact that the San Bushmen used to use the branches as quivers for their arrows. They are actually a type of Aloe and seem to thrive in the rocky volcanic terrain. They are incredibly slow growing and some of the trees are estimated to be around 300 years old. The site is also home to a colony of rock dassies. We have seen these before but they are incredibly cute. We then moved on to a site called the Giant's playground which is reminiscent of some of the landscape we saw in Iceland. The rocks are volcanic ... read more

Die ersten 170 km bis Rosh Pinah waren wunderbar ausgebaut - ich fragte nmich schon beim Fahren, warum. Es war naemlich sehr viel Geld ausgegeben worden, um die Strasse vor den Starkregen der Wueste zu schuetzen. Ueber lange Strecken lag die Strecke auf einer von Ost nach West geneigten Flaeche, und das Wasser, das dann die schiefe Ebene hinunterschiesst, wuerde die Strasse komplett unterspuelen. Deshalb waren die ganze Strecke entlang parallel zur Strasse Daemme gebaut, die in Abstaenden zu einem betonierten Durchlass unter der Strasse fuehrten und so fuer einen geregelten Abfluss sorgten. Die Antwort auf die Frage "Wozu das Ganze?" ergab sich, als ich mich dem Ort naeherte - Bergbau, genauer: Zink. Grosse Anlagen und offenbar haengt der ganze Ort von diesem Wirtschaftsfaktor ab. Ab Rosh Pinah war Schotter, bis zum Ende des Tages. Erst ... read more

The next day, somewhat rested despite the stony ground, we set out once again at the crack of dawn as is our custom. Today we we travel a grueling 425k before our next camp site. We pass through Bethany a town remarkable only for having the oldest church. Along the way stop at yet another coffee house purportedly offering 'The Best Apple Strudel in Namibia!' How odd it is to find these antiquated German establishments and attitudes deep in the African hinder land. Even my European co- travels look askance at the proprietors frosty voice and superior attitude sent in my direction. Several overland hours later, sustained by coffee, sandwiches and apple strudel (definitely NOT the best in Namibia) we arrive at our impressive destination: The massive Fish River Canyon, the largest in Africa, second in ... read more

After the relaxed and efficient Namibian border formalities, we covered the 50km of gravel to Tsumkwe in 30 minutes. It was great to have some pace after battling the morning road. We were very low on fuel, so it was a relief to roll into the Tsumkwe general store and fuel station to fill up. I noticed that most of the locals had very similar facial features – small flat faces, with high cheek bones and wide-spaced heavily-lidded eyes. As the local teenage guys were checking out the bikes, their speech was riddled with clicks. It was one of the times during the trip where I put together stuff I’d seen on TV with a concrete location – “this must be the area where the San people come from”. Heading in to the store we encountered ... read more