Welcome to Namibia

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M – Welcome to Namibia. Finally we have arrived. And it pretty cool. Masses of empty space, very easy driving on nicely tarmac’d roads and very few people around.

Not knowing what the border crossing might be like, we have played it safe again and kept the journey short. The first stop is a short one (150km) and we pre-booked ourselves into The Cañon Roadhouse at Fish River Canyon. They have a hotel and a camp ground. We are in the campground. Check out the photos of the cap ground facilities. The stonework on their shower block, and wash area are better than most $1m plus houses in California. Now look at the size of the facilities. Pretty decent, now think again after my next comment - the facilities in the photos were for the use of only four (4) private camp sites. I think each camp site is capped at 16 people. 6 showers, 6 toilets, 6 kitchen sinks and 4 wash basins. Even at a maximum capacity its still heaven compared to my experiences in the UK and France. Again we had a private site. However, no 6 foot grass fence to ensure privacy this time – just a 150 yds between pitches!

The Roadhouse itself is pretty interesting. It was set up by a German, as many of the places in Southern Namibia are. He must be something of a car nut as there are old cars everywhere. Probably a dozen complete/part cars inside and at least the same outside. A year ago he extended the place and filled the extended restaurant with cars. Apparently he put an add out to all the local farms asking to buy their old cars. A few of the old cars you see inside the restaurant actually still run and many of the vehicles were driven to the site. Some of the trucks, including the one turned into the reception area were even used to help move supplies during construction. If you look closely at the pictures you will see that some of the cars now have wood fireplaces built into them to keep the restaurent warm. A pretty cool camp site all in all BUT they need to bury their water pipes deeper than 6 inches. More on this is Kate’s blog ... Enough of camp sites, for now.

The Roadhouse is located just outside Fish River Canyon, Namibia’s version of the Grand Canyon. Not nearly as large but very pretty. We drove down a pretty bumpy track into the park to catch sunset. Unfortunately this wasn’t a greatest sunset we have ever seen, due to the low cloud, but the Canyon was impressive nonetheless. Next stop, not sure ???????????

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Comments

[anonymous]

That kettle is the best travelled in Africa! It went with us to Botswana, Namibia and Zambia as well as all over South Africa! All those hot water bottles!! xxx