Namibia 2016 Day 7 Fish River Canyon

---

It's a week since we left home and tomorrow will be halfway through our holiday. It already seems like longer as we have fitted in so much. It hasn't been as windy today; last night it was blowing up a storm so loud that you needed earplugs to sleep.

Today we have been on an excursion down to the bottom of the canyon. This involved an early start so we could be on the road by 7:00. Luckily it's not as cold now as earlier in our trip so the start wasn't as uncomfortable as the trips from !Xaus Lodge. The last few days have seen temperatures peak at 28 degrees Celsius and on the coast we are expecting night time temperatures similar to summer in the UK.

I doubt that the pictures will do justice to what we saw in the canyon - it was spectacular, beautiful, powerful and incredibly peaceful. Our guide Bob (no Blackadder jokes here) was very chatty and incredibly knowledgable about the wildlife, fauna and geology of the canyon. We were treated to thorough explanations on the formation of the canyon which was once at sea, level hence the flat tops which are made of limestone so only the edges slowly erode to make the slopes. Last year they only had 45mm of rain here, so most of the erosion comes from just the wind.

En route we saw springbok, klipspringer, kudu, rock dassie and lots of bird life, including eagles. At the bottom we scrambled down some rocky steps to some pools. Swimming would have been possible if any of us had been brave enough but a paddle was as far as it went. We had lunch on the warm stones before making the return journey, which was the reverse of the route followed on our outward journey, very steep and very rough: you had to admire the Land Cruiser and the tyres for putting up with such punishment.

We move on again tomorrow to Luderitz.

---