Fish River Canyon

Our last stop for Namibia was at Fish River Canyon. The canyon is 160km long and up to 27km wide and is one of the most popular multi-day hiking trails for those adventurous ones.

We arrived quite early to the campsite and spent the afternoon relaxing. Another overlanding company was in the site next to us and were having problems with their truck, so when we decided to head out to the canyon edge for sunset we took them with us. We were all dropped off at a small viewpoint and then had the opportunity to walk the couple of kilometers back to the parking area along the canyon edge. The view was spectacular.

Loo with a view!

Lighting conditions were quite difficult. The river only flows for a couple of months a year.

The canyon is up to 500m deep

Back at the truck JP had set up a surprise of champagne and nibblies while we waited for sunset. We then discovered that our truck was going to be staying at the canyon for dinner and some stargazing. Luckily for the other group, Jacques had managed to get their truck working again as we didn't have enough food for them. Apart from that, as soon as the sun set the temperature dropped to near freezing and the other group didn't have any warm clothes.Trying to keep warm. TIA - This Is Africa!!

We finished the evening back at camp with an 11 person game of cards (with glow in the dark cards!!) held inside one 2 man tent. I think it was the first time we had felt warm since the sun set!

Believe it or not but all 11 people have at least one body part in this photo...

It was also here that we realised our trip was nearly at an end as the next morning we were crossing the border into South Africa.

Dune 45 and Sossusvlei

We were up before dawn to be at the National Park Gates when they opened, ready for the race up the dunes for sunrise. Dune 45 is named because it is the 45th dune from Sossusvlei and coincidentally 45km from Sesriem. While its not the biggest of the dunes (170m) it is the most accessible to normal vehicles.

Full credit to JP, as we were the first vehicle to arrive and we all sprinted up the dune in time for sunrise. When the sun appeared it was quite mesmerising. There are dunes all around and each one become a different colour as the sun hit it and the shadows are created from ridge lines. It is important to remember to turn around and look away from the sun as the colours on the dunes behind us were some of the most dramatic.Our tracks from the walk up

Leading the charge
First group to reach the top and as you can tell it was a little cold

A bit of perspective. Steve is still on the dune taking this photo of the rest of the group

While Steve was at the top of the dune with most of our truck, Claire and one of the other girls weren't feeling 100% so decided to sit halfway up. As they started to make their way back down after sunrise, they met a group of cyclists walking up. One of the group was having a panic attack with the height. Between them Claire and Cara helped the lady back to ground level while the rest of the cyclists continued up to the peak. It turned out that this lady was doing a similar trip to us but doing a mix of cycling (1ookm) and driving each day. Makes our trip seem very easy.

Even though these people had missed sunrise they were still making the trek up

Once we were all back on the ground, we discovered that Jacques had cooked us omelette's for a champagne breaky. You may be thinking 'how do you do omelette's for 20 people on a single gas burner stove?' Well the answer is, that you make the mix in a big bowl and then split it into 20 snap-lock bags, seal and boil in really big saucepan. Not the traditional way, but tasty all the same. The same has to be said for having champagne out of a tin camping mug.

Popping the champagne!

After breaky we drove another couple of kilometers down the road to a carpark where we met Bushman. He is a former member of the Namibian army and had learnt survival techniques for the desert from the Kalahari bushmen. We all piled into the back of his ute where we were driven to an area surrounded by dunes known as Dead Vlei.

This is a standard size ute, and yes we did all fit

Bushman was one of the most interesting guides that we had of the entire trip. Firstly he suggested we take off our shoes, which most of us did with a bit of apprehension. Surprisingly the sand wasn't hot. At the end of his first talk he said "i walk fast, don't try to keep up". Naturally that was just an invitation to try. We are sure he would win gold at the Olympics. He was gone over the dune before we knew what had happened.Waiting patiently for us to catch up

When we finally caught up to him the sight was stunning. There was an area of white salt pan is surrounded by dunes that are up to 200m high. Dotted around the pan are fossilised remnants of trees. He explained that some of the trees had been dead for 900 years, and because of the lack of water they can't decompose. It was a little eerie walking around it. The cracked and dried ground of the Vlei

Some of the useful tips that bushman taught us included: getting a spider to open its 'trapdoor' in the sand; catching a lizard without running; and tracking the small antelope. Since the temperature was heading back to the high 30's we all piled back into the ute and headed back to the truck.

These are the spider tracks and the outline of its 'door'

Door is open. We stayed and watched while it pulled it back down and resealed it

This poor lizard was caught and released around 10times. Apparently this is the best source of water if caught in the desert.

Sesriem Canyon


We were all feeling a little down at having to leave a friend in hospital in Swakopmund, so the drive to Sesriem was pretty quiet. Scenery wise the sandy desert was replaced by rock and slate mountains.


Suddenly the truck stopped and we realised that it we were about to cross the 'Tropic of Capricorn' (the big sign gave it away). It looks quite different to the scenery around Rockhampton and Gladstone that Claire usually associates this 'line' with. We all took the standard photos and the mood started to lift immediately. The whole Kwando crew

The next stop was for lunch at Solitaire. We were told that it is the smallest town on the Namibian map. There is a petrol station, general store and bakery all run by the same family. It didn't look like the 'town' was any bigger. The apple strudel is mentioned in the guide books as a 'must taste' so that is what we did. It was definitely worth it. A word of warning though, we arrived at nearly 2pm and there were only a couple of pieces left. No worries for us, as the pieces are massive and easily shared between a few. Oh and the guide books are right, it is really good! Our compliments to chef Moose.

Talking of food, possibly our most interesing meal of the trip was served up for lunch. We can't remember the name but the ingredients were condensed milk, peas, mayo and banana. No we aren't making it up and it didn't taste that great. Everyone on the truck gave the 'delicacy' a try and we still don't know if it is a true South African dish as Jacques and JP insisted or a big practical joke!

When we made it to Sesriem we only had a couple of hours before sunset. JP drove us out to the Gorge and took us on a tour of geology of the area. His first instructions were 'walk carefully down the path into the gorge and DO NOT TOUCH ANY OF THE PLANTS'. He brought up the rear and then explained that many of the small bushes were a natural producer of Strychnine.

Sesriem means 'six thongs' which according to the Lonely Planet is how many ox-wagon thongs were needed to reach the bottom and collect water. These days the canyon is 2km long and about 30m high. Inside the canyon you get a real appreciation of how powerful the water must be. The sides are quite crumbly and you can see where pieces have recently broken off. The canyon is still a part of the Namib desert so the dry riverbed of the Tsauchab River that forms the gorge only has running water every 10yrs or so. Surprisingly there was a small pool of water at one end containing a baby python (that we noticed after we'd walked through)! We decided to delay the return to camp in favour of watching sunset on the edge of the canyon.

Steve doing the gentlemanly thing. The snake was in the water behind us.

One of the narrower sections of the canyon

With a little imagination you can make out 'Acacia Africa' in the next 2 photos

Sunset on the canyon edge

To make up for the lunch 'delicacy' Jacques had cooked some fantastic Ostrich steaks for us. Camping definitely isn't all bad food.

The sky was really clear so we tried for a 'star trail' photo. For perspective it was a 10min photo and the lights are the shower block.

Swakopmund

The unique landscape of Spitzkoppe was behind us as we drove to the coast and the Cape Cross Seal Colony. The morning was freezing and we were all rugged up in sleeping bags in the truck. The landscape was pretty boring for this bit and coupled with quite heavy fog, most of us grabbed an extra nap.

At the seal colony the first thing we noticed was the smell - BAD. When there are over 10 000 seals all living in the same place it is really smelly and noisy. We spent around an hour wandering the boardwalks and watching the interactions between the adult and infant seals as well as males fighting each other.

A carpet of seals

At one point there were 5 pairs of bulls fighting on this bit of rock

Leaving Cape Cross we continued down the coast into Swakopmund which was promoted as the Namibian adventure town. There were many activities on offer and between us we chose to do Quadbiking, Sandboarding and Skydiving.

For the 2 nights we were here we were again in a hostel staying in 4bed dorms. Apart from the scheduled adventures that we planned for, one person had a memorable stay. The incident occurred after we'd all headed out for a group dinner in town and then onto a bar for a bit of dancing. In short Claire was feeling a bit crook so we left early taking our room key with us. One of the other people in our room then got separated from the group and made his way back to the hostel on his own. After realising he didn't have a key and the bell not working on the gate he decided to jump the electric fence. Unfortunately he landed badly and broke his ankle.

The rest of the group returned about an hour later and flagged a police car down, only to be told the ambulance was 'in the garage'. Eventually he was taken to a private hospital, only to have the break confirmed, given some painkillers and sent back to the hostel to await a specialist appointment for surgery the next day.

Sadly he wasn't able to continue the tour with us and we had to leave him in the hostel until the doctors gave him clearance to fly back to England. We don't think the hospital often sees an overlanding truck turn up with 20 people outside visiting hours as we said goodbye and dropped off a care package before we kept going. We think it was about another week before he could return home.

Skydiving
Claire has been keeping a secret desire to throw herself out of a plane and after being assured by our tour guides that this company (Groundrush Adventures Swakopmund) was reputable and safe she signed up with 6 other people from the truck. Why chose Africa to jump out of a plane? Well, in Swakopmund you can see the South Atlantic Ocean meet the Nambiban Desert. The jump was scheduled for the afternoon we arrived so they headed out to the airstrip in the desert only to be told when they got there that the winds at jumping altitude were too strong and they would need to return the next day.

That night it rained and I was concerned that the weather was going to prevent my chances of leaping out of the perfectly good plane. Luckily the rain stopped and the clouds cleared enough for us to try again. The only hitch was that one of the camera guys had pulled a neck muscle the day before and was taking a week off for it to heal. Having seen what these guys have on their heads it is no wonder that he got hurt! There was a game of 'rock, paper, scissors' to decide who would get the other camera guy. As we were climbing into the van to drive out, news came through that the owner of the company had just flown back into town from his family holiday and he would step in and be the second camera guy. We picked him up in the main street and drove him home to pick up his kit and then out to the airfield. Happy faces all round!

The airstrip was marked out with a few rocks and a small shed at one end containing the gear. The plane could only hold 6 people in addition to the pilot and was the same size as the van! I was in the second group to jump and literally saw the tandem instructor land, remove the shute, get handed a new one and board the plane. I don't think the plane was even grounded for more then five minutes between jumps.

Yep, the van can hold more people!

About to fly, oh and those rocks are the edge of the run way

It takes 25 minutes for the plane to reach 10 000 feet and I was feeling more then a little nervous. I was the second person to jump and watching Elena jump first was actually calming.

Very cosy in the teeny plane

The camera man crawled out onto the wheels of the plane and then I was told to 'walk' to the door. This is not an easy task when attached to someone else! It is a pretty strange feeling to realise that there is a man on the wheel of a tiny plane, you are strapped to another man who is crouched at the open door of the plane and you are literally hanging in mid air with your legs being pulled sideways as the plane continues to fly. Our exit from the plane wasn't strictly textbook, but we did pull off a pretty good cartwheel/somersault. Rave reviews from the other guides when they saw it.

Elena's camera man climbing onto the wheel

For some reason this photo wouldn't load up the correct way. Cartwheeling out!

The free fall wasn't scary at all. Apart from feeling like you are standing in front of a very large fan and moving your arms becomes difficult you didn't feel like you were falling. I even had time to look around a bit and try and spot the sand dunes where Steve was Quadbiking.

Dreiss is giving the camera man the count down for the shute while I check out the view

I was completely unprepared for the shute to open. When the shute is open you feel like you are floating. It wasn't until this point that the difference in speed is noticed from the free fall. Dreiss gave me control of the shute but my arms were too shaky with adrenaline to be able to do any manuovers. The free fall was apparently about 30secs and 3min or so once the shute was open. Our landing wasn't so graceful as I didn't process the 'straigten your legs' command until after I hit the ground

Coming in to land

Dreiss - my tandem guide.

There aren't enough positive adjectives to describe this experience. All of us wished we could do it again, this time know what to expect and being a bit more relaxed about it. The funniest incident of the day happened to one of the other guys from the truck. Just as he went to jump his shoe fell off and to the surprise of the ground assistants, landed in the middle of the airstrip a few minutes ahead of the owner. He was very relieved as he was due at quadbiking straight after his jump and didn't have time to return to the hostel for new shoes.

The other 3 girls I jumped with

There is a video but it was too big to put here so you will have to visit us to see it.

Sandboarding

Now you might think that Claire having jumped out of a plane would relish the opportunity for a bit of sand dune activity but not so. Most of the truck signed up for these two options but when it rained during the night many of them backed out thinking that the boarding wouldn't be possible on wet sand. They missed out!

For those that have never been sandboarding, it is similar to snow boarding, but on the 120 metre high sanddunes. Mark & Dan joined Steve along with the Dutch couple, and were very excited when we arrived at the base of the dune just in time for the weather to clear.

This photo is from Claire's skydive DVD and is the location for the boarding.

There were two options at the sandboarding, stand-up or lay down. I chose the stand-up version. After three runs down the dune (and the long walk back up the 80 metre dune) I started to slowly get the idea. At this point we were given the opportunity to give the lay down style a go. Apparently we didn't need the gloves or knee guards that the others had, or the 4 warm up runs down the easy part of the dune. Instead those of us that had chosen the stand up option went straight into the fastest lay down run of the day. This time the 80 metres was almost vertical, reaching speeds of 72 kph!! The only advice that I remembered was hold the board up, and that you could use your toes as brakes. Thankfully there were no major incidents.

All in all, a fantastic experience. Unfortunately we're still waiting for the DVD footage of our boarding to come.......... so these photos are courtesy of Dan.

Quadbiking

The afternoon activity was Quad Biking on the dunes. Again the scenery was incredible. There were a couple varieties of bikes, from Automatic (but less powerful), Semi-Automatic (you had to change gears, but you didn't have to worry about a clutch), and Manual (which were apparently the fastest). Most of us went for the semi-automatic, which was a good choice.

As the dunes are a protected area, there are only certain parts that we were able to drive on. Basically we were split off into groups of about 6, and it was follow the leader. The only exception to this was Johannes, who can only be described as a crazy man behind the wheel!

We weaved our way up & down & around the dunes, and eventually made it to "the lookout" which was a point high on the dunes but close to the coast. To see the sand dunes plunge straight into the ocean was a fantastic memory.

The final memory I had to take away from the quadbiking experience was my melted trekking pants! It seemed that my right leg was resting against a hot part of the engine, which i hadn't noticed during the noisy & bumpy ride. I was glad that they had lasted the majority of our African adventure, as we were on the home stretch now.