This morning there’s the chance to see the beautiful river valley by canoe or just relax at camp. After lunch we cross the border and travel to the Fish River Canyon. After a scenic walk along the edge of the canyon we enjoy our dinner while watching the sunset. This is also a fantastic photo opportunity. Optional Activities: Half-Day Canoe Adventure. Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
27th December 2013
As expected only 6 out 22 trekkers made the canoeing, the rest decided to stay around camp. I'm intrigued that after basically two days driving the vast majority of them would rather sit around a campsite then get out and enjoy what South Africa has to offer.
Now as you may know "everyday is different" and today was no exception, it started of with a drive in a vey old and beaten up Landrover Defender, the driver / owner (Adam) of the campsite was an unhappy camper, he only seemed to get happy after he blew a tyre. Both Lisa and I felt the tyre go as the Landrover slid sideways. Adam apologised for the inconvience and then got down to work changing the tyre, given the condition of all his tyres I'm surprised we only blew out one.
After that it was a short drive to the launch pad, it's unfortunate that litter is a problem here. Our German guide Maxie (on a gap year, spent most of his gap year drinking or paddling) gave the young German girls a lesson in paddling gave us the rules which was basically don't get in front of him. And with this we were off. Lisa & I had no problems, Annabella & Jurian were also fine, the German girls on the other hand took some time master the art of going forward, but let me say their circle work was extraordinary. If circle work in a canoe was an Olympic Sport they woud be Germany's first pick.
We were paddling down river so it was always going to be an easy morning's activity, we got to see this bizzare landscape from a different perspective than the previous days drive in Marilyn. Brown murky water, green river banks in places, sand or rocks as the river bank in other places. The green never extended very far from the rivers edge, 5 meters at most, then it turned into what I can only describe as a rocky moon scape.
Now I have confessed that I've become a twitcher (bird lover) and we got to see some King fishers in action from a distance, we couldn't get any photo's as we only took the video camera and Lisa's small waterproof one. The othe bird we saw alot of was what they called a snake bird, it's entire body is submerged and ony it's head and neck are visible from above the water, as a result it looks like a snake. Lisa spotted what we think was a vervet monkey in a tree, but alas we couldn't see its iridescent blue balls.
The rapids as they were described were shall we say a couple of rocks creating a ripple as the slow moving water passed over them. After the first "rapid" I decided I'd take our canoe down backwards, (yes Nakita, I'm still trying to redeem my lost manlyness) It made no difference.
Juram and Annabella decided to switch places in the canoe, which proved fatal to Juram's sunglasses. Now there are two versions of this event, I'll let you decide which one you want to go with. The first version, Juram jumped into the water and after resurfacing did the hair toss, his sunglasses fell of and he was unable to retrieve them...The alternative version is that as Annabella and Juram swapped seats a large man eating crocodile leapt up to grab Annabella, Juram bravely and selflessly flung himself in the line of fire. The croc snapped its huge jaws closed, ripping the sunglasses clean off, incredibly brave but I wouldn't have done it.The German girls by this stage had mastered going straight, but probably wouldn't get picked for any straight line canoeing teams.
Now I'm telling all of you this in the strictest confidence, so I need your assurance to keep this confidential!!! As we paddled our canoes our guide headed for the Namibian side of the river, as we all paid attention to the briefing we dutifully followed. We went into stealth mode and silently slide onto the sandy bank, we scanned the riverbank for diamond smugglers, border patrols and other illegal immigrants. (in that order) Unfortunately there were no diamond smugglers and fortunately no border patrols or illegal immigrants which helped make our illegal arrival a success. Fortunately for us we wern't seeking asylum in Australia as we were canoe people and would have been towed back if safe to do so...
From there we had an even more leisurely paddle back to base camp. When we returned we discovered that most of the campers just hung out at the campsite and generally not doing much. Christoph told me it was pretty hot at the camp, I suggested he might have wanted to come canoeing, its always cooler on the water.
We then had lunch, packed up the rest of the camp and headed for the Namibian border. After a short less frenetic drive than last night we arrived at the South African side, once again no problems quick and easy, except it would appear they don't want the Immigration staff to have a chat with anyone. There is a slot cut into the bullet proof glass just big enough to slip you passport through on the counter top, once the officer has stamped your passport she needs a pen to push it back through the slot because she couldn't reach it.
We drove across the Gariep River and onto the Namibian side, this part took about 2 hours. The Namibian Immigration Officers decided to change shifts upon our arrival, which left one guy processing about 200 peoples passports.
Next stop road house and a Wimpy store, I got another Strawberry milkshake. Captain Cranky pants who was slowly descending the ranks to Sargent got a sports drink, no where near as indulgent.
After another long and dusty drive we arrived at our campsite, setup our tents and then departed again for our sunset walk along a portion of the Fish River Canyon. (the second largest Canyon in the world) It appears that we have people who either don't listen or can't live without a drink. Zenzo told the group that he would drop us off and that he would meet us with Marilyn at the viewing platform so we could have a drink and watch the sunset, despite that we still had people insisting on carrying alcohol. One lady wanted to carry her 6 stubbies in a plastic shopping bag. The other thing I found amusing was the type of shoes worn, most people had what Zenzo described as dancing shoes...
At the main viewing point I walked into the shade structure, straight into the top of the noggin,the force of the impact shook the structure so much it was lucky to still remain upright. I have to say I was pretty unhappy there were no doctors onboard Marilyn, Ohhh the humanity!!! I dropped to my knees and asked "why lord, oh why have you forsaken me?". (I did let out an expletive, something about mothers) Lisa had a headache and therefore offered me no sympathy as the copious amounts of claret freely flowed down my forehead. And yes Nakita the trend of low roofs and doorways in South Africa continues just like in East Africa. (Lisa would just like to say that she was not there when the incident happened, but did in fact ask if there was a wound, and found out there was not!)
The view was impressive, but impossible to photograph as the sunlight was shining straight into the camera lens. Early morning would be a better time for photography, but we got some okay shots of the canyon and some interesting photos of these plants clinging to survival in this dry, hot and dusty landscape. One tree looked like a malnourished boab, another was a tiny little plant that had just sprouted as a result of the recent rains it looked like it probably was going to flower at any second. But the most impressive was the Chuck Norris of plants, the plant is called the Pencil bush or Rhino bush. (looks like pencils or alternatively Rhinos are the only animal immune to its powers) It didn't look like much, just a small clump of round green shoots a bit like spring onions but lots of them, taller and a lighter shade of green. The plant itself can apparently kill a person if you just look at it, but if you got too close and touched it then you were really in trouble you would be in excruciating pain followed by certain death. Thats according to Shingi, now if you don't know who Chuck Norris is, firstly shame on you, secondly google him and the ten facts about Chuck Norris!!! Chuck Norris doesn't do push ups!!! Chuck Norris pushes the Earth away!!!
Tidbit fact for the day is that 70% of Namibia is privately owned which seems surprising given the desert landscape. We drove past great stretches of fenced off land, mostly they seem to be ranches for keeping rocks.
The day also provided a great quote of the day, let me set the scene.
We are driving in basically a desert with nothing but the desolate moonscape stretching for Klm's and Klm's, on one patch of road Klm's from anywhere there was some mud on the dirt road. Iris (the retired Israeli lady who hurt her foot on the first day) asked where did the water come from...
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| In Namibia |
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| Lovers Leap |
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| Chuck Norris of Plants |
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