Fish River Canyon east (12-5)

Having finished teaching, it was time to travel to southern Namibia to see some of the famous sites in that part of the country. Rather than hire a driver at $300 a day, I decided to drive myself and rented a car so I could get to the places I wanted to spend time at. Sunday morning I arrived at the car rental place for my 9:00 pick up. A man arrived shortly after 9:00 and told us (Two Germans were also there.) that the man in charge would be back in twenty minutes. He returned in fifty minutes. He happily told me the good news that they had upgraded my vehicle to a really nice, big truck instead of the smaller SUV I had rented because they didn’t have any of the smaller SUVs. I wasn’t happy about that because I wanted the smaller vehicle, but off I went at 10:20. Since the truck, a Toyota Hillux, was like Wilhelmina’s, I was really glad I’d practiced with her truck. It took a few hours to get really comfortable driving the big truck and orienting it in the lane. Some of the problem was the size of the truck. I also realized that some of the problem was that l wasn’t accustomed to orienting a vehicle on the left side with the middle of the road on the right. So it took extra effort to be conscientious of my driving. But the truck drives well and is quite comfortable. By the time I arrived at my destination—Seeheim—at 4:00 I was feeling comfortable with the vehicle and driving on the left.

I stayed at an old, stone hotel. My room was a lovely, small cottage in the middle of the hotel grounds. 

Sunday night there was a group camping, but they were gone before breakfast on Monday, and I was the only guest that day, which always feels a little strange. After breakfast I took off for the destination of the day: Fish River Canyon. When I first read about the canyon, which is the second largest canyon in the world after the Grand Canyon, I knew I wanted to go there. Thus it was one of the main destinations for my road trip. The drive to the canyon is 1.75 hours on a good, gravel road. It goes through the desert with round, green desert plants (I later learned that these are milk

bushes.) and mesas, very reminiscent of the US west. I really enjoyed the drive, and since I was comfortable with the truck and I was the only vehicle on the road most of the time, I could enjoy the scenery.

The road into the Hobas entrance goes through an open range area. On the way in I saw mountain zebras and kudus. 

On the way out I saw springboks, gemsboks/oryx, and ostriches.

Like the Grand Canyon, Fish River Canyon was carved out by a river. Thus some of the formations are similar. The canyon is 550 meters deep, 27 km across, and 160 km long. With its mostly brown rock, it isn’t very colorful, but it is still awesome.

After stopping at the two main viewpoints, I headed out. I was feeling a bit tired; so it was time to head back to the hotel. This was OK because I knew I’d be spending much more time viewing and experiencing the canyon in the next couple days.

After relaxing in my room for a while, I had a swim in the pool. Later I walked up the hill behind the hotel and sat on a rock there for a while enjoying the view. When I headed down, the sun was setting.