The Happy Cruisers Go to South Africa: Fish River Canyon

We left Aus Klein Vista and started making our way back to South Africa. We traveled to the southeast through the barren Tsamsvlakte Plains and then on to the remote Fish River Canyon in the Canyon National Park (West) which is part of the Ai/Ais-Richtersveld Transfrontier Park straddling the borders of Namibia and South Africa.

Fish River Canyon is similar in grandeur to the Grand Canyon but not quite as deep or as long. Even so, it is 160km long and up to 27km wide and the inner canyon, which reaches a depth of 550m, was still spectacular. We stayed at a luxury resort, the Fish River Lodge, literally on the edge both of the canyon and civilization.

The view from our room was breathtaking and the enormous scope of landscape in front of us was truly one of Mama Africa Nature’s most amazing natural wonders. The Fish River Lodge was a welcome retreat for two days from the never ending dust and bumping along through the desert in the Cruiser!!

I, of course, was fascinated by the Quiver Trees which grow in this arid region of southern Namibia and northern South Africa. They are members of the Aloe genus with a thickset, almost scaly trunk and a dense rounded crown of what resemble clusters of aloe plants. The San bushmen once used the soft branches as quivers for their arrows.

On one of the evenings while at Fish River Lodge, I went for a short hike to a lookout point. I walked through a small quiver tree forest and on to the view point where visitors had built unique cairns that added an interesting perspective to the view.

We said a fond farewell to the staff at the Fish River Lodge who, the night before, had treated us to an evening of traditional song and dance that started with an African rendition of Happy Birthday for one of the guests. The response was so positive that they went on to sing for another 30 minutes. We really enjoyed the impromptu entertainment and the talent that these, like most, Africans had when it comes to music and harmonizing.

We made our way on through the desert via Rosh Pinah, a copper mining town that appeared to be temporary although it has quite a place holder on the map, and then into the Ai-Ais National Park. Unfortunately, the very cool rocks I had collected at Terrace Bay were confiscated as no rocks may leave Namibia, unless of course you work for the diamond industry. I was quite disappointed and just hope the ranger who took them thought they were as cool as I did.

In Ai-Ais we experienced more fascinating geological formations and stopped along the way for a desert picnic.

We also finally got to see the Tsamma melons we had, heard so much about, that appear to sprout out of nowhere as a result of the desert rains.

Tsamma Melons

The cattle in Namibia are very colorful. I thought I would add this one to the blog for my Uncle Floyd and brother Scott who raise the basic - Black Angus.

Marius and I also enjoyed seeing the road graders, as I come from a family of road graders, who have so many kilometers of gravel roads to maintain that they set out for weeks pulling their accommodation behind them. These two were having breakfast when we passed by.

We soon reached the life-giving Orange River which forms the border between Namibia and South Africa. We re-entered South Africa at the Noordoewer/Vioolsdrif border post, spent the evening in Springbok and drove back through the wine region during the 2014 harvest.