Day 2 & 3: Olifants River Valley, SA to Orange River, Namibia to Fish River Canyon

Leon canoeing down Orange River, Namibia

We packed our big North Face bags of clothes and camping gear, took down the tents, stowed them all on the truck and started our journey north to Namibia.  In the following days we will get much quicker with this process.
Leaving South Africa was complicated.  We drove to Springbok, not far from the Namibia border, and transferred to a van pulling a trailer with all of our belongings.  Because our truck is registered in the UK, Namibia won’t let it drive across the border with passengers or any signs that passengers were on board.  We will meet the it at our campsite at Orange River.

At the border crossing, we had to stop several times different times, stand in lines, and fill out forms.  Once we thought we were done with the process, we went to the Namibia side and proceeded to get out of the truck once again, stand in another line and fill out more forms.  After a couple of hours of waiting, we had to leave Matan (our young Israeli) behind to find her way back to Cape Town so that she could sort out her Namibian entry Visa issues and hoped that she would rejoin the group somewhere along the way.

Namibia’s landscape was more dry and desolate than what we saw in SA where there were vineyards all along the way.  Here, the grasses are wheat colored with sagebrush-like bushes sporadically dispersed.  But there are hills, or mountains, always in sight on the horizon. 

Nice grassy campsite

We camped at a large grassy campground on the Orange River with a pool, bar, internet, and lots ofpeople.  Apparently it is a school holiday because there were several busloads of loud teenagers having a great time.  We were worried that they would keep us awake at night but they were well behaved and quiet after dark.

Orange River

The next morning, we met with our canoeing guides and headed down the Orange River in two-person

Barb canoeing on Orange River

canoes.  The river is quite shallow in areas with mild rapids.  Quickly the canoe crews became teams vying for the championship.  We never decided what would constitute winning, but it didn’t seem to matter.  Barb and Leon were Team Bigfoot; Chuck and Dan became Team Old Navy; Meghan and Jeff were Team Australia; Paul and Joanne were team Rambo.  We had a lot of fun, but never did anyone except the guides demonstrate any level of skill worth mentioning.


After several hours on the water under the hot sun, we broke camp and headed off for our next destination - Fish River Canyon, Africa’s version of the Grand Canyon.  Namibia is a large country and we spent hours driving in the heat on dusty roads.  It was a long, active day and we were ready for a nice shower.  We think that the first couple of nights were just teasers for what would later become typical.  As we  pulled into the campground at Hobas, we were all quiet.  It looked like what you would imagine camping in Africa would be like - hot, dirty, sandy and no grass in sight.  It may sound awful, but really, we are all having a great time, and no one is complaining. We needed to get to the Canyon’s rim before sunset so there was no time for showers, instead it was set up the tents, and get back in the truck again. 

Fish River Canyon, Namibia with Chuck

The thought of ‘Pictures of Sunsets’ seems to be enough to get any shutterbug excited to the point of salivating openly.  Almost everyone on this trip is a semi professional photographer, or at least they are active wannabees.  The level of equipment  would intimidate professionals, and the sheer weight of the lenses makes one want to hire porters to carry them.  For the few of us not infected with the “Shutterbug”, the lure of a “Sundowner” on the rim of the canyon was enough to bring us along also.  Sundowners are drinks served as the sun is setting, and Leon certainly enjoyed his.  Barb of course used up several Gigabytes of memory to acquire the almost perfect photo. 

Fish River Canyon

Another great day on the road in Africa has ended.  Tomorrow will be another adventure.

Fish River Canyon Sunset