Fish River Lodge Fish River Canyon

... Cup.<br><br>Namibia is a relatively new country having obtained its independence in 1990 after 106 years of rule by South Africa and, prior to that, by Germany, England and the Netherlands. Namibia is a big country, four times as large as the United Kingdom and bigger than Texas. However, the population is only 1.8 million. <br><br>The landscape changes dramatically once inside Namibia. It is very barren and rocky. The shrubbery and greenery ...

... on the truck on the way back to the campsite. <br><br>We then had an amazing dinner cooked by the oh-so-sober Elena and the not-so-bitter Wayne. It was delicious. Then we hung out around the fire drinking with the Acacia truck drivers.<br><br>As we packed up the truck in the morning, a group of wild baboons tried to attack us and take our food. Grandpa Tim threw stones at the baboons to protect us.<br>

02/10/09<br><br>Namibia, 360 ks<br><br>This is the stuff that i have had dreams about. Stunningly beautiful but very raw. No people just wide open spaces with lots of time to think about life. <br><br>Customs was no problem, they were not even interested in my Carnet so of to fish river canyon we went.<br><br>We slept in a view point area with the most unbelievable views of the ...

... be pretty repetitive and long winded I&#8217;ve found. We have a lot of playful, exuberant, people on our truck and so rather then taking in the beauty quietly they were climbing up into little holes in the rock to explore and I found myself handing off the camera to join them. <br><br>Eventually we caught up with the group that had gone as far as they could until water ...

... I learned a few more things about the Jewish religion. Sabbath is celebrated on the seventh day of the week (Saturday although I had always though it was Sunday) and this was the day after God created the Universe in 6 days so they celebrated by having a day of rest where they weren't allowed to do anything. Some things they weren't allowed to do were- tear anything (they had to pre-cut their toilet paper), prepare any food so they had to cook everything before sunset ...

We ventured to the south of Namibia and stayed at a campsite that was 10kms from Fish River Canyon. We set up camp, ate a fantastic lunch of fried chicken and rice [compared to the sandwiches that we normally have for lunch almost every day] and had the afternoon to ourselves. There was a group of us who decided to start out walking the 10kms to the Canyon because it was such a nice day. We walked for over an hour and made it almost half the distance before the truck met us on the road ...

... for miles. The country side was great, didn't expect to like Namibia so much. Wide plains of tall grass, with trees scattered around and hills all around the horizon, fantastic.<br>It was freezing overnight and in the morning one of the washing up bowls froze over; I was expecting to get too hot not too cold on this trip.

Had a wonderful wake up from Oliver at stupid o'çlock in the morning informing me that he had just ran into two scorpions, or rather they had just ran at him with tails blazing, whilst he was visiting the loo. Put a stop to any loo stops I may have had. Scorpions... how cool.... but eeeww please stay away from me. Sarah and Martin were greeted by one when they woke up and stepped out their tent. Hmmm bush camping in this country will be interesting. After getting back ...

... the Namibian Wildlife Resorts (NWR), the state-run company that runs most of Namibian parks and reserves. So the site is developed, renamed into a resort, marketed as such, and prices are increased two- or three-fold - or as in the case of Ai-Ais, five-fold. Soon after, all these changes facilitate a selection of the travelers that end up here, and exclusivity is created. While we cooked our supper, Claire and I talked about this and other things, and images of how ...