The Fish River Canyon
Fish River Canyon, Namibia
My sweet ride for the Great Adventure!
Shirtless Selfies all week, yo...
A sunset hike near the hotel with Frans (Pronounced France) that turned into photo fun times...
This is Frans. He works at the hotel. He took me on an afternoon sunset hike. Then he was really into taking photos. Awesome.
Frans took this photo of me. He was really into it. He kept suggesting poses and things.
This is Frans doing his strong man pose! He loves photos.
Frans insisted I do the same pose on top of this big rock. I'm not gonna lie. It was probably 10 feet high and dark, so I was a bit wobbly.
I. Am. Loving. Namibia.
Today was a great day!! I did things that I love. I ate breakfast, took a nap, hiked, and went on a guided hike that turned into photo fun times!!
I was supposed to take a guided hike this morning with my guide Frans (pronounced France). He found me at breakfast and apparently there was a double booking today and he had to take a tour out on a jeep drive. So he asked if it would be ok if we went on an afternoon sunset hike instead. No problem Frans. No big deal. He insisted it would be better light anyway. I love better light, so that was cool with me.
After breakfast I went back to my room with every intention of grabbing some stuff and heading to the canyon. But I laid down for a minute. That turned into two hours. I took a nap! By the time I woke up it was 10:00. I had to hit the road. It was hot today and only going to get hotter at the canyon. So I set off.
The Fish River Canyon is about 3km from the hotel. Then another 10km to the first lookout point. I made it to the canyon, got my permit to enter and was on my way. I drove to the first lookout point and took some photos. It is a beautiful and harsh place. It is the second largest canyon in the world, next to the Grand Canyon. I hung out at the observation deck for a while and noticed a road along the rim. So I decided to drive it. That's what I did. I drove for a few km and there was a turn off. I parked the car and went to the edge and took some photos. I saw a hiking trail heading down into the canyon so I hiked it for a while and came to a big rock plateau. Perfect spot for a shirtless selfie, duh. Side note...I've been taking a lot of shirtless selfies this trip. Not sure why. Maybe because I have my shirt off because there is NO ONE around and it's super hot. That's probably why. But I will only post with the proper cropping. For Sure. Anyway, back to the canyon. I got back to the car and went on. I came to a trail head that starts the 6 day 5 night backpacking adventure. It's a rugged hike and Frans leads them sometimes. He said you have to have a note from you Dr. indicating you are up to the challenge and in good health. It's pretty tough. I wanted to go to the bottom of the canyon, but there was a sign specifically stating no day hikes to the bottom. So I just hiked down for maybe a 1/2 mile, took some photos and hiked back up. At this point I had been driving and hiking in the canyon for about 4.5 hours. I was out of water, hungry and hot. So I headed back to the hotel.
Got back to the hotel and grabbed some much needed water and hung out in my room for about an hour. At 5:00 I met Frans and we went on a sunset afternoon hike near the hotel. We had big plans to make it to the top of a mountain, but we were talking a lot and hiking kind of slow, so that plan failed. We did see tons of wildlife while hiking! We saw Kudu (which look like deer, but with longer necks) Springbok, and Zebra. I saw a herd of 4 Zebra!!! They climbed to the top of the mountain in about 35 seconds. They were in the distance and just ran to the top. It was pretty incredible. Frans said I was lucky to see them as they are not easily spotted. So we watched the wildlife and then Frans had an idea to go back towards the hotel for sunset photos on top of the mountain. I told him I had been there the night before. So we just stayed where we were and talked and I took sunset photos. Then Frans wanted to take fun photos! I love fun photos. He made me pose in the sunset in different poses and took my photo, then I made him do the same and I took his photo. He was so excited. He loves nature and being out in the wild, that is his passion. His second passion is photography. So he had me climbing to the top of 10 foot rocks and posing and just having a great time. I really enjoyed hanging out with him, and so happy he liked taking photos. It was really dark when we made our way back, but we made it back in time for dinner. Frans joined me for dinner and we had a great conservation about Namibia. Lots of history and his life in Namibia. What a great country. We parted ways after dinner and I ran back to my room to grab my laptop.
Now I'm back at the reception area, where I worked on the photos for the blog and I'm blogging. There is a big group of French and, of course, German people here, so the staff aren't kicking me out yet. But I think the time is getting close. So I better wrap this up.
Tomorrow I head to Aus. It is a town near the coast. I will hopefully see some wild horses, and then on Friday I go to Kolmonschop (that is not how you spell it, but I am too lazy to look it up). It is a ghost town that the desert has taken over. I'm super stoked to go there.
Until tomorrow...I hope everyone is well!! Thanks for reading. I hope people are reading and checking out the photos. Maybe you will, maybe you won't. Follow your heart...