Southern Africa - Day 7 (Part 1)

Sunday, 19 January 2020 - Namibia 

Today we had to leave at 5.30 am! Somehow I ended up becoming the designated wake up call person and had to wake everyone up at 5 am. I don’t mind, because I usually wake up way earlier anyway I know not why. 

It is quite cold during the nights and early morning, but gets searing hot during the day - typical desert weather. We made our way to Fish River Canyon, the second largest canyon in the world after the Grand Canyon in America. On the way here we managed to see some oryx (I ate one yesterday 😱), a jackal, springbok, mountain zebras, and ostriches. Mountain zebras have white bellies and the stripes run all the way down their legs, they are generally fitter and hardier than the other normal zebras because they have learned how to adapt and survive in the desert. 

The Fish River Canyon stretches for 160 km, it reaches 27 km across at its widest and nearly 550 m down at its deepest. We walked along the rim of the canyon for about 1 km. It was nice as it was still cool, and we saw baboons and plenty of desert plants along the way. And of course, the view of the canyon itself is beautiful. The formation of the canyon started about 350 million years ago, but the Fish River now runs in a bed which is actually 1,500 million years old. It is born of a tectonic event (not erosion): a huge block of the Earth’s crust subsided along deep-reaching faults, forming a trench. 

It is named Fish River by the locals because when there is water in the river, it is full of catfish. When the water runs dry, they can dig themselves into the mud where it’s cooler, and stay there motionless for up to 10 years by secreting some oil or liquid to keep them moist, and by feeding on the mud. Every 10 years or so there is heavy rainfall which causes flooding, and then they become alive again. A river full of fish - Fish River. 

We had breakfast while watching the view of the canyon. Then to Keetmanshoop. This is a German town. Namibia was once under German rule. When the Germans first came here, they at first settled along the Atlantic coast because that was where the mining activities were. But there were frequent fierce sand storms so they moved inland and left their mines behind. They also left some of their horses behind, and now they are the wild horses of Namibia. From the truck I saw some of them roaming freely but they looked rather skinny 😔.

Near the coast is where you can find Skeleton Coast, where it is always misty because that’s where the desert meets the Atlantic Ocean. There are many ship wrecks here which still can be seen from an aerial view, and it is also the home to some brown seals. Unfortunately we did not go here as it was too much out of our way.

We arrived at the hotel and after checking in, we walked to a nearby mall. Since today is Sunday, everything closes at 1 pm and here’s the best part. No alcohol sold on Sundays! 😂😂😂 apparently because most people here are Apostolic (also known as Pentecostal). Yes, yet another Christian sect (🙄). They don’t drink alcohol, don’t smoke and don’t eat pork.