August 30/Day 3: Orange River to Fish River Canyon

Fish River Canyon, originally uploaded by Andrew & Yvette's world travel.

This morning, the group split in two as half took a canoe ride on the Orange River while the other half lazed about the campground. We were in the latter group and Emily taught me how to keep accounts. It was pretty easy. Basically, every dollar spent needs to be tracked. This includes: groceries, camp site expenses, tour expenses, etc. Not a bad job for someone who already tracks money on a daily basis. And considering I’m an excel pro, I promptly created a worksheet that did all the calculations from giving me daily running balances to calculating foreign exchange rates for the S. African Rand, Namibian Dollar, Botswana Kwacha and Zambian Kwacha. Because I’m a nerd, the worksheet also broke down expenses by category: accommodation, food, tours, etc.

Once the group came back, we headed towards Fish River Canyon. The drive today was blissfully quiet as 90% of the group was recovering from yesterday’s hangover. With everyone sleeping, the miles of empty road stretched further than usual, the only distraction coming from the huge nests of the weaver birds. Camp today was out in the dusty dirty desert amongst baboons. For those washing clothes, those baboons meant being creative with knots on the clothesline. It was at this time, while talking to Stephanie who was doing some washing that I found out that Dragoman actually imposed an 18kg weight limit. As Stephanie, an Australian 60+ female, was overlanding through Africa through 2010, she decided to bring a lot less and clocked in at 15kg! Amazing! Good thing the crew didn’t enforce that rule on us as each of our bags weighed 24kg+.

Given that bags came out every night and got put back in the following morning, we did spare the back locker people by just using our 3rd smallish luggage. Well, that and another plastic bag that held our sleeping bags and sleeping mats. Speaking of sleeping mats btw, I discovered that the secret to a good night’s rest is having 3 sleeping mats. Even w/ grass coverage, I had a sleepless 1st night using just my personal mat and my Drago one. However on the 2nd night, I spied an extra mat and quickly and stealthily threw that under the tent on top of my 1st mat. Let me tell you, that extra inch of foam padding made all the difference.

Anyways, while I was chatting with Steph, Drew was with another group by the pool area. Like all outdoor pools in the winter, the water in this one was bone chilling. Nevertheless, whether it was last night’s drinks still talking, the thick layer of dirt on skin after a long day of driving through the desert, or just plain wackiness, the hung overed decided to jump in the water. I heard their screams from afar and taunting them with my tea a little later, saw the effects of the cold on their purple lips.

Later that day, we drove a short distance to Fish River Canyon, one of the deepest canyons in the world. As the sun crept downwards, we sat in silence admiring the magnificent, desolate beauty of the epic contours of the canyon.