BootsnAll Travel Network



July 12th, 2008 – Fish River Canyon to Sesriem, Namibia

Today it was a real long drive.  The drive would take us over 10 hours and was approximately 600 kilometers from Fish River Canyon to Sesriem.  I got to sit in the front, which is the best place to sit on the bus and the most fun.  We broke out the first beers at approximately 11am.  I had one and that was it.  I already had biltong which is Africa’s version of jerky.  We stopped at a small town to get some supplies and I picked up a few things, including Biltong.  So by the end of that first beer my stomach was not feeling great but I loved being in the front of the bus.  We just joked around for most of the trip and I got a chance to know Hank a lot better.  Hank is one of the young Dutchmen who is a real jokster and funny.  His english isn’t great, but it is getting better I think everyday.  Anyway at one point he looks at me and says with beer in hand “this is the best part of the trip,” and he was right.  Sitting on the bus bullshitting really makes the trip.

 

Our next stop before settling in to the campsite was going to a canyon which wasn’t fish river canyon but a baby canyon formed millions of years ago.  I took my flipflops and camera along because I wasn’t sure if this waqs a point and shoot stop or a hike.  It turned out to be a hike.  The canyon was really cfool.  We were able to walk down in to the depths of the canyon where the air was substantrially cooler than at ground level.  The formations of the rocks were cool, as were the trees that were at the bottom of the canyon.  Some years there is more water than others at the bottom and this year there was just a little pool of water half way around the canyon.  The water was nothing special but the hike was cool and a got a lot of great photos, including one of myself in a cave like structure.

 

After we hiked but up and out of the canyon we proceeded to the campsite where it was time to set up shop.  At this point I wasn’t feeling that great,and it was really, really cold out.  After dinner we all squatted around the campfire and then I went off to the bar after having a few homemade drinks myself.  A bunch of us were there including Sarah, a 21 year old Swiss girl.  I started chatting with her about where she was from and getting to know her better.  Her english isn’t great, but isn’t bad and she doesn’t really speak it much in Switzerland.  She lives up in the mountains near Matterhorn and told me I should come skiing there.  Sure, I should just go to the most expensive place in the world to ski in Switzerland and ski 10000 foot mountains when I’m used to 3000 footers at Stratton in Vermont.  She said there are plenty of baby slopes but I reckon those beginner slopes are pretty challenging.  We will see you never know.  If I can get my pro bono requirement done before the semester maybe i’ll flight over there and hit up the slopes, one never knows with me!

 

The wind was really blowing and I walked back to the tents with Sarah and Linda.  Linda is also from Switzerland, the same age as Sarah.  They met in University two years ago and have become good friends since.  They called each other “new” best friends since they just met and clicked pretty well.  The night was really miserable.  The tents were blowing all over the place, in fact when I got back to my tent, it was half collapsed on the floor becuase the wind was blowing so strong.  I was really miserable, with all the dirt and dust blowing all over the place that I actually just slept on the mattress in all of my clothing including my sneakers and sucked it up.  I wasn’t feeling too hot and must have been worn down from the extremely early mornings and lack of sleep.

 



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