track our trek

day 3 took us across the border into namibia and we arrived at fish river canyon in time for a sunset walk along the canyon rim...the canyon is the oldest in the world, and is between 200 and 500m deep! there are catfish in the river at the bottom which burrow into the mud to wait out the dry season! we watched the sunset and placed bets about what time it would go down...then compared the actual time to what mario's (the german physicist) gps device calculated...it was great! after dinner, we set up camp in the dark...piece of cake after a couple of nights! we also showered in the dark, and broke down camp in the morning before sunrise...we left that campsite without ever seeing it by the light of day! lol! the next day we headed on towards the namib desert...most of the landscape is flat dry scrub desert along the way. we saw lots of ostrich and springbok...a differnet variety from the springboks we saw in kruger national park. desert springboks are adapted to survive with very little water, taking moisture from plant roots. we watched one frightened springbok break its neck trying to jump a fence along the road. :O(
the namib desert starts very abrubtly...you can see the road straight ahead for miles, and you can see where the vegetation stops and the sand begins...it's really dramatic. we were up before dawn to climb sossusvlei's dune 45 to watch the sunrise. it was incredible...beautiful orange sand dunes for as far as the eye can see! we've never seen anything like it! it took almost half an hour to climb the dune...when you're on the ground it doesn't seem nearly that high! but it is very difficult to climb up a pile of soft sand!! go figure! with calves and ankles burning, we sat at the top to take in the scenery...after a treat of bacon and eggs for breakfast (normally it's cereal and bread), we headed off to see more dunes and deadvlei, a valley between dunes where water used to reach, but hasn't in hundreds of years...now there are just dead tree trunks scattered across the cracked earth...it is amazing! we were overwhelmed by all of namibia's different landscapes! everything from desert scrub to sand dunes to jagged rock formations to canyons to coastal plains and rolling hills!