Road Trip: Desert (Part 3)

Part 3: As we left the West Coast at sunrise, we had been on the road for just under 2 weeks, and had about a week left to get all the way home. Continuing North, following the Cape-Namibia route...

The famous Namaqualand daisies are a highlight of this route in springtime. If this had only been the right time of year... the slopes and roadsides pictured below would be carpeted in gorgeous wild flowers!

The Orange River forms the border between South Africa and Namibia. Approaching the crossing, the terrain becomes extremely dramatic. Down past towering rocks, we crossed the bridge over a torrential looking, brown Orange river.

After a couple of failed attempts to leave the border post, involving being sent back to square one due to the lack of the right rubber stamps, we were finally gratefully spat out the other side and released into a typical Namibian roadscape. The Namib desert, with sparse scrubby vegetation stretching as far as the eye can see. Big skies, and distant mountains. Freedom again!

That night, we made it all the way to the Fish River Canyon. In the late afternoon, we found we had the entire visitor's centre to ourselves, Hot, empty and utterly still , this was the perfect way to experience the unique atmosphere here.

The view from the platform: the amazing canyon, with the Fish River winding through it. Silent, and ancient, and difficult to do justice to with a mere digital image...

Here is a panorama that Tiennie photographed and stitched together. I thought about trying to remove the jagged edges, but decided to leave them. Trying to give a bit of scale, I am seated near the edge of the canyon, just an insignificant scrap of  humanity!

I'm not very good at heights, and during the taking of these photos, was quite convinced that I might be about to topple over right into the Fish River Canyon, yet photographic evidence shows I was pretty far from the edge!

Here is a photo of our car, doing its impression of a lunar module on a barren moonscape, watched by us two lonely shadowy beings.

 What else could grow in this inhospitable landscape, but the iconic Quiver Tree of Namibia!

After an exhausting day of driving and sightseeing, we put up our tent in the campsite, packing up again extremely early the next morning to continue on the seemingly endless road north.. We were rewarded on this day when we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn - finally approaching our own more familiar latitudes - still a long way to go, though!!

Slowly the desert regions gave way to more of a woodland zone, and we decided to follow a road sign that read simply "Meteorite".  Here is a photo of this bizarre block of extra terrestrial matter, which fell to earth many years ago, implanted itself in Namibian soil, and has been left there ever since, for people to be intrigued by!

Day 3 in Namibia, and we were almost at the Botswana border... here we stayed a night at Mahangu Lodge alongside the Kavango river, and although we could only afford camping , we still managed an afternoon on the water, and a wonderful dinner on this deck, just above the fast flowing, flooded river.

Next day, we crossed over onto Botswana soil again! A quick business and catch-up visit in the border town of Shakawe, where we filled our car up with the 'wrong' type of petrol (nothing else on offer!!) and we were on our way again - a long, long way, bypassing the Okavango delta, and going on on towards the Makgadikgadi area. A flat, arid region dotted with signature palm trees...

Our next destination: a top favourite on this blog,  Planet Baobab, was where we spent our last 2 nights, to unwind after all the driving and just totally relax. It has become our traditional place to go every year in March in the quiet season. Here is an idea of the magnificence of one of the huge baobabs.

I've posted favourite photos of Planet Baobab in the past 2 years of annual visits, and  despite the fact that I took lots more again, I will just link back to the earlier blog posts, or this post might never end:
First visit to Planet Baobab in 2009 - Part 1
2009 - Part 2
2010 - return visit

On the way home, the now traditional landmark - The Termite Mound. It was a bit difficult to decide this year if it had grown or not. However, I did feel, when up close to it, that it had changed shape in a subtle way.

After that, it was a short hop - 400km home, to finish the orange section marked on the map below - safely arriving back at our starting point of 17 days earlier - much rested, extremely relaxed, and ready for all the chaos that being absent from here for so long entails..

More than a month later, and I think I might have finally caught up! I've also really enjoyed compiling my 3 part journal, and sorting through the numerous photos and memories. I'm sure it must be time to plan another holiday! (wishfully thinking?), but until then - I'll give this page a break, and will be back just as soon as I can.. many mid week greetings to all reading this blog!