Namibia is very much a Geologist’s dream as we were soon to discover.
The first of our Canyons was Fish River Canyon where we had Spaghetti Bolognese whilst watching the sunset. A hike through the canyon would take 5 days but Cara insists we will return to complete it.
Sesriem canyon did not seem quite as vast however we were able to walk within the canyon itself. A river would previously have flowed through the canyon and it was possible to differentiate the different seasons by the density of the sediment. We were accompanied on our walk by several baboons.
A brief stop at Moonscape, an area that looks like the craters on the moon, let Cara test out her new spacewalk looking walking boots. Stephen our trip geologist took the time to explain why many of the rocks here were so shiny.
Dune 45 is a popular dune in Sossusvlei. Here we completed an early morning climb and competed in the famous Dune 45 race back down. Both Owen and I ended up with a face full of sand as they tumbled down.
From Sossusvlei we headed deeper into the dunes to an area called Deadvlei. Here the dunes have closed together to prevent any waters flowing to the area. As a result of this the air is so dry that even dead 400 year old trees are unable to rot.
Driving to Swakopmund we saw Spitzkoppe a 1,728m rock formation surrounded by several other smaller rocks. On some of these rocks it is still possible to find San paintings that would have been painted by the Bushmen as a way of communicating to other tribes, potentially as a warning or where to find water. These paintings are completed in either iron oxide or using animal blood and it is incredible to think they are still distinguishable.
Joe Dunleavy