7 February 2010
Today I got up early and went to watch the sunrise down by Orange River, where we are camped in Namibia. I went and sat by the river for about an hour and got some really spectacular photos.
Some people went off to go canoeing, but I stayed behind and had a break. I had a bit of a sleep under a tree and then we had an early lunch. After lunch we set off for Fish River Canyon, we jumped on the truck and three hours later we reached our camp site, which was slightly more basic than the last camp. It was literally in the middle of the Namibian wasteland, but it did have a swimming pool, which most of the group went in as the heat was excruciating, despite the green colour of the water and the film of scum floating on the top. We ended up making a whirlpool, fun, fun.
After dinner we got back on the truck and drove for about 20 minutes to reach the canyon. I chatted to Alex, one of the guys on the tour, who seems very interested in ancient history and what I study. He says he will hit me up for more talks during the trip, poor guy, he has no idea what he’s getting himself into, talking to me about ancient history.
We reached the canyon and the sun was setting, the canyon was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. We all hiked up to a point where we were overlooking the canyon and watched the sun set together, which was a magical experience. The yellows, reds and oranges of the sunset made the canyon all the more spectacular. After the sunset we all then slowly hiked back to the truck, me, Yngvar and Guy were the last back, due the fact that I saw thunder lighting up the clouds over the mountain and we stopped to watch it. It was dark now and the thunder lit the clouds up a beautiful orange colour, it looked almost as if explosions were happening over the mountains.