Day 12+1

Today promises to be a great adventure. We leave Keetmanshoop behind having managed a trickle shower and head for Grunau via the Fish River Canyon. Another place I’ve always waned to visit, but I don’t really know why. Same reasons as Etosha I presume. The trip to the canyon was proving to be exciting. We were once again on gravel roads, this time good gravel and it was fun. Wide, smooth, secure surface and not too many ruts. In fact just ruts every now and then. Sudden dips were there though and I had to keep a sharp look out otherwise we bottomed out! Tougher shocks I think!!

An interesting thing, was the sudden appearance of water! We had to ford a low level bridge and before we knew it we were driving through healthy looking vineyards and fields of date palms.

A little further on we came across another gem and a must visit for anyone travelling nearby. Even if you don’t want too go to the canyon, take a turn and get to Canyon Roadhouse. Delish cheesecake and Apple Strudel, but what an atmosphere. Everyone in these parts seems besotted with old cars – particularly wrecks and it would be fascinating to know the story behind each one. Here’s some pics of the place and some of it’s many exhibits.

having feasted our eyes and sated our hunger and thirst we pushed on along the dirt highway, clouds of dust billowing behind us as everything was powder dry. When a vehicle passed us going the other way, we virtually had to sop because the dust was so thick and we couldn’t see a thing. Worse than dense fog. After about half an hour we reached the Canyon view site and what a site lay in store for us. We spent about an hour there just soaking it all in – the silence, the enormity, the barreness, the depth, the sheer magnificence of the canyon which extended for as far as the eye could see.

We left the canyon full of wonder, lost in our thoughts and headed for Grunau, our overnight stop. It could only be better than our accommodation the night before. We were hot and tired an needed a shower and a chill before the next event a braai at Vastrap Farm which was owned by the parents of the couple who owned the Grunau hotel.

We arrived at Grunau hotel around 2 and settled into the open air dining area. The food was good – Game pies and tomato sauce, but the beer was extra special. The hotel had limited accommodation so we, along with about 6 other couples were put up in Grunau chalets just down the road. We arrived there and opened the boot to unpack – and thats where our restful afternoon took an unexpected turn. The boot was full of dust and so was everything else! There was no option but to take everything out and wash it, including the inside of the boot. That took the best part of an hour and a half. When we were finished we were going to shower and then have a rest – but – there was no water!!! The owner discovered that her water had been switched off by mistake and that it had been turned on again. All we had to do was wait for the pump to fill the tanks – which took about another hour. Eventually we showered and had about 1/2 an hours rest before going to the farm for our dinner.

Vastrap farm was beautiful in a minimalistic sort of way. No grass, no trees to speak of, just sand. How these people cope with that is incredible, but they love it. We watched a beautiful sunset, had a delicious dinner of lamb everything – chops, wors and other cuts of lamb which I am not qualified to identify, but it was a really tasty meal with proper veggies. The pudding was ice cream and chocolate sauce or brownies and custard. I had ice cream and custard!!!!! We left happy and contented with all thoughts of the water and dust issues long forgotten. Tomorrow was our last day and a certain kind of sadness permeated the air – we’d had such a wonderful time, met some really nice people and had a great holiday, visiting parts of Namibia and Botswana we would never have seen if we’d done it via a “tour” or holiday package. Tomorrow would be just a drive down the road, on tar, to Upington, 410 k’s distant