Day 35 – Grünau to Fish River Canyon – 13 October

As on most mornings during our trip, we were in no hurry to get going as we didn’t have that far to travel to get to the Fish River Canyon. We didn’t have breakfast at booked Vastrap Guest Farm, but were well geared for making our own breakfast by this point and set off for the canyon afterwards. The road from Grünau to Fish River Canyon was our first experience with gravel roads in Namibia and it turned our to be a very good road to drive.

As we were so early, we quickly stopped at the Canyon Roadhouse where we were staying to check in before heading for the canyon viewing point at Hobas. The Fish River Canyon was nothing less than I expected and is very, very impressive, though you can’t go too far from the viewing point without a 4×4 – or walking!

We spent a bit of time at the canyon, but there’s only so many pictures you can take of essentially the same view, so we headed back to the Canyon Roadhouse. The Roadhouse is kind of famous in its own right as a stop-off point for tourists due to its decor and quirkiness – especially seeing as it is situated on a road where you don’t come across anything else for 100’s of kilometres! The place is very interesting, with lots of old cars and a garage theme that must have taken ages to put together. Everyone who stops there takes loads of pictures, but I ended up not taking that many.
When we started unloading the car I heard a hissing sound and realised that must be the sound of a tyre going flat. Luckily there were a couple of guys who work at the Roadhouse at hand to help us patch the tyre, though they did rip us off massively when it came to paying for them fixing it! At that point we didn’t care too much – we just wanted to be sure we could get on the road safely the next day and make it to Lüderitz. After that little drama we took it easy and had a few beers and dinner at the Roadhouse, which was fairly good, though not cheap – but then again, you don’t actually have any other option but to eat at the hotel!
Though I really enjoyed the canyon I didn’t quite realise how far away from the canyon our hotel would be, as well as that you have to pay every time you go into the viewpoint, which means you only go there once really and it isn’t easy to return for sunrise or sunset pictures for instance. The nearest accommodation is at Hobas campsite, which is still about 10km from the viewpoint. Still, the views are worth it and is definitely something everyone should see when visiting Namibia.
For more picture, see Brian’s blog.