Saturday 2020/01/04

Ai Ais – Hobas (Fish River Canyon) – Keetmanshoop – Mesosaurus Fossil Bushcamp

Short morning hike into the Fish River Canyon. Multi-day tours in the canyon are only possible between May and September and must be booked far in advance. We frighten away a horde of Baboon ahead of us.

We continue via Hobas to a viewpoint to the so-called hell curve of the Fish River Canyon. In addition to the Grand Canyon in the USA and the Blyde River Canyon in South Africa, the Fish River Canyon is one of the largest canyons in the world. The views are accordingly spectacular.

Since we cannot find a suitable campground here and it is still quite early, we decide to continue on a side route towards Keetmanshoop. On the quite varied route there are no campgrounds and no wild campsites (as the road is fenced as very often), so we continue to Keetmanshoop to have an early “very German” dinner in the "Schützenhaus", a "very German" restaurant.

Two campgrounds are available to the northeast: The Quiver Tree Forest Restcamp and the Mesosaurus Fossil Bushcamp. Because a thunderstorm is approaching and we are a little late, we drive directly to the Mesosaurus Fossil Camp, where we arrive shortly before dawn. We arrive in spectacular light conditions for the quiver trees and the surrounding rock cubes.