This incredible Namibian day started and ended with the kindness of strangers.
It also started with a walk up the koppie at Klein-Aus Vista (not called ‘vista’ for nothing) and an impromptu breakfast with a new friend. But, I couldn’t leave Aus until I managed to get my feisty Namibia2Go chariot out of 4-wheel-drive, which it was determined it should stay in. Good-natured Steve, the owner of the Aus Namib garage and shop, had it back in gear in a few minutes and waved me off with a smile. It was already midday by the time I turned southwards to make my way to Oranjemund via the Sperrgebiet, or as it is now called, the Tsau//Khaeb National Park.
This good tared road makes the journey a breeze, leading you through a rocky landscape highlighted in sections with glimpses of the shimmering Orange River. Oranjemund, once a closed diamond-mining town, opened its doors to the public in 2017, beginning a whole new chapter in its existence. Residents have always included the gemsbok that wander through the streets as if they own the place, and perhaps they do. I was there to research a story and meet up with people from my previous visit a few years back. But the day was not yet done and neither was the kindness of strangers. Arista and Tjaart from the Sehnsucht Cottage welcomed me graciously before I set off to photograph the town in the golden light of the afternoon, that time of day when edges soften, boundaries blur, magic is in the air and we can relish being on a planet orbiting the sun. It’s the best show on Earth and one that we lucky Earthlings get to appreciate every day.
After stocking up at the impressive well-stocked Spar (a boon in the Namib Desert), I was excited to make my way to the canyon and wondered what the road along the Orange River would bring. It was an unexpected delight of good gravel skirting the Orange River and river vegetation, and I was smiling widely by the time I glided into Aussenkehr, known for its table-grapes, and turned northwards towards the canyon. A short drive through no-man’s land would lead me home, which is always how I feel when I return to Gondwana’s Canyon Lodge, nestled in the granite rocks. The original farmhouse, dating back to the early 1900s and now the lodge’s restaurant and reception area, has a bedstead on its roof, informing all the ladies that a bachelor resides on the premises. The century-old charm lives on. The perfect place to end the day is a walk up the koppie next to the lodge to watch the sun set over the beautiful expanse of the Gondwana Canyon Park. The hooting of an owl was the only sound I heard as I drifted into dreamland that night. A feeling of deep peace enveloped me like soft wings.
Well, the Fish River Canyon was calling and it was calling me. I climbed aboard the game-vehicle for the journey to the Hobas viewpoints, to once again witness the place where the earth breaks out into a huge grin. It is secretive. It must have a sense of humour. There’s no hint of the dramatic chasm in the earth as you drive on the plateau from the entrance, and it catches you unawares, a breathtaking and dramatic chunk of earth history and a vista that’s extraordinarily magnificent. You are taken aback, want to burst out laughing and are simultaneously awed into deep, sublime silence. It’s hard for us relative newcomers to fathom eternity in its making, the concept of such ancient time. I once heard an old folk tale about a land far to the north called Svithjod, where there is a mountain a hundred miles high and a hundred miles wide. Once every thousand years a little bird comes to this mountain to sharpen its beak. When the rock has thus been worn away, then a single day of eternity shall have passed.
While I was getting my head around that, one of the fellow travellers reminded me that we are on a planet that is moving at an incredible speed, orbiting the sun at 107 000km/hour or nearly 30km/second and rotating around its axis at 1600km/hour. We are moving so fast. Even more reason to stop. I raised my glass and stopped time as the sun slipped into the canyon depths. We are on the awe-inspiring journey of life and there is no better place to remind us to stop and celebrate it than in Namibia. Cheers!
My Namibia2Go Fortuna’s interior was sprinkled with dust, the outside was splattered with mud from an unexpected rainshower and my heart was full, just as everything ought to be at the end of a good journey. This would be my last stop for now. See you on the next one and until then, travel safely, wonderfully and well.