This last post from Namibia is going to be a short one. My final stop was in the far south of the country, Fish River Canyon. It was a long six hour drive that also included one tire exploding. Seriously, it exploded! Scared the crap out of me! Changing a tire in 100° heat wasn’t fun either, but I arrived safely. First thing, I had to check into my campground at the Canyon Roadhouse.

To say this establishment seems out of place would be an understatement. It’s decorated with old cars, some with quiver trees growing out of them, old filling station signs, and even licence plates from all over the world.

There’s even a bunch of old cars decorating the inside. The reception counter is an old truck. There’s even country music playing. This place might as well be in the midwest somewhere, Kansas or Oklahoma, perhaps, but it’s not. It’s in this super remote part of Africa and it’s filled with Europeans. Go figure!

Back behind the Roadhouse are the campgrounds, where I’m sleeping. I did eat at the restaurant my last night, though, just because.

My only reason for coming here is to get a glimpse of Fish River Canyon. It’s the largest canyon in Africa and the fifth largest canyon in the world. Wow!

After paying my entry into the park, I spent the day driving and hiking around to all the viewpoints that you’re allowed to go to. It’s really impressive! No wonder it’s among the top destinations in Namibia.

There are still the occasional quiver trees around and at the Hikers viewpoint, some interesting rock art.

There is a five day hike through the whole canyon that is an option, but you need a big group and honestly, it didn’t look that appealing. There’s almost no water in the river and it’s five days of walking through sand. I’ll settle for the viewpoints. They also don’t allow day hikes down into the canyon, unfortunately.

There are two emergency exits out of the canyon for the people who brave the five day hike. That got my wheels turning. My plan was to map out those exits and turn them into emergency holy crap entries. I was able to hike down the first one part way, there was really nothing at the bottom of that one worth the effort. The views from the ledge I walked out to were awesome, though!

The second emergency exit required a short drive down a side road, but when I got there there were big signs saying, “private road, trespassers will be prosecuted!” I did ponder it for more than a few minutes, but in the end I decided the signs looked pretty serious and Namibian jail doesn’t sound like much fun. So I moved on to the other viewpoints, which were far enough out that nobody goes there apparently. I was all alone out there.

I knew quiver trees were really interesting, but I don’t think I looked really closely until this day. The bark on these trees is a work of art in itself.

After driving as far out as I had time for, I turned around and headed back to camp where I had my amazing Roadhouse burger and cheesecake. As I was organizing everything in the truck to get ready to return it, I experienced a moment of comic irony. I found the lighter on the last day of camping that I lost on the first day of camping back in Brandberg. Ha! It somehow ended up underneath the propane tank for the stove. Oh well!

Now it’s time for a long drive back to Windhoek where I will return my trusty Toyota Hilux and rooftop tent, shower, sleep one night, and then board a plane back home. Fun fact, I drove 4,891 miles through Namibia on this trip. That’s a pretty epic roadtrip. Anyway, that’s the end of this African adventure. Until the next one…