Tuesday Sept 6 2011 Clanwilliam to Ai-Ais Namibia

MEALS ON WHEELS

Today is reported to be our longest drive. We started off at 6am, an hour before sunrise, and ate a boxed breakfast on the road. We made a short stop in Springbok around lunchtime where we had a quick look in some of the local shops while the bus was refuelled. Once we were back on the bus we were each handed some KFC, once again eating onboard as we hit the road north.



A type of weaver bird we saw at a rest stop along the way

Yesterday we drove mainly through farming country and the beautiful Cederberg Ranges but today the landscape became more barren, dramatically so once we crossed the Orange River into Namibia. Before crossing we saw lots of wildflowers out along the roadside, bright purples, yellows and oranges for mile after mile, but once into Namibia the landscape turned to desert with no sign of cultivation, except for what we’ve dubbed the Domestic Five – sheep, goats, cows, dogs and birds!



Roadside wildflowers



We all moved seats today and once we hit Namibia the roads became dirt, if we were lucky they had been recently graded, if not, then again bone jolting riding. Changing seats didn’t make a lot of difference to comfort as the noise was still ear-splitting!

South African landscape not far south of the Namibian border

Namibian landscape

We reached our hotel at Ai-Ais Hot Springs just after 4pm and only had time to drop off our luggage and wish we were staying here two nights before we were off to see the Fish River Canyon at sunset. Had I known that it was going to be a three hour round trip on even worse roads (if that was possible) I would have stayed behind. Fish River Canyon is similar to Horseshoe Bend in the US but the colours aren’t as good. The only upside was that we were offered wine and cheese as we watched the sunset.

Fish River Canyon



  We finally made it back to the hotel at 8.30pm and went straight into dinner. I decided to go native and had the oryx but it wasn’t that good – next time I’ll stick with steak or chicken.
My room had a bathroom plus an internal courtyard with outside shower, the bedroom then steps up to a kitchenette and covered balcony. Outside the main door were a series of hot spring pools for swimming, so as I said, it would have been a nice place to recover from a gruelling 14 hours on the road!