Day 2: 23 June
Namibia – Canon Lodge, Fish River Canyon
The only complaint Evan had about his room this morning was that there was a giant rock in it. His face relaxed into a smile and he gave a chuckle. Yvonne’s expression turned from one of shock into one of relief – all the rooms are built into the rocks and we loved it!
Having walked to our rooms late at night, we didn’t know what to expect. We woke up to vistas stretching beyond the Fish River Canyon. Everywhere you looked there was space, dotted with rocky outcrops that had a natural earthy orange glow to them, despite the overcast weather. Each of the 25 thatched suites are built into the granite boulders with natural stone walls.
The main lodge is an old farmhouse built in 1907 by two German brothers who had left the Schutztruppe and bought the 10 000 ha farm. In 1995 a group of businessman acquired a number of farms in the area to create a bigger conservation area now called the Gondwana Canon Park. Situated 20 km from the Fish River Canyon viewpoint, it was an obvious location to set up accommodation namely: Canon Lodge, Canon Roadhouse, Canon Village and Canon Mountain Camp.
We hit the breakfast buffet with a vengeance and tucked into some eggs and bacon (our last good meal was breakfast the day before). Yvonne came over to suggest an itinerary for the day. She was amazed to hear about our journey and how much ground we had to cover each day. She told us that we’d need to get to Windhoek or further if we wanted to get to Etosha in time for the shoe drop at 2 pm the next day. It’s a seven-hour journey to Windhoek from Canon Lodge and another five hours to Etosha from Windhoek.
We left Canon Lodge and headed towards the Fish River Canyon viewpoint. It’s not a far drive on a gravel road – absolutely fine for normal cars. The new viewpoint building is a beautiful structure which has information boards about the history and geography of the area as well as photography tips.
It was not what I had expected at all. I didn’t know what I expected but that wasn’t it. I had absolutely no concept of its enormity. Pictures don’t do it justice. It’s 160 km long, up to 27 km wide and 500 m deep. 350 million years ago a fault with a width of 20 km appeared and the river just meandered through it. It blows your mind. We spent two hours there. It’s worth driving up the road to the left of it for an even better view.
We had far to go but we just had to stop at the Canon Roadhouse. It’s an institution. It’s the cheeky neighbour of Canon Lodge. It’s full old cars and bits and bobs. It’s fabulous!
The next stop was Keetmanshoop to find a Namibian sim card and a data bundle so we could connect to the twitter universe. We left at 5 pm.
We still had five hours to go until we reached Windhoek and we didn’t know where we were going to crash for the night. All we really needed was our tents and a flat piece of land to set them up on – and maybe the lemon and herb chicken. Yum.
Enter our Bobs for Good Foundation competition by donating money for shoes that we’re dropping off on the Put Foot Rally and stand the chance of winning a three night stay in Livingstone.
Follow our trip on twitter @Evan_Haussmann @christiefynn @going_homeless @Put_Foot_Rally or search on Twitter for hashtag #putfootrally to see all the tweets from the rally teams.
The Getaway team would like to thank:
4×4 Mega World for their fully kitted out VW Amarok
K-Way – the official gear partner to the Getaway team on the Put Foot challenge
MapStudio for their Southern and East Africa map
