Namibia has impressed me very much - a number of our newer traveling companions not so much, but I hope that when I look back on Namibia it will be the landscape and its wildness that will linger in my memory, not the cumulative impact of traveling with people who you don't particularly gel with. We spent the night at Serisem camp site, in Namib desert to wake early and walk on the huge bright red dunes to watch the sunrise. The camp site was impressive and we had another spectacular sunset and star gazing opportunity and the night was particularly cold. We awoke at 4am and were on the truck to walk up the dunes at 5.30am. The dunes were very high and it was quite an effort walking up the steep ridges - Bernard felt more comfortable on the ground and took some amazing shots whilst I spent the morning on the top of the dune marveling at the wonders of the world.
After breakfast we were taken on a tour further into the desert - and ironically we were freezing cold rather than hot - we managed to arrive on one of the 15 days that the desert is covered in a thick fog. It made the walk pleasant but the drive into the desert unpleasantly cold. Our guide Buismen was an amazing man who knew the desert inside out - he showed us wildlife that lives happily in the desert, we saw the petrified forrest with trees over 900 years old, and he even encouraged us to run down the steep slope of the sand dune by throwing himself face first down the dune on his tummy - quite impressive for a man in his forties.
We left the desert for our camp on route to Fish River canyon, the second largest (not necessarily deepest) after the Grand Canyon. The Canyon was impressive but unfortunately our photos don't really do the place justice - the horizon was covered in a haze of dust - but it was lovely walking along the canyon edge (Bernard and I hung back to allow others to go out early) and it felt like we were alone which was equally lovely. We watched the sun set over the canyon whilst drinking some wine and returned to camp eager for an early night. The next day we headed to South Africa - only a few days left on our tour.
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