The Great TREK - #12

July the 12^th -  On our way to the 4^th Leg

Woke up feeling great after two wonderful nights at the place.

After a great breakfast, at our lodge, we prepared for the start of our 4th leg of this journey, back to South Africa and straight to the Tankwa Karoo National Park.

We stopped for coffee at the now famous Canyon Roadhouse before heading to the border, this time through the South Border and get our passports stamped again, and start our long drive back again, but we will be sleeping over in Okiep in the Namakwa district (Nama Khoi) which is a small town in the Northern Capeprovince of South Africa. In 1870's was ranked as having the richest copper mine in the world. 

We arrived at the Okiep Coutry Hotel at 16h00, so we just chilled at the room and waited for dinner as the driving is getting to us already.

Canyon Roadhouse

Pandora's Box

The famous "Pandora's Box" inside the men's restroom where my son opened to find out that the alarm siren is very loud indeed

Inside the Men's Restroom

Great coffee

Beautiful Scenery 

South African Road side Flora

Got this by the roadside 

Another specimen

 

Loooooong straight roads

Okiep Country Hotel Dinner

My 10 year old son's dinner. 350 grs T-Bone Steak. Ate it all

Lamb curry Potjie

The Great TREK - #11

July the 11^th -  Our 3^rd Leg

After a fabulous night in complete silence and a great hearty breakfast, we decided to go visit the second biggest canyon in the World, the Mighty Fish River Canyon. The road from the lodge to the "first" lookout point is all gravel and is about 20 km.

All in all we spent 3 hours at different lookouts with a 2 km hike included right along the cliff of the canyon (very scary moments, indeed). Brilliant place to come. Definitely coming back again, but with the rest of the family with a 4WD car (SUV).

Fish River Canyon

Fish River Canyon in Black & White

Local Inhabitant from the Canyon

Landscape on our way to the Canyon Lodge

Inside the Lodge Close to the Dining Room

One of the Barmen of the Lodge

Lovely lady from the Reception

Caught this Aloe just outside my room

Had the privilege to witness this Sunset, while on our "sunset" hike

Had the privilege to witness this Sunset, while on our "sunset" hike

Our guide and my son's new friend - Hosea

Simply beautiful landscapes

The Great TREK - #10

July the 10^th -  Our 3^rd Leg

We had an early farmer's breakfast at the lodge and decided to go to Keetmanshoop and visit the Quivertree forest (Kokerboom in Afrikaans) and the Giant's playground (Will understand the name from the photos I will publish).

The Giant's playground is both amazing and beautiful formations of the massive dolerite boulders and it is amazing how they are stacked up on each other done by nature.

Both the Quiver tree forest and the Giant's playground are found on the Gariganus Farm 157 that is situated about 20 km from Keetmanshoop.

The Quiver tree is only to be found in the North Western Cape and Southern Namibia and is not a tree but a plant being the Aloe Dichotoma. The trees can grow to be 200-300 years old with a base diameter of about 1 meter.

After visiting the Forest and the Giant's playground , we left to our final destination in Namibia, very close to the Fish River Canyon, where we stayed for 2 nights at the Canyon Village lodge, which is about 20km from the canyon itself. Arrived at 17h00 as the road, once again, was grovelled and we were riding a rented car (Fabulous VW Polo Vivo), unpacked the car, got ourselves into the lodge, relaxed a bit and went for dinner at 19h30.

I must say that this place is extremely quiet, excellent to unwind and relax.

Beautiful dead tree

Our lodge at Goibib Mountain Lodge

On our way to the Quiver tree forest

The quiver Tree Forest - Namibia

The Quiver tree Forest in Namibia

The Quiver tree Forest in Namibia

The bark of a Quiver tree

The Quiver tree Forest in Namibia

Beautiful ALOE

The Quiver tree Forest in Namibia

Giant's Playground 

Giant's Playground

Giant's Playground

Fish River Canyon

Way to the Fish River canyon

On our way to the Canyon lodge we came across this roadhouse - Simply beautiful

Canyon Roadhouse

Canyon Roadhouse

Canyon Roadhouse

Outside the Canyon Roadhouse

Outside the Canyon Roadhouse

The Canyon lodge

The Canyon lodge

 

The Canyon lodge

The view from outside our room.

The Great TREK - #9

July the 9^th -  Beginning of the 3^rd Leg

Did an early breakfast in the lodge so that we could prepare and leave for Namibia (our 3rd leg of our tour).

As we were packing the car from our cottage, my son got the fright of his life, as when he got to the cottage (around the corner from the car) he confronted a big male baboon inside ready to leave with our big bag of food on his hands. He called out for me, and I decided to chase this big baboon (big mistake), but oh boy, he turned around and made some weird sounds and showed his big teeth. All I did was shout while lifting my hands, so the baboon turned around and left. Adrenalin levels very high indeed. 

We left Augrabies with mixed feelings as my son said leaving this beautiful place "This would be perfect f mommy would be here". Well, we have to come back with some more time.

We crossed the Namibia border with no problems with everybody being very polite indeed.

Our first stop for the night was Goibib Mountain lodge were we arrived at 15h30.

One thing we have to remember, the distances in Africa are not the same as in Europe. we were averaging 400km per day therefore all these "stop overs" between the planned legs.

This was a great night at the Goibib and I thoroughly recommend it. We did a night drive (Private as it was just the two of us) on this 9000ha farm. We saw more wild game then in Augrabies, namely Kudu, Springbok, Oryx, Klipspringer, a couple of owls and obviously a beautiful sunset of the Karas Mountain range.

For dinnes we had the original Farm food (Boere kos) where my son enjoyed his dinner.

Again early to bed.

Again Long road streches

With some animals to be careful

Resting place on the side of the road

The way to the Namibian Border

Getting close to the Border

Goibib Mountain Lodge

Getting ready for the night drive

Some beautiful scenery

The Karas Mountain Range

 The Karas Mountain Range

The local worker and our trekker

My son playing with my camera - Nikon D600  

Beautiful Landscape

The sunset coming rapidly

 Namibian Sunset. Wow!!!