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| Fish River Canyon, full day canyon drive from Fish River Lodge |
We leave Fish River Lodge at 7 a.m. for the "full day canyon drive". Over the next seven hours, we will follow what should be the “only access route by vehicle” into Fish River Canyon descending approx. 500 m to the riverbed in a Toyota Land Cruiser.
For obvious reasons, this trip cannot be recommended if you are scared of hights. Most of the seven hours, we drive right along the edge of the gorge with free fall on one side! Thus, we are sneaking in low gear with diff lock on. On this route, you want the engine to hold the car back - not the brakes, which would overheat fast!
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| Full day canyon drive, Fish River Lodge |
Occasionally, we pass steep obstacles where we cannot see what is just on the other side of the top. It is an advantage that our driver and guide "Action" (!) has driven this route before.
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| Full day canyon drive, interesting track |
As we journey into the depths of the canyon, we witness first-hand the millions of years of geological upheaval when the earth’s continents separated, and tectonic movement resulted in the formation of the canyon. Petrified rippled mud and glacial deposits, dramatic fault lines, rough limestone, and shiny quartzite are some of the features we see along the way.
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| Fish River Canyon, geology |
Nearby, we are lucky to see Hartmann's mountain zebras (Equus zebra hartmannae) and a Klipspringer (Oreotragus oreotragus) along with other animals and birds.
Underway, we take small breaks at beautiful viewpoints!
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| Break, full day canyon drive |
The drive down ends at a permanent rock pool, where we swim and have lunch for one hour, before we head the same long way back to the Lodge!
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| Permanent rock pool, Fish River Canyon |
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| Swim, Fish River Canyon |
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| Fish! Fish River Canyon |
When we come back to the lodge after a long day, we swap from rock pool at the bottom of Fich River Canyon to the infinity pool at the top of Fish River Canyon!
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| Fish River Lodge, rim pool |
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| Resting by pool, Fish River Lodge |
We liked this activity very much, not the least because of the safe and careful driving by our guide Action, who also had to change a tire after only 10 mins drive!
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| Fish River Lodge |
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