Fish River Canyon Hike

This walk is definitely not for the fainthearted and is described as one of the toughest in Southern Africa. Add to this the heat of the canyon, the limited water and the weight of your backpack as you carry your own precious food supplies, and you have the ingredients for a good but incredibly tough walking trail.

Itinerary

Day 1. Windhoek - Grunau (755 Km) From our starting point at Hosea Kutako International Airport, our Fish river canyon hike commences with a long drive as we travel through the rugged hills surrounding the bustling city of Windhoek. We start heading towards the southern parts of Namibia, where the land speaks of vast open spaces and magical vistas. We spend our first night in Namibia wisely, preparing for the second largest Canyon in the world and checking everything for the millionth time - after all, it is better to be safe than sorry. We stay over on a typical Namibian farm with pure Namibian hospitality.

Days 2 to 6

The starting point of our epic adventure is near Hobas. Here, we view the magnificent canyon before even descending into it. This first descent is relatively steep so we must move with caution. Once in the riverbed, the walking starts in earnest. The first two days consist more of boulder-hopping than walking, but by the end of day two, we should have reached the Palm Springs. Date trees grow around these sulphurous springs, which is what led to the very apt name ‘Palm Springs'. Camp is about one hour's walk from this landmark. After the third day, we reach the so-called "walking" area. The canyon starts to widen at this point and there are many more sandy stretches to negotiate. If you are starting to worry about water issues, don't. We will get all of our drinking water, as well as cooking water, from the river itself; many pools as such accompany us along most of the route.

The best time to start the descent from the Hobas view point is early morning. This will ensure you get enough time to get to the bottom of the canyon and allow for some distance to be covered in the afternoon. The descent is fairly steep with some twisting turns, but once halfway down it becomes easy. 

It is a well trodden footpath so easy to negotiate.

Once in the river the next obstacles for the following 5 days are sand and rocks. The sand is fairly loose, but if you follow in the tracks of previous groups, it becomes easier to walk on.

The first day of hiking will be slow, you will be getting used to hiking with a heavy rucksack and the sand underfoot is deep and loose. Don’t hope to cover a huge distant during this day. Just be sure to reach the bottom of the canyon and do at least another 4 hours hiking after lunch. As the canyon is still quite narrow here, your campsite will be close to the river, which in turn is good to fetch water from.

Day 2 will see you doing a lot more hiking. After some initial sandy stretches, you will come to an area in the river where you have to criss cross the river several times. Add to this that the crossing is mainly over rocks and some huge boulders, this will be time consuming but necessary. By the end of day 2 you will have to be in the vicinity of the Palm Springs. This is a nice spot to have a bath, but not necessarily for camping. Most people stop here, so it can be a bit crowded at times.

An early start is vital for the coming days. The heat in the canyon starts early, and there is not always a lot of shade to rest under.  During the course of the third day the canyon starts making huge turns or “bows” The footpaths will take you the shortest route and this usually means that you will cut out some of the turns in order to save some distance. The hiking becomes easier and the underfoot terrain is more stable with smaller rocks and less deep sand. The camp of day three is usually in the vicinity of a huge sandy slope that falls down into the river. Very scenic campsite.

The fourth day will be even more turns and bows, but luckily there are some short cuts incorporated during this stretch. This is also a very scenic stretch with a lot of stunning rock formations and beautiful vistas.
The shortcuts are not that well defined, so the best advice would be to stick to the well trodden footpaths, as these will take you right to the shortcuts. The first shortcut starts with quite a climb, but once on top of the mountains the view is spectacular. Following game tracks the route leads down into the river and straight to the next shortcut. Passing four finger rocks and the German war grave, one will see that the canyon is much wider now than in the beginning.  Sadly there are also more rocks to negotiate as you cross the river from time to time. The campsite for day 4 is another stunning little beach right next to the river.  Crossing a lot of rocks this little beach just provides the sort of campsite to signal the closing stages of the hike.

On day five the canyon can become confusing at times. There are some roads present now, used by Nature Conservation officials.  Do not get side tracked by them, and stick to the well used footpaths. The last bit towards Ai-Ais can be tiring, as there is not much shade until you are very close to Ai-Ais. The main focus area here is to keep walking, even at a slow pace. About 4 kilometre from Ai-Ais the terrain changes in totality again. Thick stands of trees and bushes line the river banks, and the footpaths swerve and follow the path of least resistance. Once at the dam wall, the end is in sight. Ai-Ais is a welcome sight to tired bodies, which I have seen and witnessed on quite a few occasions.

 Day 7. Grunau - Windhoek (750 Km)

A good hearty breakfast of toast, bacon and eggs will see us through this day. We leave the farm shortly after breakfast and drive back to Windhoek. This drive will most probably feel quite luxurious after having walked 80 kilometres through both sand and water - a feat anyone can be proud of!

The airport marks the end of this Namibian adventure, and goodbyes said may be tearful. But, worry not, for these will not be final goodbyes. We are sure that you will be back for more of this absolutely wonderful country!  

Images

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Quiver Tree

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