Hello all,

It's just after August options expiration and I'm quite tired, so I'm going to keep this week's travel posting short and sweet.

Today's subject is the barrenly spectacular Fish River Canyon in southern Namibia. These pictures are from February, 2005. (I realize I haven't given dates on my prior postings!)

Thanks to www.lonelyplanet.com for the following map:

Fish River Canyon is the second longest canyon in the world. Its geological history is quite incredible. Much of the visible rock is between one and two billion years old, having been exposed over time beginning with the canyon's initial formation about 600 million years ago and continued formation as recently as 120 million years ago with the final breakup of the supercontinent of Gondwana into Australia, India, South America, Africa, and Antarctica.

You can read more about Fish River Canyon here:
http://www.brainyencyclopedia.com/encyclopedia/f/fi/fish_river_canyon.html

We flew into Fish River Canyon area, landing at the Cañon Lodge's private air strip. Here was our view on the way in:

The Cañon Lodge itself is a nice hotel which is the main place to stay when visiting the area, much of which is privately owned. Here is their web page:
http://www.gondwanapark.com/clodge_e.html

Here was my room:

As usual in Namibia, the food and drink were quite good and the staff were generally friendly and helpful. We took a few moments to set up this artsy photo - Barman and shadow guests at Canon Lodge:

We took some time walking around the upper rim of the Canyon. Given what happened to my brother, I generally didn't get too close to the edge, but still the scene is so spectacular that one often takes a chance to get the best view.

Here is what we saw:

Day hikers are not allowed down into the canyon, but from late autumn to early spring (May to September) it's possible to do multi-day treks, camping next to the river. Of course, visitors tend to produce trash and here was a rather poetic suggestion of what to do with trash as well as an example of someone unclear on the concept:

One of the treasures of the area is the Quiver Tree (Aloe dichotoma). Here is a spectacular picture by Marsel Van Oosten, courtesy of the galleries at www.nikonians.org:

And finally, we got another great view on our flight out:

All in all Fish River Canyon is a spectacular place to visit, though you only need two or three days. If you're going by car instead of by plane, it's questionable as to whether it's worth the very long drive unless this sort of scenery is what you live for. But once you get there, you'll be glad you did.