Fish River Canyon
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| I'll say it straight off - trekking Fish River Canyon is not for the faint-hearted or unfit. It requires stamina and determination and it keeps taking when you think you have no more to give. Having said this, it is immensely rewarding when you finally make it back to Fish River Guest Farm on the fifth day. |  |
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The sense of isolation is overpowering - you are easily 150 miles from the nearest streetlight. At Camp 3, the previous three teams had reported a leopard and her cub sleeping within 100 m of them. Judging by the tracks the morning after, it would seem the same thing happened to us. |
| The section of the canyon we trekked is sometimes called the LowenFish, due to the fact that you start off in the Lowenriver and finish in the Fish River. We were unable to do the main trek from Hobas to Ai-Ais as that section was closed due to lack of water. |  |
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You need to be prepared for the elements; we started off the trek wearing waterproofs and trousers as it felt like the training expedition in Buxton in march and we even had rain on the first two nights! Fortunately, we had taken tent outer's and poles and set these up to shelter us from the wind and rain on the second night. |
| As I said earlier, this is a very hard trek but the feeling when you complete it is something you will probably never experience again; it's like all those happy times you've ever had rolled into one. The feeling as we walked up the hill to the bar (!) all holding hands, is almost indescribable. It has to be experienced to be believed. |  |
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