Africa Journal Part 2: Cape Town to Orange River

Day 4 Oct. 10

Today began with us in Cape Town meeting up with our GAP tour members. There were about 16 of us and we met our guide Andries and our driver John. We were travelling in a huge Africa-overland truck named Stevie.

Driving North from Cape Town we went through beautiful countryside. Rolling hills with wheat farms lining the valleys. In the far east we saw a large ridge of jagged and craggy peaks rising and following us North.

We came through a pass of about 600 meters and then we were in the Cederberg Mountains. The foothills were filled with naturally sculpted sandstone. Little towns with strange Germanic Afrikaans names clung to the base of rocky outcroppings and mountains that rose behind.

We came to Citrusdal where we stopped for wine tasting. I didn't take part but people had fun. The real treat of the day came after we reached our campsite. We were offered a guided hike into the Cederberg hills with "Skookie" a local who grew up in the hills.

Skookie had an infectious way of talking that made you more enthralled as he went along. He took us from bush to bush telling us of the various shrubs and bushes his people used for remedies, glue, and all manner of uses.

He told us great stories about how the Puff Adder is a lazy snake and snores when it sleeps. Or how the Baboon thinks it has stolen 7 oranges and put them under his arm when in reality he has stolen only one while the others rolled away from his arm with each new prize. He showed us ants and birds whose actions were harbingers of rain.

At one point he walked off into the bush and returned with a desert tortoise (the peed on anyone who tried to pick it up) and a baby scorpion. Skookie truly was a man of the mountains and he made the hike unforgettable.

Day 5 Oct. 11

Today has been a day of contrasting desert scenery. We left the Cederberg Mountains behind us early on and headed into flat semi-desert plains covered in low-lyingbluish-green and grey scrub.

This gave way to rolling desert hills covered in rocky outcroppings with no trees in sight. The variation and the landscapes were quite striking.

At one point we travelled between mountains that were just immense piles of sandy boulders. The regions we drove through were barren and without water. As we neared the Namibian border I saw a range of high hills that looked like heaps of black ash piled amongst the beige-coloured scrub.

At the border crossing the temperature broke 45 degrees C, a new record for me. The mountains on the way to our campsite were deep red-coloured spires jutting from conical slopes, kind of a smaller version of Monument Valley. I can't believe I'm going trekking in this land.

We're camped at the Orange River right now and I think I'll take an after-dinner swim.

Day 6 Oct. 12

The swim last night in the Gariep or Orange river that divides S. Africa from Namibia was unbelievably refreshing. I really have to get back into swimming; and I'm glad there's going to be a pool at the Zebra River Lodge.

It's been as hot as ever today and a bunch of the group went on a canoe trip. I chose to stay back in camp and go for a quick hike back into the hills skirting the rusty-red and purple rock mountains behind the camp. It was hot and I trucked along to start getting used to this weather for the trekking I'm going to be doing in the Naukluft ranges.

I got a few good wide shots with my new lense. My hat and glasses shielded me quite well from the heat.

When I turned to come back I noticed a huge swarm of large threatening insects approaching. I scampered away and the swarm moved off (the guide said later on that it was probably African bees).

This country has a stark and dry beauty that burns its way into your consciousness along with the heat. The canoers are back, we're getting ready to leave. More to follow.

----

We drove a great ways across the Namib desert for the remainder of the day to Fish River Canyon. It was mailes and miles of hot scrubby plains with cinder-flaked mountains rising up. The country has a foreboding beauty that invites the eye of the photographer but warns the traveller against reckless passage.

Many times today in the heat I imagined how easily one could perish on those ashen plains.
This evening we're going down to the canyon to see the sunset.