Route of the day
All points shown were part of the original itinerary. Not all were visited — decisions made along the way are a natural part of any expedition. We kept them on the map in case you wish to explore them yourself.
What we lived
We started early, watching the sunrise over breakfast at Gondwana Anib, before heading to the nearby town of Mariental to get the flat tyre properly replaced at a workshop.
From there we continued to Garas Park, home to the Quiver Trees. They stopped us in our tracks — tall, golden-barked, with branches that fork and fork again until they end in dense rosettes of yellow-green leaves, like someone had placed the top of a pineapple at the tip of every branch. Unlike anything we had seen before.
The road then led us to Keetmanshoop, where a workshop recommended by AfriCar checked over our radios. After that, came a long stretch of tarred road, followed by the final kilometres to Fish River Lodge — a slow, rocky track made up of large boulders that requires care and patience to avoid another puncture. It is worth every minute. For four of our five, arriving at the lodge and stepping out to find the Fish River Canyon stretching endlessly before them was one of the highlights of the entire trip. The rooms look directly onto it. In total, 440 kilometres that day. In the evening we went on a short walk, watched the sunset, and ended the day with a wonderfully refined dinner.
Photo of the day
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Video
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Our tips
If travelling in a group with AfriCar vehicles, test the radios thoroughly before leaving Windhoek, not just in the car park. Ours worked at 1–2 km during the workshop test, but an hour of rough road later they were only reaching a few metres. Worth flagging early.
Did you know?
The Quiver Tree (Aloidendron dichotomum) is found only in southern Namibia and the Northern Cape of South Africa — and Namibia is home to the vast majority. They can grow up to 10 metres tall and live for over 300 years. Their name comes from the San people, who hollowed out the branches to make quivers for their arrows. The Quiver Tree Forest near Keetmanshoop was declared a national monument of Namibia in 1995. The species is currently classified as Vulnerable due to climate change.
Tomorrow we head to...
Day at Fish River Canyon