Time for another Fish River Canyon post, part of the reason why the blog posts are taking so long to roll out is that I really don’t want it all to end. Hiking the Fish River Canyon is one of those life changing events. But, slowly does it, I will keep the posts flowing the Fish River Canyon and put a complete guide together right at the end.
The Night Sky was as fantastic as expected…
But even more spectacular to wake up to an eclipse of the moon… WOAH!!!
And then sun’s up and we were up.
Definitely learning the lay of the camping-out-land and by this morning my bag was packed and I was up timeously and ready for a new adventure.
With a fabulous Forever Fresh breakfast to send me on my way. Just add water… and literally five minutes later… all those apples and blueberries are good to go. Honestly, freeze dried or hydrated, the fruity breakfasts are absolutely fabulous to munch on.
We were off to a great start of sand…
And rock…
And the beautiful river… and sand…
And more bouldering… as far as the eye can see…
Intrigued by the weird and wonderful plants…
And plenty of proof that we weren’t alone…
And every single stone uniquely created.
And this was our first real river crossing… pretty much a tiny little jump and for some reason I thought I should keep my feet dry and well… bloops found myself and my pack sitting in the water. Probably the best thing that could have happened… fall on the first crossing and you definitely don’t have to worry too much about getting wet there on out.
Lunch in the shade…
With a view…
And then we reached the first escape…
One would have to climb up the canyon slope and out…
And it was at this moment that I realised that my heart and soul were totally to commited to hiking this canyon through… no matter what.
There was still a long long trudge left to go…
Sand and stones and sand and stones on repeat… and I was still feeling the burden of being by faaaaar the slowest hiker in the group, and as the day wore on the niggle at my confidence became something I was truely battling to ignore…
We started to have short interludes of gravel. Turns out I really can hike on gravel… but at this waning stage in the day, it was a bit of a too little too late scenario.
And by the time I got to these trees, and I cannot imagine how long the rest of the team had waited in that little bit of shade, I literally conked. Boom, I was done with the day – and totally done. And it is in moments like these that you learn life lessons… I knew we weren’t far from where we were headed for the day – I knew it, and still I just could not want to go further. I was literally done.
All day I had been catching up with the group and as I got there they were well rested, a happy “howdi” and they bounced off again. Perhaps if I had been keeping up I would have heard about their aches and pains, but by the time I caught them, they were always full of bounce and good to go.
I had really had enough for the day, I was tired… tired of deciding where to put my feet, and at this stage tired of wondering “if we were there yet…” I knew we were headed for the Palm Springs, and I had read that quite a few people get there on their first night… (how even?!?!) and I was really concerned at this stage that I was holding the team back, not by hours but by days… literally days.
Here’s the Life Lesson for Day 2: And my biggest life lesson ever… when the going gets tough, and I want to quit… it means that the end is in sight. Quite literally, the end is in sight. We had less than a km to go and here I was telling myself that I didn’t have to go on if I had had enough… Well good company and story telling got me through to the Palm Springs…
Our campsite for the night had this little stream into the river…
In the middle of a desert, in the least expected place… a hot sulphur spring…
Oh the heady joy…
Not to mention the instantaneous and complete revival that I experience whenever I get the chance to be in water… what can I say… this is the perfect hike for me. Basically hot, rugged and exhausting… but early on in the season there is plenty of water for recovery swims. By the time I was getting into my sleeping bag I was mentally and physically back on track. I tell you the truth, after an evening floating about in the Hot Springs I was ready for anything and after that, things only got better!!!
Ready to watch the moon rise…
And the canyon light up, and the starry night sky…
Click on the Image Below to See Photographs from Day 2 to the Hot Springs.
