Saturday 6th April 2013

L: I discovered this morning that I had a semi-circle of teeth marks on my ankle which I now realise has been there for a week and can only be the result of a bite from a fish or an eel at Kamgab river mouth. I was wondering if this has been the cause of me being sick, possibly blood poisoning, but I am feeling so much better now.

S: Into the Richtersveld Park at last. I have been wanting to do this for ages. We have a relatively short drive today, 47kms which should take us about 3 hours. This first part of the road is quite good gravel, but then it becomes real two track when we hit Half-mens pass. No two mountains are the same. Some look like a pile of boulders, while others have mounds of what looks like shale, with shale slides and weird formations.

It is like no landscape that we have seen before.  You are inclined to stop every now and again because there is something new or different that you want to record.  There are some open plain areas which are a little boring especially with the extremely corrugated tracks.  But then, you spot a southern pale chanting goshawk, but wait, there are two of them on the same bush.  The majesty of nature is incredible and we stopped at a place where there is the imprint of a huge hand on the side of a rock, called The Hand of God.

We spotted some klipspringers, which was quite a feat as they were so well camouflaged amongst the brown rocks. 

We saw several lizards, mainly on Akkedis Pass (meaning lizard pass) and birds, but not much else.  The area is mainly known for the vast variety of succulent plants as well as all types of arid-growing vegetation. 

We were surprised to see water from a spring in the otherwise dry gorge leading down to our campsite on the Orange River, called De Hoop Rest Camp.  L:  We even have ablutions with flushing toilets, cold showers and wash-up place.  Wow.

S:  Did we say it was HOT here??  We arrived at about midday and spent the rest of the day swimming in the lovely cool river and fishing.  L:  For Steve it was ….ing, but I managed to catch 7 little yellow fish in  sweetcorn pieces!

I took the plunge and went down a little series of rapids on a inner tube that we found on the beach.  It was a lot of fun, but Lesley was being cautious as the river is so fast-flowing.

Eventually we packed up from our fishing area, close to the river to make way for another couple that arrived, who live in Brackenfell, Cape Town, but are originally from Russia.  They were kind enough to give us 2 naartjies, which were a treat as no fresh fruit and vegetables here except for tomatoes.

We have parked the bakkie further up the river bank as Lesley is not wanting to worry about another flash flood like we had when we were at the Kamgab River mouth.

We braaied or warmed our chops that Lesley had braised last night and had sammies on the fire and took stunning photos of the views and you guessed it, birds……

One of the highlights of camping like this, is the amazing view of the stars in the sky every night.  I can sit for hours, star-gazing even though I do not know much about the galaxies etc.

Night.  Starry night.