Walkies on Table Mountain: Kamgab Canyon

29 July 2011

Kamgab Canyon

Dear Coco

We are now into the fourth day of our trip. It is quite chilly in the mornings so I take a while to get out of my comfy sleeping bag, and this morning was no exception. After coffee and rusks, we packed up our tent and

said goodbye to the Namaqua Hunting Dog - who you can just see in this photo of the Orange River looking towards the Groot Melkboom- and set off again into the desert,

stopping only to admire the amazing flora - like this little Acanthopsis disperma growing on a quartz koppie,

and this Ceraria namaquensis which has strange fat leaves growing in clusters on odd, slightly raised, black patches on the bark.

We even found fairy rings - as good as the Namibian ones!

To get to our next campsite, we had to tackle the Kamgab Canyon which was quite challenging.

We stopped for lunch halfway down where once again we were surrounded by beautiful flowers like this Cleome.

After lunch is was hard driving all the way, which everyone managed with ease.

Peter and Ian were in for a rude shock when we got down to the river as the beautiful campsite they had been promising us had been washed away in the devastating floods earlier this year. So we had to do another Plan B, and one of the cars got stuck in the soft sand on the way to another glorious campsite chosen by our able leaders, so the Alph had to help out and pull the Fowld's trailer up for them - with Peter directing.

The next day we had a lazy day at the river, starting with a slap-up brunch and gin and tonics! So you can imagine it wasn't a very productive day although I did try to do some proofreading.

That night we all decorated the table with white quartz and thorny leaves, red wine and silver goblets, candles and camelthorn pods. It looked quite splendid. The Alph made a fire and Ian and Peter cooked some beef fillet,

interrupted occasionally by some car stuff.

The meal eventually got going - and no, Meryl Streep didn't join us - that is Angela.

Robert had to make a satellite phone call to sort out a few car things - so you can see that even though we were deep in the bush, we were maintaining very civilized standards!