Marsh Multinational Hiked the Fish River Canyon

It was a chilly morning but everyone felt pretty cheerful – well… certainly in comparison to the 2 mornings before. Gavin produced some flapjacks & dried mango from his bag of tricks so we were saved from another day of ProNutro. We’d woken early as we knew we had to have a big push today if we were to finish in time for lunch on Day 5 (Jen still thought there was absolutely no chance of this!).

Martin & Gavin set off first again, followed by Chris and Shannen and then Kevin & Jen.

The boys were feeling a little delicate so they had a little lie in….

The terrain as we set off was fantastic, no sand or boulders in sight. Obviously this didn’t last but it was glorious while it did! We trotted along, looking for scorpions under rocks as we went and enjoying the sun rising above the mountains.

We were all flying along on the solid ground and Martin soon hit the 40km mark, rapidly followed by Jen & Kevin. Still not quite halfway there but there was light at the end of the tunnel…

The boys, recovered from their hangovers as only 18 year olds can, soon caught up with and overtook us. We had a look at the map, tried not to look at how many more river bends there were ahead and kept going.

We were soon back into sand and boulders but nothing could get us down today. We played the ‘favourites’ game, we played the ‘death row meal’ game, we debated at length the best flavour of Doritos….

Gavin, trying to strike up a conversation with his walking partner, asked, “Do you prefer the sand or the boulders, Martin?”.

Martin replied, “When I’m on the sand I prefer the boulders, and when I’m on the boulders, I prefer the sand… but I’m not sure that ‘prefer’ is the word I would use….“

Then something amazing happened. The path lead us into a lush valley which we walked along, pushing through tall grasses. Suddenly, we stumbled upon 4 men in blue overalls carrying big bottles of fresh water. It could well have been a mirage but they filled up our canteens for us and then jogged off into the distance. Drinking fresh water for the first time in 4 days, even tepid fresh water, was quite something!

100 metres on we met Gavin and Martin who had also been watered and were VERY happy, although Martin had made the mistake of offering a cigarette to one of the water boys and reluctantly had had to part with 4!

Amazingly, after this, we got to the 50km mark relatively quickly and here we decided to stop for another Kevin Walker gastronomic experience.. This time salami AND biltong.. we were being spoilt.

It was rather hot but we had lots of water so managed to not choke on today’s dry crackers and were soon feeling revitalised enough to set off again.

After lunch, we actually left the riverbed and followed the trail up the side of the Canyon. This was steep but made a nice change from boulders & sand. We got to the top, saw some kudu antlers, went back down the other side, got back onto the sand. Crossed the river, back up another steep side.

Although the walking was relatively tough and the sun was high the group at the front were making good headway (3 boys, Jen, Martin, Gavin). We didn’t realise that the three behind were suffering quite a bit. There were lots of blisters, rucksack rubbing and Kevin’s ankle had been getting consistently worse as he chattered nonsense and didn’t look where he was going, tripping over rocks regularly.

Our other slight issue was we’d been so overexcited by clean water that we were running low again and there was not a drop of water in sight. The Canyon often felt like the driest place on earth! No amount of water or lip salve could stop you feeling like a dried prune at all times!

Suddenly, from a distance, we heard the boys shouting, “Water!” and pointing. We squinted against the sun and spotted a big orange water tower at the top of a mega slope. Looked like that was the way we were going to have to go. Martin Pugh POWERED up that slope, I’ve never seen anything like it! The water tower was so big that the water coming out of it felt quite cold, ABSOLUTE LUXURY. Martin smiled for the first time since we entered the Canyon.

We waited at the top for the others. The boys, bored of more waiting around, scrambled to the top of the hill and back down again.

Shannen & Chris arrived at the top, panting. Very excited about the cold-ish water though.

Kevin was quite a way behind. He had been lagging, claiming that it was only because his backpack was the the heaviest of the lot but by the time he got to the top he was absolutely f***ed. It was Shannen’s turn to say cheerily, “There must be suffering!“.

For most of the hike Kevin had been supporting Martin and supplying him with water / Game. This was a really nice moment as for once Martin was able to give him water, “Drink more Kev, drink more“.

On we went.

The next excitement was hitting the first two landmarks from the map that we actually recognised – Four Finger Rock & the German Soldier’s Grave. Not much to be said about either but a photo op nonetheless.

Crossing the next sandy river bed we could tell that the boys were bored again of the slow pace so we sent them off up an animal trail running steeply up the side of the Canyon. We went the sensible way around, but on the other side they were nowhere to be seen. We carried on for a bit but no sign of the boys and we couldn’t spot their footprints either (we’d become quite adept trackers by this point). Kevin tried to be cool but suddenly could hear the boys’ parents voices in his head, “I can’t believe you abandoned our sons in the Namibian desert….“

In a panic, he sent us ahead and swiftly doubled back, scaling halfway up the sandy side of the Canyon and shouting their names.

Luckily, the advance party suddenly spotted three bare chested figures wandering in from the right flank. There were some sense of humour failures and muttering about the rules of hiking in a group, but we managed to get Kevin back down and we carried on with the boys meekly following behind Kevin.

By this point in the hike, Martin had really had enough and was leading from the front, with Jen in tow, the thought of that first beer powering him on. The others were a bit further back as Shannen had hit some sort of day 4 wall and was totally delirious and being fed jelly babies by Gavin.

He and Jen were the first to get to the road which marks 70 kilometres and is the second ‘Emergency Escape’ from the Canyon. Here, on the map, it had promised us ‘The Pink Palace’. This had conjured up visions of a salmon-coloured Indian-style edifice, or at the very least something you’d find on the strip in Zante Town.

The concrete hut that greeted us fell rather short of the mark. There were also some tents next to it, where the water boys presumably stay when they are on duty. There was a bit of a racket coming from by the tents which Martin went to investigate and discovered a large baboon interfering with our heroes’ tents. The baboon took one look at a sweaty, dusty Martin Pugh brandishing a pole and ran for his life.

When Gavin caught up with us he was BESIDE HIMSELF that he’d not had the opportunity to put his new catapult into action, and scanned the horizon feverishly. Sadly, the baboon was nowhere to be seen.

It was now 4.30pm and we found ourselves on a bit of a dusty plain with no water (for a change) so it was decided we would go on about another 2km to what showed on the map as a camping spot.

Spirits were high as we cruised into our last camping spot of the week, and what a spot it was – good tree/bush cover, soft sand, a nice green pond for ablutions. The wind had died down. We set up camp. Gavin, Jen & Shannen set up a blister treatment station, everyone else went for a dip. Life was good.

Shortly after that video, the sun dropped like a stone behind the mountains and the wind picked up and changed direction! Suddenly, we were set up in absolutely the wrong position but there wasn’t much we could do about it so we set up the kitchen with a makeshift wall of a camping mat and two walking poles (poles, so useful!!!) and huddled around.

Please see above for the only photo of the shi*t spade we managed to take…

There were no secrets in the Fish. Every time you saw someone wander up to that spade, you knew exactly what was going on.

Wine and rum finished, Kevin had set in on the Grant’s whisky and started telling jokes, ‘egged’ on by Shannen (please all feel free to ask K to tell you his Egg joke….. it’s a cracker). More salami was chopped for the evening’s dehydrated dinner – Ethiopian Dahl.

While eating supper, plans were made for the next morning. We would be getting up when the sun came up, packing up and cracking on to make our 11am date with a cold pint of lager. Kevin had his eyes firmly on Jen’s £100 but she was (sadly) feeling confident that there was no chance they would make it to the end before the afternoon. Things could be worse though given that on the first night she had been convinced they wouldn’t make it out of the Canyon until after their flight home had departed!

Anyway, *surprise, surprise* the wind got stronger (Remember, there is no wind in the Fish!!!) and suddenly we were in a full blown sandstorm. The camp that set up for ourselves was no longer sheltered at all as the wind was now coming down the Canyon, rather than up.

Gavin and Martin refused to move, got into their sleeping bags, pulled / zipped them over their heads and went to sleep. The boys had dug themselves another triple bed pit so they weren’t going anwhere. Jen was on the verge of really losing it for the first time of the trip so Kevin had to do a recce and find her a special patch of sand that was sheltered by a special bush and didn’t look like it had any snakes/spiders/scorpions (delete as appropriate) living in it. She was gracious enough to acquiesce that it was a very superior sleeping spot and then dug her hip hole and bedded down for the night.