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The Fish River Canyon is one of the largest canyons in the world. Originally formed as a wide, meandering canyon following a geological fault, it became much deeper 120 million years ago as Gondwanaland separated and the African continent rose up creating fast flowing rivers that cut through the bedrock.
Now this huge canyon can be walked taking 4 days to cover the 85km. We fly it in half an hour!
The Kuiseb canyon in the middle of the country is not as huge but just as spectacular. Also whereas the Fish River has many visitors we land by the canyon in the middle of the desert with no one around for a hundred miles.
The cliffs (left) show a dramatic unconformity with recent evaporites overlaying ancient schists and sandstones. Two German explorers, Henno Martin and Hermann Korn hid out in the canyon for two years to escape internment during World War 2. Amazingly they lasted 2 1/2 years before handing themselves in.
Further west the amazing Ugab formations expose extremely folded sediments created over a billion years ago during the Damara mountain building as the Congo and Kalahari cratons collided to create one of the earliest continents.
As you travel north from here you enter a red landscape formed by the Etendeka lavas - vast expanses of Dolerites and basalts created by the igneous activity during the separation of Africa from South America - the break up of Gondwanaland. We camp here at Kwidas one night.
Finally heading back to Windhoek you pass Erongo mountain - a huge granite pluton and the remains of a giant volcano - it now forms a geological ring complex. Erongo was not formed during a mountain building phase but on a crustal weak point. Other granite plutons in the area include the Spitzkoppe (left) which has the best climbing in Namibia. Click the boys for some images of us on our travels...