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Hikes / Fish River Canyon: Get hooked on the Fish

There are long stretches where you have to clamber over rocks - where a hiking pole comes in handy.

Taken by Dawie Verwey

Rocky patch

There are long stretches where you have to clamber over rocks - where a hiking pole comes in handy.

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Fish River Canyon: Get hooked on the Fish

By Esma le Roux
Published 10 October 2012

On the Fish River Trail you cover about 80km in five days. On Southern Africa"s other prime trails (Otter, Amatola, Outeniqua) you sleep in wooden huts and can often take a hot shower. But on this trail there are no facilities. You drink from the river and sleep on the sand. You carry your own groundsheet, mattress, food...

A two-hour wait at the start of the hike, while your expedition partners take the vehicles to Ai-Ais, gives you a chance to admire the canyon from above.

Depending on how much it has rained, you"ll have to cross the river during your hike - in a wet year, about 20 times.

Start walking early, so you can rest in the shade in the midday heat. Make sure you reach the camp site before dark so you can have a bath in the last rays of the sun.

The days are long and hot but the nights are chilly, perfect for a camp fire. Start to look for driftwood as you approach camp.

Make time on the third day to wallow in the hot water of the sulphur spring.

There are long stretches where you have to clamber over rocks - where a hiking pole comes in handy.

The landscape reminds you of the Wild West, and there are even wild horses in the canyon. All that"s missing is tumbleweed...

By the time you start to feel thirsty, you might already be dehydrated.

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