Fish River Canyon

After nearly dying (I’m not being melodramatic) on the Naukluft hiking trail; myself and eleven friends decided to go Fish River Canyon, which is the world’s second largest canyon. I wore my running shoes instead of my hiking boots hoping that my feet would fare better than they did at Naukluft. The first day we made the descent into the canyon I learned a very important lesson. I don’t rock climb because of a horrible fear of heights. At Fish River Canyon I learned that heights are a relative term and I don’t like places that are great depths either. I was one of the slowest people down the near vertical descent. The first day involved a lot of light bouldering over large rock slides. After a few hours of hiking it became very apparent that twelve people might be too much diversity in hiking. By the end of the first day the six of us who also hiked Naukluft had descended and gone 10km. The rest of the group had not and didn’t meet up with us at night. This creates a problem because I was sharing a tent with a person who didn’t meet up and food with a girl who didn’t show up. I had the stove, gas, and Martin had food so we ate but she had to bum food off another group member. Day two came and we took a leisurely morning waiting for the other group. They caught up and we agreed on a hiking strategy. The front group would stop at 11am and wait for the others to catch up (likely around 12) so we can all eat lunch together. The group started hiking and this time broke into three groups. Three members sped ahead, myself, Martin and Kim held back and helped the final six who were having problems with blisters, pack size, and bad knees. The three of us hiked in front but always stayed in sight and were always careful to help and give advice about easy paths to those behind us. The three of us made it to the front group at 12:15pm after leaving the back group at a river crossing. The back group caught up at 1:30pm because they decided to stop for lunch. It was decided at lunch that four people (the four fastest were a food group) would finish the hike in four days and the rest of us in 5. Martin and I stayed behind in the slow group because of our other food group member. By the end of the day the slow group had made it to roughly the 27km point of a 90km hike. Day three I realized there were several people in the group I didn’t want to hike with. I have no problem carrying food or gas or anything that will help that will help the group but, if someone has packed too many personal/unnecessary items, I won’t carry that for you. At that point it’s your own fault for your problems. By the end of day three I was worried. We hadn’t made it to the 50km marker and we only had two days of food and gas left. Some in the group talked about turning it into a six day hike and I was very against that idea. Had they tried I would’ve walked alone and done it in five if I had to. Luckily for us day four had several short cuts and we were able to take those all the way to the 80km marker though we really only walked about 18km. Day four was great because it put us all at ease. I wasn’t the only one worrying and we nearly split a second time. At the end of day four we found a nice sandy beach that we camped on and I went for a swim. Day five was an easy hike about 10km to Ai-Ais. We were in by about 9:15 The first group was supposed to wait and meet us to discuss transport out. they were gone by the time we arrived because they got a ride with some people from NWR (Namibia Wildlife…) and arranged for a combi to take the rest of us. Some people were pretty upset they didn’t wait for us but I didn’t care much. I was pretty happy that we made it to the end without me skipping any meals. However after Naukluft and Fish River Canyon I seem to have lost another 10 pounds or so. It’s hard to keep up caloric intake if you have to carry all your food. On the other hand, I’ve been eating like a mad man since coming back. On another awesome note, my friend Matt Flick has return to Peace Corps after being medically separated for seven months. We’re all pretty happy to have him back.

Naukluft

For the start of the holiday I hiked with some friends on the Namib-Naukluft hiking trail. It’s a 120km hike in the Desert Mountains with searing hot temperatures during the day and freezing temperatures at night. The first day was pretty easy with some light hiking (15km) around some hills. There’s a shelter between 14 and 18 kilometers each day hike. The shelters are four foot high walls with a roof but a noticeable gap between the walls and the roof. Day two is when the trouble started. I had a few hot spots (spots that will likely blister) on my feet at the end of day one but nothing too bad. I had one on the back of my heel and the balls of my feet each had one. Day two is when I noticed that my hiking boots from Florida might be great for hiking on the soft ground in Florida but they weren’t up to standard for a semi dried river bed full of sharp, jagged rocks. By the end of day two I had two popped blisters, one on each foot. I started taping my feet to provide a bit more protection but the chains were difficult. When I say chains, I’m referring to chains set up by the park service that help you climb up and down rock faces. Most of these inclines are about a 75 degree angle and the chains aren’t entirely necessary but they’re helpful for people like me who are terrified of heights. The rest of the days passed without incident. We woke around 430am everyday and broke camp by 530am so we could hike before it became too hot, we finished before noon most days. However, we decided to do the eight day hike in seven days by combining the last two days into one 30km day. We woke at 330am and left camp by 430am. We started up a mountain and nearly reached the top by sunrise. This is considered one of the hardest days because it has one kilometer of chains to assist you going up the mountain. We agreed no chains in the dark but the sun was rising when we reached the first set. The only difficult one was up a waterfall. It wasn’t a fast flowing waterfall but it made the chains wet and there was slippery green moss on the rock making foot holds difficult. To add to our problems, baboons were occasionally dropping rocks down on us. None of us got hit but it certainly scared us. We pressed on for several more hours. I started struggling when we reached a dry river bed for (what seemed like) the hundredth time. The sharp volcanic rocks were cutting my feet. To make matters worse it was hot. Really hot. I drank four liters of water that day but by the end of the hike I was down to my last 1.5 liters and I needed to conserve some. I became pretty dehydrated. When I finally walked into the shelter (I was the last person) I had difficulty walking a straight line, felt like vomiting, and felt extremely cold despite the hot sun. I drank oral rehydration salts and rested. I was, by far, the worst off in the group, though we all had aches and pains on the last day. The following day I noticed that one of the blisters on my left foot looked infected. I was still pretty dehydrated so I got a second opinion and she agreed it looked infected. So I sliced it open with my pocket knife and drained the pus out. When I got back to Rehoboth I soaked my foot in a bucket with salt water. I’m supposed to hike Fish River Canyon (a much easier hike) in about 4 days but I’m not sure if I will. I need to see if my feet can recover fast enough.