Road to Fish River Canyon, Namibia
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Sunset at River Crossing Lodge
Hello, Namibia. Our first stop upon arriving in the country was River Crossing Lodge which was just 20 minutes from Windhoek International Airport making it a great base to stay a night before embarking on a massive road trip adventure. It was here that I met all the other people on our trip with the Canon Collective and we spent a night here for a little introduction.
On our way to River Crossing Lodge, we had our first glimpses of local wildlife. Baboons would sit by the road and the odd kudu or oryx would be standing in the distance. I hadn't heard of many African animals before and this was just the beginning of so many more wildlife we would be seeing over the next three weeks! When you stay in Namibia, most of the time you are staying in very low population density areas which means you're more likely to see more wildlife than people around you. If you leave the door to your lodge open when you leave, you might just come back to a baboon rummaging through your stuff.. #truestory (it happened to someone in our tour group!).
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Sunrise at River Crossing Lodge
The first thing I noticed about the country was just how clear and pastel blue the skies were. Because of the dryness of the country, the dust in the air turns the sky into this dreamy blue, no filters needed! However when it rains, the dust settles and it becomes the deep blue as we know it in Australia.
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Road to Fish River Canyon
We embarked early morning around 7:30am for Fish River Canyon. The drive to Fish River Canyon from Windhoek is about nine hours and for nine hours, we barely saw another soul on the roads. Driving through Namibia is like an endless expanse of dry, barren but beautiful land as far as the eye can see. Mountains are everywhere and are mostly rocky and dry.
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Three large vehicles took us around the country and our guides, Lazarus, Albert & Castro were some of the warmest and most entertaining people I had ever met. In the photo above, we are almost (finally) at Fish River Canyon!
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Check in at Fish River Lodge
At around 4pm we finally arrived at our destination, Fish River Lodge. Fish River Lodge is the only lodge that sits at the edge of Fish River Canyon which is the second largest canyon in the world. The views are crazy - imagine walking out onto your balcony to a panoramic scene like below!
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The view from our lodge
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Quiver trees, Fish River Canyon
From here on, it was all go go go. Every morning and evening, we'd meet up to shoot the beautiful landscapes here. I've never been an early morning shoot person so Namibia was actually the first time I shot a sunrise! I honestly don't know how I managed to wake up at 4:30am, 5:30am each day but the landscapes were just so immensely breathtaking that it was hard not to want to get up.
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Balcony view
There are 20 chalets at the lodge and each and every one of them opens up to a balcony view like the above.
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Sunset at the lodge.
Wearing: ASOS knit top | Assembly the Label shorts | Country Road wide brimmed hat
It really is a view like no other at Fish River Lodge. Staying at the edge of the canyon meant that no matter where you walked, you'd see a different angle of the same dramatic landscape in front of you. The canyon here is some 500 000 million years old and it's crazy to think what it might have looked like before, with a river running down the middle once upon a time. If you're interested, Fish River Lodge actually offers a crazy 64km five day canyon hike through the canyon.
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Shooting quiver trees
I learnt so much about landscape photography from our landscape guru, Houggard Malan. The guy's only a few years older than me but already has such a successful career in the field! We shot lots of quiver trees during our time here, they're native to the area and have such unique silhouettes against the sun. Here are some more photos taken around Fish River Canyon.
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Wearing: ASOS knit top | GRANA denim pants | Bared sandals | Kanken backpack
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This view really goes on forever..
Handy hint: You can take a walk across the rim of the canyon to reach the view above. It's not a challenging walk at all and after about an hour, you'll get to that cliff top you on the right side of the photo underneath. The view's completely different from there and really allows you to appreciate just how large the entire terrain is!
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Fish River Canyon was one of my favourite places in Namibia for peace and tranquility. In a place so isolated from cities and towns, there's only you and the handful of people who are staying at the lodge with you. It was here that I saw the Milky Way for the first time with my bare eyes and you didn't even have to try very hard to see it because there was simply just no light pollution anywhere nearby. At the edge of infinity, it really was..