oct 4

LToday left Felix around 8 am and our first stop was at a small village Aussenkehr where families lived in small huts.  They came from all over the country to work in the vineyard here.  There was no plumbing or sewage and they used bushee bushee to go to the bathroom. We stopped there to go to the market to get supplies for the day.  

We then drove through the Ai-Ais national park.  Where we spotted Oryx 

Springbok

And ostrich. 

We stopped at the Ai-Ais hot springs and spa. 

 There Judy and I went for a swim in the hot springs.  It was very nice.  The rest of the bus saw baboons.  We then had lunch there among the gorgeous scenery.  On our drive out of spa we stopped and went for a walk along the side of the road.  Oh by the way the roads are now all dirt roads and pretty rough and dusty.  We counted a grand total of 3 vehicles that we met on that road.  This allows for stopping the vehicle anywhere to look at animals or to go for a walk and look at bushes, trees and animal dung as we did.  We saw a very poisonous shrub called the Damara Euphobia   

    Malvern told us a story of a family that made a fire with the dead branches of this bush.  All of them died due to the toxic fumes it gave off.  Very poisonous to humans yet animals can eat it and survive.  We also saw a tree called Quiver tree which the San people use the tree branches hallowed out to store their poisonous arrows as they go hunting.  These tree branches are fibrous in The centre which can easily be dug out to transform into storage tubes which are covered on both ends with animal skins.  Below you can see the group around the Quiver tree. 

Our stop for the night was at a beautiful location called canyon village.  It was the nicest setting so far.  Right in the middle of no where among large rock formations.

. We had a few hrs to relax by the pool and then about 4 pm we drove out to fish Fish River Canyon where we walked the rim and watched the sunset across the canyon. this is known as the seconded largest canyon In the world next to the Grand Canyon.  

Did I tell you it is unbareable hot!