The wrong Fish River hike

 The Fish was not easy🐠

I must have been on the wrong hike, because the Fish River Canyon hike that I was on, was not the one that I read up about. This one had petrifying heights, debilitatingly sore muscles and endless days of walking. No one brought that up, everybody just mentioned the good stuff. How beautiful it is. What an amazing experience it was. But none of the tough stuff. Make no mistake, the Fish River Canyon is beautiful. It is indescribable to those who have not experienced it for themselves. The vast beauty and the sheer size is breath-taking. It is all that. And more. It is the ‘more’ part that I should have been prepared for.

Aaah, misconceptions…

I had a big misconception going into the hike. I thought that it was going to be easy, the proverbial walk in the park🌲🚶‍♂️🌻. With me climbing the canyon walls during breaks and go searching for Geocaches, just because I can. Why did I think it would be easy?  In the search for articles on the Fish River Hike, I only found articles stating the good stuff. Therefore, I assumed there was only good stuff to declare.

But the Fish got the better of me because of one specific article with one specific statement. It stated that even unfit people can do the hike. I was very fit at that time and therefore, if unfit hikers can do it, man, how easy would it be for someone who is fit! That one sentence put my mind at ease. That was where I lost the mental game😜. I almost immediately discovered that this hike would be no walk in the park.

Before standing at the starting point of the hike, I felt confident. I felt excited. I felt ready. Standing on the edge of the crazy drop-off that is called the start of the trail, I lost all my confidence. Peering over the edge made me feel neither exited nor ready. I was scared.

Great Heights

It was upon seeing this great canyon that I realized that I had to go down these death defining slopes. I researched all the stuff to take with, the distances, the shortcuts, but for some or other reason I never thought about going down the canyon. No fear of heights for me, however, I do have a fear of falling. Call me a klutz who has fallen down, and even up, whatever there is. I could just see myself tripping. Taking my first step down that very steep trail was terrifying. I went down on my butt as far as possible just to have more contact with the world. One very quickly realizes that one can have no pride here. I quickly accepted all the hands helping me and did not hesitate asking as well. Not typical for me.

Scary stuff

The first hour was the scariest, I kept seeing myself taking a wrong step and plunging down. An hour was not all it took to get down. Rather add an ‘s’. Keeping the ‘brakes’ on for hours on end left my muscles and toes a bit worse for the wear for the rest of the trip.  I never anticipated the effect of this extreme downhill workout would have for the rest of the hike. Then again, for some or other reason I never thought how we were going to get to the bottom of the canyon.

When the fear subsided, my legs were still buckling, and this time not for fear but of exhaustion. Another thing I had not counted on, eccentrics. Jip, it made jelly of my legs to such an extent that I had no confidence in my legs keeping me upright. Anyway, my legs did give way a couple of times, luckily where the gradient was not terrifying any more. There was, however, no way that I could get up by myself. Someone had to pull me up. Jip, no dignity for me.

I did mention my toes. But not that I thought that by the time we got to the bottom and I took off my shoes, that my nails will fall out of my socks. Turned out it only felt that way. They were still solidly attached to my toes but were turning blue.

No turning back

At the bottom, we took a short rest and decided to walk about half an hour to an hour before we would call it a day. By this time, I was wondering what I had gotten myself into. And there was no stopping or turning back. We set up camp and I was determined to be a better hiker tomorrow. Because the worst was behind us. Or so I thought.

Day 2 I woke up determined to get some dignity back. I lost it the moment I tried to get out of my tent and almost fell flat on my face. I have never experienced muscle soreness that is as debilitating as that. In hindsight, I should have paid way more attention to eccentric exercises, although nothing can effectively simulate the duration and intensity of the downclimb.  Anyway, I had to figure out how to kickstart myself. For the rest of the days, I always had to push off form both legs and arm to launch myself up and out of the tent. When I wanted to sit, I had to fall down as my muscles could not handle the controlled descent, and it was less painful to just fall down.

We had quite a few laughs about our awkwardness, but could not understand why no articles gave us a heads-up about the tuff stuff. Why were all the articles so la di la about the whole thing? Maybe nobody else did have a tough time. Maybe I am the only wimp.  I do look the part. But regardless, I was determined to spread the word so that some other hiker who functions like me would not unknowingly get clobbered by the hike. I just function better when I am prepared.

Boulder dashing and the first 10Ks

Anyway, the morning was beautiful, and we had a good slow breakfast. My pride got lost again when I found that I could not pick up my own backpack, being a four-legged creature the day before rendered my arms useless the day after and I, unfortunately, had to ask someone to help me get the bag onto my back for the rest of the hike. So much for being a tough do it yourself girl.

Then off we went. We made a few river crossings that day. Luckily the guys could take our bags across without them getting wet. If it were up to me my stuff would have drowned. One time there was a very scary narrow ledge, the first few went across, left their bags and came back. They took the few of us that were left’s bags across the ledge and told us that it will be less scary to swim to where they were going. There I was in literally deep water. Who would have thought that there could be so much water in the desert, my feet could not touch the bottom.  This swim was invigorating but scary at the times when I wanted to take a rest but was not able to stand.

The invigoration left me after lunch after walking in the hot sun for hours. I got farther and farther behind and when I finally caught up, the rest were well rested and ready to go. There was no way that I could go on without resting. Luckily there was a tree with some shade. I melted into a puddle of person and bag. And just lay there breathing. I think the group thought that I was going to die and divided my tent and sleeping stuff among them in an attempt to lighten my load.

First 10 k coming up….eventually

That did help a bit, especially with all the boulder climbing that still awaited us. My word! Some boulders were car-sized! We decided to walk until sunset. By then I was not the only one feeling beaten by the Fish and that made me feel like less of a wimp. We walked until dusk and found a nice beach to make camp. It was a very nice campsite however, it was right by the 10km mark. What a bummer! It was the end of day 2 and we have only managed 10km! The Fish sure knows how to put a damper on your mood. We also never saw the famous Vespas🛵 during our boulder dashing day. That was one of those ‘I have hiked the Fish River Canyon’ photos to take. Maybe next time.

Pictures worth a thousand words

All or nothing today

We got up really early to try and get a head start on our day. Walking was way easier on this day. There was much less boulder dashing and more straight waking. We made good time and stopped for breakfast at Palm Springs🌴. Before the hike, I saw myself climbing the walls here in search of a Geocache, but in reality, I could not muster the strength for extra exploring and just ate my breakfast and took a rest.

Day 4 we had to push for the maximum distance in order for us to finish this trip on the 5th day. We had in mind to do 30km or 40km. This would all depend on when we got to the fork in the road, which in this case was the difference between 30 and 40 kilometres. At the fork, we did the democratic thing and voted on the short-cut. I was very thankful because I would probably not have been able to walk the longer route. That night we got to the German’s grave. We set up camp a stone’s throw from there. This was the first cool night. The canyon starts to widen here trapping less heat and is more prone to wind.

Not just around the bend

Last day I woke with a purpose. My backpack was empty enough now that I was able to put it on my back myself. Yey! I, unfortunately, could not have my usual breakfast as the wind kept blowing out my gas flame until I had neither hot water nor gas. Dry rusks and granola would have to do. Sure did miss my coffee and oats. Even missing my coffee, I had the spring back in my step.

Not long after starting we came upon a road and what seemed to be a shop. This was the first sign of people and it felt as if Ai-Ais was just around the bend. Turns out there were many bends along our way to the finish line. Each bend never seemed to be the last one. That was also a bit deflating. By the end of the day, I was literally dragging my feet as they would not lift any more. Just before sunset, the oasis of Ai-Ais stood before us. And suddenly the hike was over.

Not ‘physically’ for a while. I had swollen feet for a week after that and toes with no feeling for twice that time. The longest souvenir I had was, however, my toenails. They were black and blue for half a year after that, but strangely enough, never fell off. Those toe souvenirs were great conversation starters once it was sandal season again.

Other tough stuff stories

Long after we came back, I still could not understand why I could not find any tough stuff stories. One day, when I was twiddling my thumbs I did a search again and found some! These stories describe a whole host of other tough stuff that we did not encounter, including floods and fractures!😱  I can only believe that these hikers, when all is said and done, have the best Fish River hiking stories to tell around their next campfire.

If this piece dares you to do better than me, go check out my tips and booking info.

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