Deadly serious

It takes about an hour to walk to the peak of the canyon that we will descend through. At the top the others have already made themselves comfortable sitting on the ground waiting for us, so we only have a few minutes to enjoy the view around us. What has stunned me the most while being here is the variation in texture all around. In every direction you look you will see different scenery, different geology, different colours. It's like the gods have mixed together different jigsaw puzzles. One of my favourites are these rounded mountains. They come up a lot and are also distinctive from satellite imagery. This image below shows the route. I'm not entirely sure where we parked but the start of our descent is where it says Namib Naukluft. That winding path looks so innocent from this distance.

We park the car at the base of a path that goes up one side of one mountain. We have a 10km hike ahead of us, first up a steep incline and then a long circular route back to the car. For Doug it's another chance for a race so he's off with the two of the guys while Katarina and I take it a little more slowly. It's a continuous uphill path, nothing treacherous but also no respite. As we ascend , a camera doesn't leave my hand, as I swap between the phone and my big camera.

We've caught the setting moon probably as much as the setting sun. This morning, as we approached the entrance to the Naukluft Zebra Mountain Park I called out to stop the car so I could get some shots of the moon. I'd already watched it set behind one mountain and didn't want to miss another. It only took seconds for it shift from just kissing the ground to already drifitng behind so I had to act quickly.

It was yet another early start, leaving at 7am, meaning I was up before 6am. But the beds in these tents provide a very comfortable sleep and we do get to bed relatively early - so getting up isn't so bad. But that doesn't make it any warmer or any lighter. We again jump into the back of our 4x4 and take up our usual positions. Some of us try to catch a nap. Today we drive to that mountain range we've seen in the distance for the whole week: Naukluft. The sun rises on route and we catch sight of a zebra running across the road, no doubt chasing after it's small family. Apparently a group of zebra is called a zeal, not that the Oxford English Dictionary agrees. But I don't see any concensus on the plural for zebra: two zebra? two zebras? two zebrae?