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Boundless 24 - Our last Transfrontier Conservation Area

Boundless 24 - Our last Transfrontier Conservation Area

Author: Kingsley Holgate
Date: 2018-04-27

Still linking Transfrontier Conservation Areas across Southern Africa, we reach Riemvasmaak. Our Rite to Sight campaign goes a step further as with the help Neville Bosman, the president of the Lions Club of Gordonia and Andre van Niekerk, the Land Rover North Western Motors dealer in Upington, a convoy of expedition Land Rovers escorts cataract patients from Upington Hospital into the community hall in Riemvasmaak.

They've left blind, the bandages come off and now they can see! There's an opskop and a feast, langarm, piano accordion and guitar, lovely old Riemvasmaak women in traditional dress, and off course, the expedition members - some more clumsy than others - have to learn the 'Nama Stap'.

Our next port of call is Warmbad, the oldest formal settlement in Namibia. We have a community day with the Bondelschwartz - soccer, art, more Nama stap and a feast. We're excited, there's also a feeling of accomplishment as the expedition crosses into our last Transfrontier Park known as /Ai-/Ais- Richtersveld - it's no.7 in our journey to link Transfrontier areas across the continent.

The /Ai-/Ais and Fish River Canyon Park was proclaimed in 1968. Subsequently, the Huns Mountain complex and several farms were added.

In 2003, the parks was amalgamated with South Africa's Richtersveld National Park to form the /Ai-/Ais- Richtersveld Transfrontier Park, Namibia's first cross-border park with a total area of 6,045 sq/km. "It's a wilderness on an unimaginable scale," says park warden Eben Naude.

160km long, up to 27km wide, and with a depth of up to 550m, the Fish River Canyon took over 600million years to evolve. Underground, eons ago, a major plate moved, a crack ran through the earth, and the first process in the formation of the Fish River Canyon began.

With erosion and more faults, canyons within canyons were formed. 15 Million years ago, the mighty Fish River did the rest, gorging out layers of rock and creating the second largest canyon in the world.

And if you have a thirst for adventure - Well! the 90km long, 5 day unguided Fish River Canyon hiking trail is one of Africa's most rugged.

But it ends pleasantly - hang up your pack on the hooks provided, ease your boots off your blistered feet and you're into the veranda bar of the newly renovated world class resort at /Ai-Ais, where the expedition is sponsored a night of luxury.