We are now at Johannesburg airport, waiting for our flight back to UK, after a week without WiFi and cell phone reception-bliss!
We have been in southern Namibia, and spent four nights at Fish River Lodge, perched directly on the rim of Fish River Canyon, second only to the Grand Canyon in size. A notable difference to the latter was the almost complete lack of tourists in this remote region of Namibia, well away from the more popular northern tourist route. It is also a difficult place to reach, the Lodge being accessible only by car, the last stage being an adventurous 105 km drive along a rough dirt road. In our case, after flying from Cape Town to Upington, we had a 640 km drive to the Canyon.
However it was well worth the effort. We walked for hours along the southern rim and saw no one as we experienced first hand the effect of the geological forces that unfolded 300 million years ago when the Fish River began to etch its way through hard quartzite forming the Canyon, 90 kilometres long, 549 metres deep and 28 kilometres wide in some places. An added bonus was that, many miles from any town, the unpolluted night sky provided a spectacular view of the Milky Way. A precarious 4-wheel drive descent into the canyon for lunch by the Fish River was the highlight of the visit.
I will be back to work next week and will publish my report on Comminution '12 on Monday, as well as making a start on the backlog of papers submitted to Minerals Engineering over the past two weeks- apologies to recent authors for this delay.
We have been in southern Namibia, and spent four nights at Fish River Lodge, perched directly on the rim of Fish River Canyon, second only to the Grand Canyon in size. A notable difference to the latter was the almost complete lack of tourists in this remote region of Namibia, well away from the more popular northern tourist route. It is also a difficult place to reach, the Lodge being accessible only by car, the last stage being an adventurous 105 km drive along a rough dirt road. In our case, after flying from Cape Town to Upington, we had a 640 km drive to the Canyon.
However it was well worth the effort. We walked for hours along the southern rim and saw no one as we experienced first hand the effect of the geological forces that unfolded 300 million years ago when the Fish River began to etch its way through hard quartzite forming the Canyon, 90 kilometres long, 549 metres deep and 28 kilometres wide in some places. An added bonus was that, many miles from any town, the unpolluted night sky provided a spectacular view of the Milky Way. A precarious 4-wheel drive descent into the canyon for lunch by the Fish River was the highlight of the visit.
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I will be back to work next week and will publish my report on Comminution '12 on Monday, as well as making a start on the backlog of papers submitted to Minerals Engineering over the past two weeks- apologies to recent authors for this delay.
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It looks like an amazing landscape, I'm jealous!
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