Fish River Canyon

The Fish River Canyon is located in the southern part of Namibia. It is the second largest canyon in the world and the largest in Africa, as well as the second most visited tourist attraction in Namibia after Etosha. It features a gigantic ravine, in total about 160 km long, up to 27 km wide and in places almost 550 meters deep.

The Fish River is the longest interior river in Namibia, but its flow in the present is a nothing compared with the massive volume of water that poured down its length in ages past. These caused the deep cuts into the plateau, which today are dry, stony and sparsely covered with hardy drought resistant plants such as succulents. 

The river flows intermittently and usually comes down in flood during the late summer. When it ceases to flow, it becomes a chain of long narrow pools on the sandy rock-strewn floor of the chasm. At the lower end of the Fish River Canyon before entering the Orange River, the hot springs resort of Ai-Ais provides an oasis in the desolate rocky wastes.

The best public viewpoints can be found +/- 10 kilometers from Hobas, a campsite about 70 km north of Ai-Ais. This wonderful land gives it a very special aspect which makes it impossible to compare and very different from the Grand Canyon. In addition, the fact that about 90 km of this canyon is privately owned and incorporated into Private Nature Parks (such as the Canyon Nature Park or Vogelstrausskluft) makes it different. Other places of interest and equally spectacular viewpoints are therefore also found on private land on both sides of the Fish River Canyon!