From Aus we drive on the paved road towards Keetmanshop. It is great to drive on pavement for some time without all the bumps and ruts and the traffic is light even here. Right before the city we pass an ostrich processing plant which is relatively new and one of the job creators in the area. After reaching Keetmanshop we drive a few more kms to the Quiver Tree Forest. It is a bit difficult to find the access and finally we park at the campground and walk to the quiver trees. It is quite impressive to see that many quiver trees together which is a rare occurence.
We hike into the forest and enjoy the many trees avoiding the few tourists that made it to this interesting natural attraction.
Looking around we see some large rodents and looking more carefully we see that they are dassies, one of the animals that we really wanted to see. Especially after we saw a dassie rat on a previous stop.
They look lazy but their expression looks frightening sometimes so it is an interesting mixture and we are captivated by them and watch them for quite some time.
Our entrance fee for the Quiver Tree Forest also includes entrance to the Giants Playground which is a bit further away. This area doesn’t appear to be visited often but it is quite spectacular with lots of interesting rock formations.
We hike a bit following the trail through the formations that seem manmade and then go crosscountry back to the car. Unfortunately there are no more dassies here and we don’t find even birds.
We now drive back to Keetmanshop and then towards the intersection with C12 that we take south towards the Fish River Canyon. C12 is a dirt road however it is in great shape and we can reach speeds similar to the paved road. The road is built along a train track and we can see a few abandoned train stations and other structures along the way. After leaving C12 toward Fish River the road becomes more rutted so we are more careful but still make good time as we approach the place where we will spend the last night in Namibia.
