In case you can't tell from the pictures, southern Namibia is a lot like the Mojave desert in California, especially around Death Valley. Except maybe not quite as vast...but very impressive. We took the less travelled way out of Luderitz to the Fish River Canyon National Park, driving on a newly paved road as far as the town of Rosh Pinah where there is a thriving zinc mine (the mine's original prospector was Jewish and he named the town).
Next we followed the Orange River which has its headwaters in Lesotho and is one of the major rivers of South Africa flowing west across much of the country before forming the border between South Africa and Namibia and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. It was so beautiful and green and remote, with just a few fishermen visible on its banks from time to time. We never stopped for hitchhikers in the rest of the country, and maybe felt a little guilty about it, but these two guys looked so desperate and there was almost no one else driving on the road, so we agreed to take them as far as the turnoff to the national park. So far so good, but then they said--wait, we need to get our fish! and they ran off into the bushes and returned with two huge bundles of dried fish. Except it wasn't completely dry--and they got a little fish water in the back of the trunk! Just a little, but it sure does stink, even 3 days and several shampooings later. Now we know why there are big signs saying "No Fish Cleaning" in every campground and parking lot on the Namibian coast.
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