A blissfully slow start. I think we used up a bit of mental nerve capacity yesterday and both felt like we could do with a day just soaking up the surroundings. There’s certainly enough amazing to be had just by looking around, nevermind putting yourself in a risky situation as well, by hanging off a rock face!

As such we just rolled up the tent door and gazed out over the savannah below for ages before eventually getting up. We lit the fire underneath the ‘donkey’ (a water heater made from an old gas bottle), so after breakfast we could both enjoy a hot open air shower! 

Unfortunately, Clare discovered that she’d left her flip flops at the base of the crag yesterday, so we drove across the valley to find them. On the way we stopped to admire some pre-historic rock art by some boulders. On the way, there were lots of (big!) animal tracks in the sand!

We then drove over to ‘Bush Camp’ area to have a look at some of the other climbing zones. The drive was an adventure in itself!

I really wanted to climb the huge slabs of Klipspringer Wand. Eventually we found the parking spot, then followed some painted rocks up to the base of the slab. It’s an unbelievable rock feature. About 400- 500m high smooth slab, with just the barest of features on which to balance on. The route described it as being a good introduction, but with only 2 (old!) bolts to protect the first 50m pitch, we reluctantly had to agree that although it would be amazing to climb, it seemed unjustifiably risky.

A wild lump of rock though! And with a massive obelisk that had failed and balanced upright at the base! And some cool trees too! We made a dignified retreat and checked out a different area as a potential for tomorrow instead.

On the drive back we passed a family of Warthogs! 

More mega camp cooking, stars and early to bed… (it gets dark by 19:00).