Last week's adventure took us to places that few people
have a chance to visit. The most remote parts of the
Richtersfeld II Transfrontier Park.
The desolate and inaccessible terrain also
hides one of the greatest cultural treasures on the
continent. The oldest rock paintings in Africa, and we
managed to find them. But remember, the Transfrontier
Park as the richest, the oldest and the biggest.
Follow us this week to find the biggest.
The Transfrontier area between the Richterveld in South
Africa and the southern part of Namibia is a
land of rock, sand, and sky.
I wonder if there's any place in the world that is so
fast, so open, and so quiet.
Here one can hear your own heartbeat. In
spite of the place being so huge, everything seems to be
in order. Every rock in its place, every
mountain peak where it should be.
Yeah, everything happens slowly. The tool
of time made its mark not through millions but billions
of years. Yet there is life here, unexpected as
it may seem. Even though the land
sometimes appears to be in suspended animation,
the seasons do change.
Fog from the skeleton coast, as it is called in
Namibia, brings life bearing water. Then the land
can explode in many colors. But this time, we
are here to explore the biggest canyon in Africa.
On the spore of the big snake.
Making deep tracks.
This week, the zebra bus returns to the IIS Vitersfeld
Transfrontier Park between South Africa and Namibia.
Hi, I'm Leonard. Come with me and my friends. We
fish lover canny.
must have.
You.
Yes. I Yeah.
Um Well
See yay come wild with us.
OK guys, let's stop quickly for some tea.
And we're traveling along the Gharib. So we're gonna see where the great fish
river comes into the Gharib. Maybe we'll get the big
snake and then we're gonna go up to.
I was just like.
Ouch, our first morning and no sugar.
When you look at the field, it doesn't look like. anymore.
Now we're further inland, the fog does not reach here too
often. We're now in a different biome in the Namakaro.
If you look at the veld, much less biodiversity, more
grass, more uniform types of bush, but not all
those unique little plants that you see in Richtersfeld.
So we moved from one big ecosystem to another
ecosystem.
In the late afternoon, the road found its way to a place
as flat as a table. I had the strange
feeling that we were near something very big and awe
inspiring, but the land was too flat to see anything.
I started to wonder if Opi was playing a joke on us with this
biggest Kenyan in Africa story.
We turned and suddenly I could feel it. We were
near, perhaps too near. It felt as if
we had reached the end of the earth as we know it.
OK Here you can really see the forces of nature.
It all started millions and millions of years ago when there was a
shift in the tectonic plates of the earth, and you can very
clearly see that the surface of the earth shifted because you can see that
little plateau down there, lower than here, and after that happened,
erosion took over and just carved it deeper and wider
through millions and millions of years. The river and wind created
this incredibly huge canyon, the 2nd biggest canyon in
the world. Where is the biggest one? The biggest one is in North America
called the Grand Canyon. You know, things are always a bit bigger in America than
everywhere else. Imagine.
Yeah, yeah, this reg and I and
and he revivivier and this this is
for storming this is ruidiri market.
Tri kefir and of course when
the winds come, the wind add to the erosion, making it deeper
and wider.
People ask why are there so many curls in this river, and this
brings us back once again to the big snake, and in a sense, this
is the biggest snake of all of this trans frontal region.
And legend has it that there was a snake called Kota Kuru.
Coro was chased by the San people and he just tried to get
away and he made all these curls. So you can just imagine how big
this snake might have been. So in a sense, this is where our story of
the big snake ends, or who knows, maybe this is where it
begins because the journey is not over yet and we may
still find the big snake itself.
OK, guys, how's this for a camping spot? Yeah, yeah.
Then tomorrow morning we can see the sun come up over the canyon, so let's
start cleaning up and I'll bring the car a little bit
closer. Tomorrow we will put each rock back, but
for now, we needed a smooth place to sleep. Our
thoughts were full of the big snake. A long night lay
ahead. I
I come the zebra
zebra.
I wrap a leaf of yoga Iyou and done it only
2
minutes thank you.
Just do it. Telopea my er terri I'm just the feet was aur
to come they will set the film with South Africa and rap and rule my
my for my Marinran I say he'sla but say I was my
my yin locom no to say. I guess my man man for here after I get my leave now.
I
save it now.
To stop e and yellow and great and ref to
lam and ref
I want the moon cake.
drive off. I drive off but I drive but I'm after.
in the story.
My mother tell me was saying our three sisters liquor
I lost my dog. And I
craft
my cars but my aunt my auntie John problem one demon.
Is
this is the standing.
I
slung and the
means the plan
for yeah so I says I'm in a clip.
Hello
They were but. I get a story.
No one's gonna get almostan that the res oh, it's just that no need the can
say eat but say course a fear to. The place is long
the ski.
and stops.
To come to the net storm storm storm storms.
Mak don't drink for the to garak in that egg slap for slang open up the door.
With a new moon like that, that's when Kuru
around here somewhere and you can hear him in the canyon at night.
Yeah.
blow but this is the hardest is in the atmosphere for Dwayneurson is the are disneyson in the atmosphere the net for I said is that.
OK, bye bye. And he
sli as the poor baby car. O I too slight.
bye bye. Time for us to get to know the big snake
better. We started our climb down into the
abyss. The spore left by Kuru.
clipper is osts on this canyon is 2 billion years old, almost half as old
as the planet itself.
Like my play. This all right. Leonard's gonna walk back with you
up back to the camp. We're gonna wait here for him and Leonard German Toperiarva in
net.
Oh
It's still a bit.
Guys, that's where the river is. Yeah, it's not in.
of nets.
Oh
Oh
and I first refused to Iraq.
40 m, guys, 40 m.
Guys, we're on the beach. Whoo hoo
Oh Just imagine going downstream from
here all the way to the great Gharib Twe
balloon yar, the elusi are the
theiri rotten and hire canyon.
My two colleagues and I made it, and the question is, are we gonna make it
back before darkness is gonna set?
Our bottles filled. We started on the long climb back. Oh, the
wind is pushing down the canyon now.
OK guys, too much wind. I'm gonna put my hat away.
We've got one big pool. And then
we'll be there. Let's go for it.
Uh
Not a word is said unnecessarily.
It was just us, the silence in the big space around
us.
Yeah. and.
I heard people talking about this Kenyan. I will always
remember it because it was my first time seeing it and it's the second
biggest Kenyan and I think that it ain't.
on the cake but in the in this amazing.
OK, Nicola like any
refusing.
The obviate no, what is he reverse gear and what is he forward gear.
Whoa, what can we do?
on.
And so we saw the spore of the big snake. Now I know it
must be a really big snake. Our journey continues to
see where the fish rubber leads.
This is where the fish river meets the Orange River, the great Kari,
and when it comes down in flood, it's a huge amount of
brown mud and water going into the Grib
all goes down the sea, which is exactly the journey we're gonna do.
No journey can be truly over until one has reached the
very end. We have never been as ready as we are now.
This is the Fish River and it brings water all the way from
central Namibia, almost halfway to Angola, and it comes down as a
big flood of mud and brown water and it rushes into the
Grib right here, and the Gharib swells and it goes down
through those canyons and all the way to the Orange River mouth, and that's where we're
gonna go.
Guys, look at these huge, huge bird tracks. Look at
this one, it's as big as my hand. It's bigger than my hand. It's
as big as two hands.
You mean the Goliath heron? It's a truly big bird
that occurs along this part of the Orange River. We we put it on the fire tonight,
make a good. Theons too.
I got a little bit of rice. Come and join us
next time. And the.
Wow No.
Boy yeah.