Sound of Silence

Day 4, 31.12.22, Oranje River Rafting Day 2

To fully experience the last day of the year, we get up with the sunrise at 5:30am, grab our first coffee still a bit tired, and meet with JC and Sam for a morning hike with Cindy as our experienced tour guide. After all, she already explored the area extensively yesterday. After about an hour, we reach the highest point and look at a breathtaking sunrise behind the mountains of the Oranje River.

At the same time, we realize that not a breath of wind disturbs the impressive silence up here. It is so quiet that you could hear a feather drop to the ground. The sound of silence - a song that comes to my mind in the version by Disturbed. After consultation, I played the song from my phone and it creates a goosebump moment for all of us, which we will not forget so quickly.

Unfortunately, such moments also pass, so we make our way down to the camp where breakfast is already waiting for us, prepared again over a fresh fire.

In the late morning, we continue and embark on the second day of our tour. "Same procedere as last day," Willem asks at 11am, and with a beer in hand, we respond, "same procedure as every day, Willem."

We let ourselves drift, enjoy the second day like the first, swim, paddle, and whenever someone floats past us, we have a little chat. At lunchtime, this time we look for a spot at a rapid where Dumi gives us a small course on rapid rafting. A short, wet but nice fun.

This time we reach our overnight spot on the Namibian side very early, as the Oranje River flowed very quickly on this section today. We reach 47 degrees, there is unfortunately not much shade here, and we build ourselves a shady spot with paddles and tent tarp, which doesn't look nice but serves its purpose. At least until it falls victim to the onset of the very hot wind today. This afternoon is very tough as we lie in the heat for 5-6 hours and can't really do anything except jump into the Oranje River again and cool off. We are, so to speak, victims of the too fast flowing river.

Cindy decides to explore a short hike that we want to do tomorrow morning. I remained motionless in the heat, lying with my book, under close observation by a meerkat that briefly ventured out of its burrow and took a quick look.

For dinner, we have spaghetti bolognese, but the real highlight is the freshly prepared chocolate cake, which is also cooked in the potjie. Together with the vanilla cream, a worthy end to the year 2022. We already toast to the new year at 9pm with a bottle of bubbly (as the sparkling wine is called here), as we all know that we will already be fast asleep at midnight.

With a little trick, we transform the still burning fire into a blue-turquoise light, let our thoughts wander about the ending and coming year, and go into the tents.

Goodbye 2022, thank you for allowing us to experience another beautiful year with all its ups and downs.