Start: Naukluft Campsite
Destination: Olive Trail
Region: Hardap
Distance: 5 km to the trailhead
Duration: 5 minutes drive to the trailhead, 4 hours hike
Route Profile: Gravel road
Accommodation: Naukluft Campsite
Our Rating: 6/10
Fauna: Antelopes, Tok Tokkies, Grouse-like birds, Rock hyraxes, Baboon calls (frequently heard)
Shopping: -
Food: Muesli, Bread, Peanut butter, Banana, Snacks, Rice with curry carrots

Route to the Olive Trail start. There are plenty of parking spaces available. Start and finish are at the parking lot.

We're going hiking today! I'm really looking forward to it. We have already picked out the Olive Trail at home and are looking forward to discovering it today. Two trails are easily accessible from the campsite. A longer one (17 km) and the slightly shorter Olive Trail (10 km). As we know that we won't need the whole day for this, we try to sleep in. That's not so easy in a camper van. The chirping of the birds and especially the cries of the baboons wake us up. We also hear a woman scream briefly - a baboon probably came to visit us for breakfast.

So we get up, make coffee and enjoy toast with peanut butter for breakfast. We get the camper ready to go, but leave the table and chairs on the pitch. We return in the evening. At 11:20 we drive off in the direction of the campsite gate. Shortly before this, another path turns off to the Olive Trail. There is a parking lot where there is only one other vehicle. Equipped with trail running shoes, sun protection and water, we set off on the hike. According to the description, the trail should first take us to a plateau and then through the canyon back to the parking lot.

As expected, the path leads steadily uphill at first. Yellow grasses, green bushes and seemingly untouched nature as far as we can see. The path is well marked and we have also saved the route with the GPS coordinates offline on our cell phones. With the encounter with the snake at Little Sossus Lodge still on our minds, we make our presence felt early on with loud footsteps and singing. The plateau is easily accessible and offers us a breathtaking view over the entire valley. We treat ourselves to a drink and enjoy the absolute silence. Once again, we are alone on the trail.

At the start of the Olive Trail, it was all uphill

The starting point and parking lot are located in the valley below the elevation in the middle of the picture.

Fragile rocks in a spectacular natural setting

From the plateau, the path slowly descends again until we reach a dry stream/river bed. Steep rock faces rise up to the left and right, we scramble over huge stones and feel like we're in a Lion King scene. Here and there, a few lizards scurry over the rocks. Balancing and jumping over the large boulders is incredible fun. Sometimes we have to slide on the seat of our pants to reach the next rock.

In one of these rocky sections, Christian suddenly stops. A small rock hyrax runs straight towards him and looks at him with its big eyes. I also approach cautiously and look at the slightly grim but still cute face. Barely bigger than a guinea pig, it scrambles eagerly over the large rocks past us. Unfortunately, he seems to be traveling alone. We hope he survives anyway. The encounter is a highlight for us!

We continue to scramble down the canyon. The vegetation is extremely impressive. Although everything seems dried out, small bushes grow in some places, there is a little water now and then and in the middle of it all we suddenly find ourselves in front of a tree which fills the whole canyon with its magnificent green leaves. How wonderfully nature can adapt!

During our preparations, we had already read about a key section where you have to shimmy down the canyon on chains. Now we arrive at this one. We descend a few meters, with a water hole below us and iron chains hanging in the rocks to the left and right, which we use to climb the few metres. This is a challenging passage for people with a fear of heights. We choose the right-hand side and manage the section quickly. The chains pass the material test and I would have liked to spend much longer on the climbing wall.

After this point, the path leads us over hill and dale for a while until we reach a 4x4 path and follow it to the parking lot. There are many piles of droppings from springboks and baboons lying around. Happy and fulfilled, we return to our camper, drive back to reception and enjoy a cold beer. The hike was well worth it. The silence, the nature, the solitude and the exciting trail are highly recommended. Now we park our camper back on the pitch, enjoy a shower and then prepare a delicious dinner. Rice with a homemade mixture of carrots marinated in a curry sauce, which we bought two days ago at the Little Sossus Lodge.

We let the beautiful day come to an end and crawl back into our sleeping bags at 8 pm. We want an early start tomorrow!