Namib Naukluft Hiking Trail: A Walk Through the Mountains in Desert Country (Day 2)

In this week's addition: We have lunch under a tree, climbing down a chain linked river gorge can be tricky, teamwork saves the day and we sleep in an old green abandoned farm house.

The steep cliffs provide stark contrasting views of shadow and light along Day 2 of the Namib Naukluft Hiking Trail.

Day 2 of a multi-day hike normally starts with some new aches and pains.

The shoulders are a bit sensitive (see the intro from Day 1).

Legs don’t feel as fresh.

Feet feel funky.

But this is normal.

And if you’re an experienced hiker, you learn to embrace these newly acquired points of awareness.

In fact, you subconsciously monitor them.

Like a feedback loop of how things are going.

But what’s important to know, is that it will get better as your body gets used to the daily rigours of multi-day hiking life.

So, you contemplatively have your breakfast while pondering this reality.

And enjoy the new coffee making process we brought to life by me forgetting my coffee making apparatus at the starting point of the hike. Who new a neck scarf (Buff) could make such a good coffee filtering device?

Even if we had chew the last bit of coffee in every cup.

And so, we eased into Day 2 of our Namib Naukluft Hike.

Having a look at the landscape that lay ahead for the day.

Day 2 - Putte Shelter to Ubusis Hut

The first stretch was relatively straight forward.

We head a bit up first, to where we could once more appreciate the fact that we were so high up in a country famous for its deserts and vast open spaces.

Being so high up in the mountains in desert country is truly something to contemplate and appreciate.

Further along the trail we spread out a bit as a group.

This happens naturally as people find their own rhythm, or stop a bit longer to look at something. The important thing is to be aware of this as a group, and make sure we all come back together at regular intervals.

On this day we did exactly that for a quick lunch break in the shade of a tree.

L-R: Traversing the Namib Naukluft Trail on Day 2; Lunch under a tree; Over time one can build up some eclectic hiking gear.

After lunch the trail undulated a bit up and down, meandered a bit left and right, and finally delivered us to the Bergpos Windmill (more about that next week) at the beginning of Ubusis Kloof.

Preparing for the descent down Ubusis Kloof.

From here it was a fun - and sometimes quite technical - descent to our overnight spot at Ubusis Hut.

L-R: Making use of the chains to ease our descent; Down climbing with heavy packs is best done slowly (and with help from friends).

Even though the distance to cover was quite short, it took a fare bit of time due to the several down climbs with chains (and heavy packs).

Fortunately we had good teamwork within the group, which made for a safe descent.

Taking it slow and helping each other out meant we all got down safe.

Towards the end of the kloof the terrain flattened out and we could easily walk the rest of the way without any issues. Besides maybe tired legs and feet begging to be set free from their hiking boot enclosures.

The overnight “hut” was more of a very old farm cottage.

In a surprising green colour.

The Ubusis Hut and our overnight spot for Day 2 of the hike.

But we weren’t complaining, we had matters to attend to, as readers from last week’s post on Day 1 will know:

Now it was time for “The Routine” (see last week’s post).

Unfortunately I didn’t take any images of our dinner preparations on this night, but I did catch the fading light illuminating ridges higher up.

And that was day two, hope you enjoyed it!

The late afternoon light made for very interesting shadow / highlight patterns higher up.

Do you have any thoughts on Day 2 / experiences to share?

Simply hit reply and let me know / comment below.

PS - This is the 3rd instalment of a weekly visual story covering the 8 Day Namib Naukluft Hiking Trail (1 day / week), you can read the Prelude and Day 1 too if you’ve missed them.

PPS - shameless plug once again 👉🏽 I have a new side hustle up and running, so if you like outdoor inspired casual clothing, check it out here (use code READER10 for a 10% discount)!

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Until next time ✌🏽.

Cornelius

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