In 2005, a group of Namibian schoolchildren were hiking in Fish River Canyon’s Gondwana Cañon Park when they came across insects that resembled miniature praying mantises.
They weren’t praying mantises, however, but gladiator insects.
It was only four years earlier that this group of insects, now called Mantophasmatodea, had been identified, a zoological discovery described “as sensational as finding a live mammoth”.
For the sake of comparison, it would be like encountering completely new mammals that don’t belong in any of the known orders such as carnivores, primates, rodents or bats.
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These hitherto unimagined animals are just one of many surprises of Fish River Canyon, a deep, sinuous gash in the earth 160km long and 27km wide at its greatest extent and plunging down 550 metres at its deepest.
In satellite photos, it resembles a snake winding its way through a dusty, brown landscape.
The Fish River Canyon is sometimes described as the world’s second largest after the Grand Canyon (though some sources say this is meaningless), though it definitely has the top dog title in Africa.
It runs from Seeheim to Ai-Ais where the Fish River joins the Orange River near the Namibia-South Africa border, travelling through an arid, semi-desert landscape that at first glance appears to have little in the way of plant or animal life.
But it’s here – as this traveller recalls, the desert blooms after rainfall, with grasses and tiny flowers springing up as if from nowhere.
“Many of the plants are succulents or other highly specialised drought-adapted species, including various members of the ice-plant and daisy families,” the blogger writes.
Species include the iconic quiver tree, a species in the Aloe genus that – like all succulents – is specially adapted to a dry, desert environment because it can store water in its stems and leaves.
Wildlife in the canyon includes a number of equally desert-adapted animals such as brown hyenas, chacma baboons, klipspringer antelopes, kudus and rock hyraxes, as well as rarely-seen leopards, which can adapt to almost any habitat on Earth.
There’s an 86km hike you can do that allows you to explore the bottom of the canyon for 4 or 5 days. It’s one for extremely hardy walkers only, however, because you have to carry everything you’ll need, including food, sleeping bag and roll mat, all the clothes you’ll need and a camping stove and fuel.
You can only do it in the winter and you have to travel in a group of at least three people.
But if you feel up to the challenge, it sounds worth it – you’ll see the tiny klipspringers bouncing “up the canyon walls in defiance of physics” and chacma baboons which will happily unzip tent flaps and food packs.
One account of a baboon “strolling into a bedroom and defecating on a packing list is not unusual.”
The river itself is just a series of stagnant pools for much of the year, but these still attract birds such as African fish eagles and goliath herons hunting for a meal. Reptiles include the river leguaan or Nile monitor, a smaller relative of the Komodo dragon but which can still grow to a length of more than 2m.
Because of their size, they can “look alarming for the first 30 seconds”, but they are said to be harmless to humans.
Other lizards such as skinks and agamas are also common, but snakes are rarely seen. There are highly venomous puff adders here, but they mostly stay hidden, though it is worth keeping an eye and ear out for – they are said to sound like a slow leak if you get too close.
And then there are the praying mantis-like gladiator insects. You probably won’t see these either, but isn’t it good to know they’re there?
