Does anyone have any information on the current (March 2026) water level in Fish River Canyon?
No first hand info but out of interest I had a look at some Sentinel 2 sat imagery. I ended up doing this when I first did the hike during covid days and it was tough to get any info on water, and found it very useful. Images are from the 23rd of March.
That’s a bit above Ai Ais, so technically should be one of the lower points of water. And I would say looks like there is a decent amount of water in the Canyon, or strikes me as more than enough to hike.
But please rather rely on someone with first hand knowledge at the moment if you can get it, or call through to the parks board.
Hey Mark, many thanks for this. Yes, I’ve also just discovered Sentinel-2 via the Copernicus Browser (Copernicus Browser); it seems to be the best online tool available for surface water detection and it’s free. All of this comes from a May 2023 attempt I made with 2 others to hike FRC when we unhappily discovered very limited water availability from the trailhead at Hobas down to the Emergency Exit. We foolishly didn’t do our homework on where the current water sources were that month of that year and paid the price. We had only 3L water per person at the start (thinking we would find running water somewhere). Rather, we only found a few scattered, highly brackish, green sludge ponds which clogged up our portable filters and were undrinkable due to the high saline levels. So at mid-day 2 we had to make the decision to either go on with little/no certainty of finding potable water or bailing at the (not easy) Emergency Exit. We chose the latter, out of an abundance of caution. So, this time (we’re booked for 11 June 2026) we’re trying to collect as much info as possible leading up to that date on potable water locations and packing more H20 per person (5-6 L) from the start. As the NWR and Namwater sites have little current FRC water level info, I’m exploring the best available sat imaging options. If you, or any other HSA Forum colleagues, can suggest any other reliable source to track the current potable water status in FRC as we approach June, I would be most grateful(!). Also, our 11-15 June 2026 FRC booking currently has two (2) available spaces, if you happen to know of any 1 or 2 persons who may be interested to join us on those dates, they can contact me here or WhatsApp me at +260963196607. Stephen