photography – Page 6 – Where is Phil now?

“The lions are so dusty”

Day 296, Friday 26 October 2012, Wildlife Camp, South Luangwa, Zambia

I had a great sleep last night, probably too good as I missed the hippos that came and visited the camp at 1:30 or so. I did hear the elephants trumpeting at 4:00 which was pretty cool. It was game drive day today so I was up at 5:20 again to be ready to get on the 4WD at 6:00.

We had two vehicles between us so this time I managed to get a seat near the side of the vehicle. Sth Luangwa park is approx 7500 sq km and has no fences so the animals are free to roam the surrounding area as well. The drive to the park is 8 or so kms from the campsite and we were not 200 metres away from the camp before we spotted a small group of elephants. Our guide, Joseph, said that had been in the nearby village, as it is the end of the dry season there is not much food left in the forest so the elephants visit the village at times and raid their crops, plus the elephants get bored with eating grass all the time! Before we reached the park we had seen a number of baboons and at least a dozen elephants.

The entrance to the park itself is across a bridge over the Luangwa River, you can see the river is quite low at the moment so the hippo pods are massive. These normally territorial animals will group together at low water.

The game drive was pretty cool, we didn’t see a leopard, which was a shame, but we did see all the usual suspects.

Zebra, eating sausage tree fruit.

Giraffe

Warthogs – I still love them.

Plus some unsusual suspects, like a monitor lizard.

Elephants

The impala are called the fast food of Africa, they even have an arched M on their bums!

Yesterday afternoon lions took down a water buffalo and the body has been almost completely stripped of flesh already. We watched this group of vultures feeding for a while.

Until there was a gap in the tour vehicles near some very full lions.

Awesome – love that belly!

We took a coffee break on the side of a mostly dried up pool, I watched this puku for a while and was lucky to get it jumping over the pool made by hippo trails.

And some birds

The game drive finished at 10:30 and it was back to the campsite for a lion sized brunch and a relax by the pool, and for me in the shade with the laptop to listen to music and blog in relative peace.

At 4:00 we loaded up into two game vehicles and went back to the park – half of us for a game walk and the others to start the afternoon game drive.

Like the game walk in the Okavango Delta we were given specific safety instructions before we left, but unlike the delta this time we had a guy with a rifle escorting us as well as the guide and the back marker. The walk was an hour and a half long and we didn’t see much game on the ground – a few impala was about it. We were given a good introduction to the nature of the area including another good overview of animal dung. Including some dung beetle balls.

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We walked down to the upper river bank to see the massive hippo pod and spotted a couple of fishermen in canoes that were really upsetting the hippos. There was a fabulous chorus of bellowing and snorting from the disturbed hippos as they moved from one side of the river to the other to avoid the fishermen. I think we were all hoping for some action from the hippos, but they all seemed too lethargic and didn’t even raise their heads in a display.

After the game walk we went on a night time game drive. The only thing we wanted to see was a leopard, though the first thing we found of interest was a lone hyena. He, like all the wildlife, was completely un-phased by our presence and just carried on strolling along the side of the road, ignoring the spotlight shining on him.

We didn’t see anything for quite a long time after that until finally our spotter saw what we had all been waiting for, a small male leopard hiding in a bush, he was incredibly hard to photograph, low light, in a bush at a distance. This was as good as it got, but I have seen a leopard! I have now seen all the big five – lion, elephant, rhino, buffalo and leopard, though I still want some decent photos of the last three.

On the drive back to the main gate we caught up with a group of trucks and to our delight they had spotted another leopard, we managed to get a great spot as she walked out of the bush to cross the road. She looked like she had been injured, she was limping a bit and looked very weary. I felt sorry for her in the end as she was pursued by us and a bunch of other trucks loaded with camera toting tourists. I was glad when we left – but equally glad to have seen such a magnificent animal up close!

Dinner was a late affair over a glass or two (well a plastic beaker) of a very warm shiraz.

A fabulous day – again!

Is there ever too many elephants ?

Day 288, Thursday 18 October 2012 – Chobe, Botswana

We had a morning game drive today so I was up and staggering blindly around at 5:10 getting organised before we all were loaded onto special game vehicles at the hotel office. Chobe National Park is eleven thousand square kilometres and is next to the Chobe River.

The game drive was interesting, our vehicle did not get to see the leopard that was seen by the other vehicle and I was in the middle which makes photography hard, but it was my turn and I am taller than the others. It was a slow start along the river bank, mostly seeing birds.

I am not sure who is being braver here, the Malibu stork or the small crocodile.

We did see lots of impala

And eventually some elephants, there are a lot of elephants in the park and a massive amount of elephant damage everywhere.

We watched this large troop of baboons for a while, there were quite a few babies around and they are very cute.

We were then taken to the site of a dead elephant – a feeding ground for dozens of vultures and Malibu storks. We were quite a long way off and it was hard for me to get decent shots from the middle of the truck, so I was a little disappointed with the results, but they have captured the moment, I love the dead tree and the final insult to the poor elephant was all the bird pooh on it.

We came across a couple of lethargic lions, they didn’t even acknowledge our presence.

Before stopping to watch a small family group of elephants playing in the bush, this baby must have been very young as it was spending quite some time trying to suckle, it was quite cool to watch.

As we left we spotted a couple of female kudu, with the dull colouring and the pale stripes they are quite hard to spot, especially against a small slope.

After the game drive we had a few hours to kill in the campsite before going on a game cruise on the river. I was on dishes and as we had a massive brunch prepared while we were out in the morning there was a load of dishes to be done, by the time that was over and I had washing on the line the afternoon was half gone. I took a quick dip in the pool and spent some time in the shade writing before heading to the bar for a cocktail before the cruise got under way at 4:00. After a bit of effort I found the lawn mower asleep under a bush.

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The boat was fairly spacious, it had seats we could move around and roof access, so plenty of space to see animals and take photos. We saw a load of hippo, both in and out of the water.

A nice male elephant.

Herds of impala on the riverbank.

Crocs

A great sighting, but bad pictures of a couple of monitor lizards eating a catfish.

A cape buffalo in a bog ! loved this one – though I am yet to get a good full body buffalo shot.

On the river banks we saw the largest herd of elephants I have ever seen, I counted over thirty elephants in a couple of groups, very cool.

Our guide for the cruise spotted another, smaller herd of elephants walking on one of the many small islands in the river, they were walking towards the edge and he knew they were going to cross to the mainland. We motored upstream to get closer to watch this event, even the guide was excited, it is not something you see often – and he had his camera out too.

I loved the little trunks sticking out of the water.

It was a very cool thing to see, there were a number of crocs lurking in the water, but the herd made it through unscathed. WOW.

After that we motored back to the campsite, under a fairly cool sunset. It was a great trip, definitely another African highlight.

The evening was similar to the one before except we pooled all the remaining Botswanian currency – the pula and bought beer in the bar – again! Tomorrow is Zambia.

Apparently yes, there are too many elephants, but there is no political will to cull them at this stage. It is a very tricky situation.

Beware crocs and hippos in the river.

It was another early start this morning, up at 5:45 again to pack up the site and be ready to leave at 6:30. It seems practise has made perfect as we were pretty much all done and on the truck by 6:15, eager and ready to get going on another African adventure day. Today we are leaving Etosha National park and heading to Ngepi Camp on the Kovango River – and the Botswanan border. It is our final night in Namibia – a country I have really enjoyed, albeit from the comfort of a tour truck.

Our final game drive through the park was short and we did not see anything exciting enough to hit the stop button in the truck and we were out of the park just after 7:00 and hitting some nice black top for the five hundred kilometre drive to the border. It was going to be a long driving day.

Having some fairly smooth driving and with the town of Grootfontein ahead – and its potential for internet access, I spent a good chunk of time writing emails on my phone hoping to tap into some wifi and send them once we got to town.

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However, as is normal with travelling, expectation and reality are often miles apart and there was no wifi and the internet access we did pay for was hopeless. I initially tried to upload one of the blog posts I have queued up ready to go, but that failed so many times I gave up, I did manage to get a message away to one of my boys on FaceBook, but that seemed to be the end of any access so I quit trying and wandered off in search of the next most important thing – coffee.

We got coffee at the local supermarket and it wasn’t too bad either. Tomorrow we are heading off into the Okovango Delta so we have stock up on important provisions at the supermarket – beer, wine, snacks – and of course water! Compared to SE Asia travelling in southern Africa is not too bad when it comes to water availability, most of the places we have been staying have potable water, it doesn’t always taste the best, but it is safe to drink. The Okovango is the exception so we have to stock up with a couple of days worth of bottled water and I have also taken a liking to fruit flavoured sparkling water as well.

I am feeling pretty good today, after a good sleep, plenty of water and no alcohol last night my hydration levels are up and am back to normal again. I must get back in the habit of drinking more water and stick to one type of drink of an evening.

As we moved into Kovango province there was an almost noticeable change in the countryside, there are a lot more trees and grass and subsequently there are a lot more people, a lot of small dusty hamlets on the road side as we moved north. With the villages and homesteads come a lot more people and animals, there are massive verges on the sides of the road, often grazing grounds for goats and cows – but there to allow drivers good visibility over the animals that decide to dart across the road. We were constantly braking and tooting at live stock on the way. We have been advised against taking photos of people from the truck, some get deeply offended and the throwing of rocks and sticks at the truck is apparently not uncommon if slight has been given – so there wont be too many photos of people.

The area is quite poor with a lot of the villagers being herders, there are few permanent structures and not a lot of power or water. Most of the trees have been chopped down for firewood but most of the family hamlets had a big tree were people sat during the heat of the day.

We passed a small bush fire as we approached the end of the journey, it is the start of fire season and there are signs of last years fire damage everywhere. I imagine a few sneaky land clearing fires were lit as well as the normal damage from lightening.

We arrived in Ngepi camp at 5:00 pm, it was not overly hot, but it is quite humid – the most humid of the journey so far, and of course it will get a lot worse as we go north.

As we are by the river and surrounded by trees we have moved into mosquito territory so it is now time for long trousers and shoes in the evening, as well as mossie repellent. I had read a book on malaria on the truck today and there is one strain of the bacteria that is particularly unpleasant, so double up on the precautions as well as the anti-malaria tabs.

Ngepi camp is quite amazing, it was set up a few years ago by some South Africans and is uniquely fitted out, it is quite basic but has the key amenities – a bar and a swimming cage in the Okavango river. As soon as we arrived and had pitched tents I was in my togs and down to check out the swimming cage. It is small square metal grilled cage – about 4 * 4 metres on the edge of the river. On the distant shore – in Botswana, I could see a couple of hippos bathing, and there are crocodiles all over – apparently, I didn’t see any though. The river was warm and fresh and it was so nice to be able to wash the dust off.

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After a couple of drinks in the bar and dinner I watched a bit of England v San Marino on the TV with some of the bar staff and then went to bed early and listened to music while the others carried on socialising.

It was a long day in the truck and I needed some space to chill and contemplate, very hard to do in this situation, music in the tent in the dark is pretty good.

The elephant and the moron

Day 281, Thursday 11 October 2012 – Namutoni camp, Etosha, Namibia

I woke feeling hung over, dehydrated and tired even though I had pretty good sleep and not too many drinks last night. I really did not like getting out of bed at 5:30 and packing up the tent to be on the truck for 6:30. I am looking forward to a decent lie in again! However, getting up before dawn is the only way to see the best wildlife in action.

The sunrise over Etosha was quite spectacular though I was not particularly excited about moving and didn’t kill myself to get a great shot.

I did magically perk up once a cup of coffee was on board after a roadside breakfast – and not in one of the human cages either!

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The first things we saw were jackals and some wart hogs, I love wart hogs and have really been looking forward to seeing them, they were a bit far away for great shots so I am hoping to be able to get up close and personal later on the trip, still at least I have seen them.

We found a couple of very lethargic lions by the side of a watering hole, there were a couple of males hiding in some nearby bushes but after a long wait we gave up and moved on. The park is big and we have lot of driving to do before we get to our camp site on the far side before the gate closes at 6:30pm.

Wise advice when you are one hundred metres from a small pride of lions!

Strangely this is one of my favourite photos from the day, I mean I loved the elephants and I like my elephant photos, but visually this really appeals – a turnaround area near the salt flats.

There was a lot of excitement on the truck when this secretary bird was spotted, it didn’t mean much to me as birds are not my thing, but I believe we were privileged to have seen one.

Our real find for the day was a small family group of 10 elephants at a water hole, we spent quite a bit of time watching them interact, especially the young ones, it was pretty damn cool.

There was a bit of push and shove to access a small water hole.

but it all ended with smiles all round,

and some love.

We stopped for a lunch break at a camp in the park close to the centre and we all got too ooh and ah at a skops owl that lives in a tree there.

After lunch we drove out into the Etosha salt plan, a massive salt pan in the middle of the park, it was like being on the surface of the moon.

On the final drive into the camp we came across a small herd of elephants with one of them in the road feeding on a tree.

We stopped to photograph it and this car passed by us and tried to go round the elephant, scaring it into action. There was a bit of a stand off between car and elephant and we were all hoping the elephant would charge the car as the driver showed no concern for the animal at all, almost appearing to be trying to shoo it off the road.

Later we spotted this lone male elephant, definitely the largest I have seen so far.

We stopped for a “comfort break” and I took a photo or ten of trees – so much more interesting than birds:)

We arrived in Namutomi a little later than planned, the campsite was quite crowded and by the time I had put the tent up and cleaned up it was time for dinner, a quiet sparkling water and off to bed.

LIONS !!!!

Day 280, Wednesday 10 October 2012 – Okaukuejo Camp, Etosha, Namibia

I had a lousy sleep last night; the herbal sleeping pills didn’t work so I popped half a proper one at midnight in the hope of a decent sleep. I still failed. It was the first warm night and the first night I did not need to use my sleeping bag.

Up at 6:00 and on to the truck with no breakfast as we were off for an early morning game drive.

We did not see much for quite a long time into the ride, the scenery was spectacular though and I enjoyed looking out the window trying to spot game. We were granted an interesting but unspectacular sunrise. As I have said a few times I love the landscapes here, so varied, so harsh in some cases but there is a photographic opportunity everywhere.

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I really like the patterns the animal trails make in the grass, it would be great to see this from a hot air balloon and look straight down on the trails.

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The animals are so well designed to fit into their environment, this does of course make taking clear photos from a distance quite tricky as these tussling male oryx show.

We did see zebra, springbok and finally some decent shots of ostriches.

After a bit more hunting around we saw a group of vehicles parked up so went over to have a look see and found a male lion (Hell yeah!) lying down sunning himself. I love this pose 🙂

Apparently in the nearby bushes were a number of cubs but we were unable to see them clearly due to the other vehicles blocking the view.

We waited and waited and finally gave up, I gave them a brief verbal server out the window as they were being incredibly rude. This actually turned out to be an awesome move as 500 metres up the road we spotted mum on her way home.

We stopped to take photos and after a while everyone left the cubs and came to see what we were doing – so we nipped back to the cubs and had prime position for the reunion, first of mum and cubs and then of the whole family. Just fabbo stuff, my first wild big cats, not too far away and so beautiful to see.

Dad finally showing some interest in his baby sitting.

The kids hear mum approaching.

The reunions.

Dad giving a mighty ~~roar~~ yawn.

and they finally left, probably to go find a kill that mum made.

What a fantastic expereince, certianly not something that is seen every day.

Brunch was at 11:30 and another great meal of salads and meats and potato cakes, I certainly loving the food here and it is not doing my waist line any favours at all, I am going to have to get out for a run sooner rather than later. After lunch we had three hours of down time before the evening game drive left, so I was back into the shade and on the computer again. I am enjoying having access to electricity for a change.

On the second game drive we didn’t see any more of the big five but I got some great shots of the other game, zebra, oryx, springbok etc.

My first wilderbeast

which often travel with zebra

sand squirrels 🙂

We stopped for a break in one of the human cages in the middle of the park, there are a number of these sanctuaries scattered around.

Some sort of basted

After dinner I went back down to the waterhole and a different rhino was there with some reasonable light so I managed to get a couple of shots before the sun was too low, and this was a better rhino shot than last nights, but only just.

Another African sunset!

I would like to a rhino in a more natural environment, the park is huge – at 22,000 sq km it is the second biggest in Africa, so it is pretty natural, but the waterhole is purely man made and totally geared up for tourists to look at the animals over a chilled chardonnay (or cardboard red in my case).

We had a couple of drinks after dinner and I think I managed to drink, beer, white and red wine, whisky, a G and T and an amurula. Only one of each, but a ridiculous combination…

It was the best in a series of best days!

The road to Etosha National Park

Day 279, Tuesday 09 October 2012 – Okaukuejo, Etosha, Namibia

We had moved the worst offending snorers to one side of the camp site last night so with a little less noise and the help of half a pill I had a great sleep, complemented by a wee lie in as we weren’t back on the road until 9:00. The campsite was typical of most of the campsites so far – dusty and dry, but there were some quite cool trees to photograph, I love the shapes of the dead, dying and otherwise leafless trees I have seen.

The road to Etosha National park, was not too bad, relatively smooth going considering some of the roads we have been on lately and the countryside here is positively lush, well less dry, dusty and arid then the previous days.

We stopped for coffee and a brief and largely unsuccessful internet session in Outjo and then hit the road again and stopped for a roadside lunch at mid day.

We were all dozing in the truck as we approached the park and I just happened to open my eyes as we passed our first giraffe just outside the gates. I will soon be bored with giraffes but it was very exciting at the time. OK, not really bored – no one can get bored with giraffes, but we don’t stop for them anymore !

The camp ground is a couple of hours drive inside the park, so for the first time on the trip we popped open the roof hatches and went game driving. It must look a wee bit odd.

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This end of the park has seen some severe fire damage and is quite badly burnt.

This did not seem to stop some of the wildlife and we saw a good collection of zebra, springbok and a couple of giraffes and a black back jackal. Some of which were photographable with the long lens.

Once at the campsite and set up for the night we set off for the nearby waterhole for the late afternoon drinking session – not us this time, but the local wildlife. I got there just in time for a small group of zebra, a couple of springbok and then some giraffe followed by three elephants that hogged the waterhole for quite a long time, loved it !

As the sun set this small group of zebra wandered off, kicking up a small dust cloud as they went, such a magnificent sight.

Ibron baked me a beautiful piece of hake for dinner and it had been flavoured to perfection. After dinner I went back down to the watering hole to see if I could spot the black rhinoceros which is apparently due at the waterhole at 8:00 pm every night, and he was there on schedule, but very hard to photograph in the dark – lit only by some strong lights.

A great day, our first game drive, first time seeing some of the animals here and tomorrow promises to be awesome!

Photographing wildlife is hard ! I was using the 2x extender on my 70-200 mm lens and pretty much every shot is at the maximum focal length of 400mm. Hand holding a heavy Canon 5d mk1 with this lens steadily is not easy and shooting at slowish speeds due to the low light made for lots of not quite sharp images. The rhino was shot using a tripod though. I may try and set the tripod up in the truck when we go to another park.

A day off in Swak

Day 276, Saturday 06 October 2012 – Swakopmund, Namibia

Today was the first of a couple of optional extra days – where we could do one of many self funded tours or just laze about. One of the great things with the Africa-in-Focus tours is that most things are included; a lot of the other operators have a huge list of excluded optional extras, which would suck. I elected to do nothing, though in hindsight I should have done the desert explorer trip as those who did it said it was fantastic.

I stayed in bed quite late, had a leisurely breakfast and then Leonie and I wandered into downtown Swakopmund to see the sites, not that there were many! Swakopmund was developed by the Germans around the start of the 20th century. Some of the old architecture still remains, but as always it has been modernised.

This store was a private concentration camp during the German conquest of the Herero people at the turn of the last century. Apparently there were a number of privately owned camps here.

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After dropping washing at the local laundry and a visit to an ATM and the internet cafe – and another coffee we wandered down to the local museum, which was OK. A typical provincial museum, though there was no mention of the massacre of the Herero people by the German settlers in the early 1900’s.

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I loved this kids toy in the park!

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The local tourist market was outside the museum.

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I was feeling quite tired and drained so headed back to the room for a lie down while a few of the others went for lunch. On the way back Leonie and I were stopped by a guy selling key rings carved from a soft stone, I ended up buying one with my named carved in it, mainly because as he said to me, there is no work. If he didn’t sell things he made to tourists then crime was the only other choice – no social services here. It only cost a couple of bucks and I would rather support individuals than the big stores.

I then managed a good couple of hours photo sorting, typing blog entries and listening to music on my own which was just perfect. One of the downsides of group travel and shared accommodation is a lack of personal time and space, and I do miss it. I was in desperate need of the blog typing as I have done virtually none since Cape Town and I was (and still am) days behind. I also found that the external hard disk I had bought as a back-up had been damaged in the truck and was un-usable, hopefully I will have enough space on my USB drives to back up the new photos on my laptop.

I shot up to the internet cafe again and uploaded the three posts I had written and then back down to the Desert Tavern for a couple of pints and to watch the All Blacks play the Springboks on the TV. We were the happier supporters at the end of the day.

Almost the whole group headed out for dinner with the aim of going to the seafood restaurant at the end of Swakopmund wharf as it had been recommended to a few of us. Sadly it and a couple of the other restaurants were all fully booked and we ended up a basic fish and grill place, which turned out to be fine. The food was good and plentiful and the prices were probably far less than the upper end restaurants.

On the way out for dinner I passed this seafood restaurant – obviously owned by Aussies.

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It was an early start (again) so everyone drifted off to bed after dinner. It was good to have a day off.

It has been a week of travelling now and I have been having a good time so far. I like the crew and the company I am with so have decided to do another two weeks at the end of the trip and visit the gorillas in Rwanda. I asked Brett the tour leader to email his boss to sign me up.

Spaar farm and Walvis Bay

Day 275, Friday 05 October 2012 – Swakopmund, Namibia

Only 5 days behind now, again!

Well it looks liked today was going to be another one of those wow days ! Loving this trip so far.

We were up early yet again to meet Boesman, the farm owner (manager ?) Boesman used to be a guide at Sossusflwei before the rules changed a few years ago and he has moved to the farm. He has a huge amount of knowledge on the area, the desert and all the beasties that live in it, on it and under it. Our hour long tour took almost three hours and was interesting and entertaining. Boesman does not wear shoes and hasn’t done for twenty years, wandering around the desert and the grass lands in bare feet. He is a deeply passionate and enthusiastic man and it comes across in his stories and his speech.

Our first stop was a dead oryx, it has been here for four or five months and like Dead Flei as it is so dry here it has not yet rotted. The oryx died from natural causes and has slowly been munched on by various animals since its death. Eventually there will be nothing left.

The grasslands here should all be desert, but the changing weather has meant more rain than usual and as the sea gets warmer each year the rain will only increase. At a small part of desert that was left Boesman showed us how the beetles and spiders live in the desert and get water. When this beetle goes up to the surface it excretes a wax that protects it from the harsh sun.

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After the tour we had breakfast and then packed up and were off again on our travels. We passed through this amazing gorge with some wonderful formations in the rock.

This marked quite a clear boundary between the different terrains and we were into more desert like area now. Late morning we passed by the Tropic of Capricorn…

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We stopped off at this really cool little rock that has grown out of the desert, we were not allowed up and into it as a permit was required, which was a bummer as it looked quite interesting.

Soon enough we were in Walvis Bay township, a largish town between the desert and Walvis Bay, the largest natural port in Africa. Walvis Bay has some good flocks of flamingos which we were there to see. Or some of us were, our driver, Will, just lay down.

The flamingos were pretty cool, and it was a good test for me to shoot moving animals at distance with the 2x extender on the 70-200mm at 400mm. Man that 200mm lens is awesome, so crisp.

It was then on to our final stop and our destination for the next two nights – Swakopmund, another big desert town. We stayed in the municipal bungalows in two room bungalows with two singles beds per room. It was weird not being in a tent for the night, though I will say I have been pretty comfie in the tent.

We all had showers and got organised and then went out for a group dinner at a local fish and steak restaurant that was part funded by the tour. I had a piece of kingclip a very nice white fish, though I did try a small piece of orix schnitzel. It was good night and a smaller group of us retired to the Desert Tavern next to the camp ground for a couple of (in my case ) whiskies.

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It was another awesome day, Boesman was great, the flamingos were cool and it was a good night.

OMG – Dead Flei – I was in photo heaven.

Day 274, Thursday 04 October 2012 – Spaar Farm, Namibia

Today was one of those days, when everything was awesome. I could have spent a day in Dead Flei alone, easy!

I took half a sleeping pill for the first time in a long while last night and slept like a dead man for six hours, fabulous ! Even with the pre-dawn start I still felt OK and was up and on the truck nice and early along with everyone else at 5:20 AM – we were warned in the pre-trip notes that there would be some early starts.

The reason for the early start was to get to Dune 45 for sunrise. Dune 45 is one of the larger dunes in the Sossusvlei in the Namib Desert. Dune 45 is the only dune open to the public to ensure the dunes are kept clean and tidy. There is nothing special about the naming of the dune, it is just the 45th one in the series. It is a magnificent dune !

The rising sun was pretty spectacular as we climbed up the spine of the dune to take photos. There were a large number of other people on the dune also watching the sunrise, including a very grumpy old man with a walking pole who would not stand aside to let people pass, forcing us slipping and sliding down the side of the dune, wrecking the lovely clean lines.

The dune was pretty special and the views were cool, but I just loved the trees the most. They are camel thorns, which are the only trees able to grow in the area, their roots go down as far as 80 metres to look for water. I took a lot of photos of the few trees scattered around the dune.

While we were yomping about on the dune Ibron was preparing the first cooked breakfast of the trip, there was bacon, sausage and eggs and coffee – lovely stuff.

After breakfast we made our way to the car park at Dead Flei to wait for the parks four wheel drive vehicle to come and collect us, it was a bit of push and shove to get on as there were a lot of people waiting and only a couple of vehicles. Our group had to do a gang charge on a vehicle just to get on ! A flei is a marsh, there is an underground river that surfaces every now and then and it used to pass by Dead Flei until a giant dune blocked its path and the river moved a kilometre to Soussusflei.

As the air is so hot and dry with a harsh drying wind to add to the fun there is no bacteria to aid in decomposition, the dead trees here are over 900 hundred years old. To say I LOVED Dead Flei is a massive understatement, it was absolutely stunning, the clouds above were amazing and the light was moody, perfect. I went straight to the far end of the flei and had to wait a bit for the more stupidly dressed (bright orange and red) people to leave before I took some shots. I was surprised to find I had a large chunk of the site to myself for quite a while, and shooting at 16mm meant I was up close to the trees. The trees are just so cool, I just loved them to pieces and the background was just superb, added with that moody light it was a photographers dream. Sadly I had a bit of crap on my sensor so all my shots have a dot on them, I have badly cloned it out on these ones.

I was dragged kicking and screaming away from Dead Flei and we walked on over to Soussusflei 1.1km away. Soussusflei was not as interesting, but the dunes were cool and the water allowed for some good reflections.

We were lucky in that the tractor and trailer arrived to take us back to the carpark soon after we were done otherwise it was going to be a long wait in the sun.

We went back to the campsite for lunch and to pack up the tents before heading off for our next stop in the ‘town’ of Solitaire. Solitaire is basically a petrol station and shop and a cafe run by Moose Macgregor. Moose has been here for many years and has been made famous on a couple of TV programs for his apple crumble. He bakes 100-150 kilos a day and it was damn good – as was the much welcomed coffee. Once you engage Moose in a chat, prepare to spend some time….

There is also a great collection of rusting old car bodies outside and I could have spent a bit of time there taking photos, it was a lot of fun.

An accidental hi-key shot, but I really like it.

I said it was a shame they had stopped recording the rainfall this year on Mar 27 – and was advised they hadn’t, it just hasn’t rained since then!

It was just a great place to walk around.

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On the way to our camp site for the day at Spaar Farm we saw a couple of road side ostriches so had to stop for a quick snap, not the best, but the first ostriches in shooting distance, and you never know there may not be another opportunity.

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We arrived in Spaar Farm late in the afternoon, we were originally scheduled to do a tour of the farm but it was getting late and the Nomad truck people were still on their tour and we ended up with a bit of time to ourselves so I wandered around and took some photos in the late afternoon sun before joining Will, our driver for a couple of beers in the bar.

The camp-site is great, there are only three camp spots and they are a reasonable distance apart, it was quite dusty on the site with a strong wind so we had to peg the tents down for a change.

It was such a good day !

On to Sesriem

I was slightly hung over when the sound of breakfasting people woke me at 5:00 AM, thinking it was time to get up I staggered out of the tent to find it was the Nomad truck people from the next campsite – I went back to bed for another half an hour before it was our turn to get up and start the day. I lingered as long as I could before dragging myself out.

Bizarrely, I found a group of young guys off of one of the other overland tracks applying hair gel in the bathroom – each to their own I guess.

We were on the road for 7:00 again, there was a long day of driving ahead and not a lot to see so it of was headphones on and head back for a doze. Once we clear of the more desert like surroundings and in to some quite well grassed plain lands we started to see quite a bit of wild life – sadly they were mostly too far away to photograph. We saw springbok, kudzu, dik dik, orix and some ostriches, awesome, just what I am here to see, it was very exciting as we spotted species for the first time, I only managed a fleeting shot of these springbok.

And these guys as we whizzed past in the truck. Donkey is quite a common form of transport here and the rear end of broken down cars and utes make for great carriages.

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The plains soon turned back into the moon like rocky desert and it was back to dozing again.

As we pulled into the small town of Bethanie for a coffee break the truck took a (slow) emergency stop, flipped a u-turn and headed back up the road in to the wilderness for a hundred metres before coming to a grinding halt. We were all wondering what was going on when we saw Will, our driver, come round the side of the truck with a small tortoise he had seen in the middle of the road and was moving to safety. We all jumped out and snapped a few photos.

After the excitement of the tortoise we stopped for an hour long coffee break in Bethanie, it was pension day so there was a number of people around waiting to get money out of the bank – and sadly in many cases go next door to the liquor store and spend it.

There was a cool little lizard hiding under a tree that got the full paparazzi attention.

The next stop was an amazing socialable weaver bird tree on the road side. The socialable weaver birds build massive joint nests in the camel thorn trees, I had seen a number on the journey and had wondered what they were. It was great to stop at a massive example and be able to taking some photos. The birds disappear as people first approach but come back fairly soon. I am not a birdie person but I could not help but get stuck in taking photos.

We stopped for lunch under a shade tree that is obviously used by a number of the tour companies on the journey through Namibia. I love these road side lunch breaks, I get to wonder around and take a few pictures as well as snatching a few moments of solitude. Some days I wonder if I take photos so I can disappear by myself for a while with the handy excuse of doing something creative.

It was a long drive to our night time stop in the “town” of Seisrem- basically three or four lodges and campsites on the side of the desert. I was really looking forward to the desert, two days of hilly grasslands with limited wild life had me edging for something different to see. An hour or so away from the camp site we entered a private game reserve area and started seeing springbok and oryx which we had seen before and had gotten a little used to. But, all of a sudden we saw a herd of something gathered in the plains and they were mountain zebra. Awesome in its awesomeness, for me this was the first taste of real wild Africa. Even with a 400mm lens they were too far away to get any detail – and way too shaky shooting from a truck – even if it was stopped. But wow – I am in Africa Africa now 🙂

Sadly we didn’t stay long before heading off to our night stop at one of the campgrounds in Sesriem, but it was great to have a shower. It is incredibly dusty here, thick sand everywhere – it was like Siem Reap in Cambodia – feet and legs are just going to be covered in dirt for a few days, before and immediately after a shower.

We went out for another sunset shoot, with Brett providing some great lessons to those in the group who are wanting to improve their technical knowledge of photography – tonight was a bit about white balance – something I do not worry about too much myself – and perhaps I should as I am not shooting raw at the moment. The sunset was not particularly spectacular sadly, but an ND filter would have been great.

Dinner was a fabbo pasta and Ibron had

made a very nice chilli soy option for the veges in the group, though I would have been more than happy with the beef mince! With a very early 5:40 am start tomorrow it was an early night!