GoneToSee

This used to be a diamond mining community.  It was started in the 1800’s and went through a variety of owners.  In it’s heyday it was Kolmannskuppe, German I’m guessing.  Now it’s known as Kolmanskop.  Diamonds are one of Namibia’s best friends.  They still mine them at several places in Namibia including one right next door.  Unfortunately, they’re a little uptight about photography, so no pictures.  If you try, they come and take your pinky ring away from you.

After WWI, the diamond market hit a slump and another more rich vein was found elsewhere.  Kolmanskop began it’s decline and by 1956 it was deserted and turned over t0 the desert and the blowing sand. Kolmanskop became a ghost town.  Many of the buildings here are slowly filling with sand.  I was here at sunrise this morning and the wind was a mild breeze but as the morning wore on, the wind picked up and by 1pm, it’s was hard to stand up and I was concerned that it was going to take the paint off my vehicle.

Here are a few images I made today.

You can see by the footprints in the sand that I’m not the only one who’s come here.  Normally, there are two tours a day and the area is open from 8am – 1pm.  However, one can go to a local agency and get a photographer’s pass that permits you to be here from sunrise to sunset for N$230.  That’s about US$17.50.

By the way, I haven’t mentioned it but you can click on any of these images and get a larger image to view.

Lastly, I neglected to mention it, and I wouldn’t have even noticed it if it hadn’t been for the dotted line across the road.  I crossed the Tropic of Capricorn driving here yesterday.

Tomorrow I head to Quiver Tree Forest.  More to follow.

Ron

I headed south from Cape Cross toward Swakopmund.  Another coastal city.  Much of this part of Namibia originated from German settlers.  Swakopmund is a pretty good sized city for Namibia.  The population of Namibia is 2.2-2.3 million.  There are 2.5 million fur seals in the country so they outnumber the residents.  Anyway.  I didn’t do much of consequence here.  Went on a half day catamaran cruise but it’s not worth showing you pictures.  I did go down to the jetty and take this night shot which I think is pretty cool.

From there it is further south to Sossusvlei which is a location within Namib-Naukluft Park.  It’s famous for these huge sand dunes ranging in height from 900-1200 feet.  Purported to be the largest sand dunes in the world.  The campground, just inside the park, is roughly 40 miles from the dunes.  The park gates open to the public at sunrise…6:45am but those of us in the campground get in an hour early.  The posted speed limit on the road is 60kpm or about 35 mph.  I was the second vehicle in line at the gate when it opened.  It was like the Oklahoma land rush.  I was trying to keep up with the other vehicles and we were hitting 120kph.  Obviously, this isn’t a patrolled road.  Everyone wanted to make it before sunrise.

There is a parking lot 4 kilometers from the end where all twe-wheeled vehicles have to park but the road goes another 4k for 4×4 vehicles.  I was following another truck and was in 4-wheel drive.  He got stuck and I stopped to check on him.  He was fine and was going to dig out.  I went around him and promptly got stuck about 50 yards down the road.  I had ask the guys at the reception desk when I checked in if I need to lower my tire pressure and they told me know.  Wrong!  I got out, lowered the tire pressure and shifted into low, 4-wheel drive and pulled right out the rut.

I wanted to photograph an area called Deadvlei.  It is a white clay pan that once was a shallow pool of water that allowed camel thorn trees to grow.  When the climate changed, drought came and the sand dunes encroached on the area and cut off the water supply.  The trees died.  It’s believed the trees died 600-700 years ago but because it is so dry here they don’t decompose.

Deadvlei is about a mile and half from the parking lot for 4×4 vehicles.  It’s like walking on a loose sand beach.  A little up and down over the sand dunes but not to back.  I  was breathing a little heavy but I made it.  Took me about 30 minutes to make the trip.  This area was my specific goal.  Here are some of the images.

On the sand dune behind these trees, a dune called Big Daddy,  you can see little things sticking up along the ridge.  To put this into perspective….those are people who are climbing the ridge.  You will notice that I don’t have any photographs looking down on these trees….for good reason.  I’m not climbing that dune!

On my way back to the campground, I shot these images of some of the other dunes.  I like the way the sun and the shadow played.

I spent two nights at Sossusvlei.  While the campground was great, I fulfilled my goal of photography Deadvlei.

I had planned a hot air balloon ride over the dunes for this morning but it was cancelled due to high winds.  Time to move on.

Today I drove further south….to Luderitz…about 6 hours south.  Tomorrow I go to Kolmonskop, a deserted diamond ghost town that is succumbing to the sand.

More later…

Arrived yesterday at Cape Cross, Namibia.  It’s on the west coast of Namibia and it’s home to the Cape Cross Seal Reserve.  There are hundreds, if not thousands, of fur seals here.  There was another entire group just over the next hill that I couldn’t see from the viewing area.  Here are a few images from my visit to the reserve.

These images don’t deliver the full magnitude of the odor that’s emanating from this gathering.  And everyone has an opinion.

Yeh!  I got the top of the rock and you can’t have it!

This is the Cape Cross Lodge and my home for one night.

The day before I was camped at Mowani Mountain Campsite.  There is a resort at the top of the mountain/hill but campers can’t use the facilities there.  Costs are $250-400 per person per night at the resort.  Less at the base of the mountain.  Here’s my campsite.

Nice and remote but during the daytime, the flies were constantly buzzing around your face.  At night, they were gone.

Driving from there to Cape Cross, I stopped a couple of times to photograph some Herero craft people in Ugab.  They make a variety of things but one of them are Herero dolls.  I bought a couple of small items so that I could take some photos.

I didn’t stop at the either of these hot spots but this town is growing with the times!

So far the Mall has one anchor store.

After passing through this area, I hit a stretch that was pretty barren.

Finally, there are four ways to deal with getting the laundry done on a trip like this.

1. You can bring enough that you don’t have to laundry at all.  That works better if your trip is about 12 days.  That one didn’t work for me.
2. You can send it out to the hotel front desk.  I’ve done that twice so.
3. You can wash a few things in the bathroom sink or the wash basin outside and hang them up to dry.  I’ve done that once.
4. You can use the alternative camp laundry method.  Or…..

You take a 2-gal ziploc bag, add cold water and some soap and a few items.

I’ve got the agitate mode down pretty well.  I can also handle the rinse mode, as well.

But I’ve got to work on the spin cycle and the tumble dry part.

At least I don’t have to do all of it this way.

Take care….

Ron

and gone to wildlife photography heaven.  In the course of the past two and half weeks, I’ve been fortunate to see most of the wildlife I had envisioned seeing on this trip.  Some of the wildlife are remarkable in and of themselves.  We’re all familiar with what elephants and giraffe and zebra look like.  It isn’t remarkable to see them.  What is remarkable to me is how many there are roaming like the herds of cattle I see regularly in Kansas.  We’ve all been to a zoo and we’ve see a handful of elephant or giraffe or zebra.  Probably even lions and leopards and tigers.  But here in southern Africa, I’ve seen zebra and elephants in groups like I see cattle at home.  And here you may have to stop your car on the road to let them pass.  I don’t do that at home.

This past Tuesday I signed up for a morning game drive in Etosha National Park in northern Namibia at one of the three resort/campsites within the park.  Our group met  at 6am with our guides.  There was six in one safari truck and five (I’m the single) in the other.  Our guide told us up front.  “We’re going to go see what we can find.  There are no guarantees.”  Of course, everyone wants to see predators…lions, leopards and maybe a cheetah.  Lions are the easiest of the three…but there is no guarantee.

First, it is cold.  All of us are wrapped up in fleece ponchos to try to keep warm. It’s not even daylight yet and we come across a herd of blue wildebeest.  Great!  Not enough light to photograph it but interesting nonetheless.  As night turns to day, we find groups of wildebeest, sprinkbok and area filled with a large dazzle of zebra (remember the test, they’re not a herd, they’re a dazzle).

We moved on…past another herd of blue wildebeest.  Then we move to a waterhole and we find two large male lions.  One is drinking and the other is simply lying there.  The drinking one finishes and moves away from the waterhole.  We return toward the end of our game drive and both of them are stretched out and asleep.  They hunt during the night and spend most of their day in the shade of a tree to stay cool.  The best time to find them is early morning.

It’s not the best shot in the world.  It’s backlit and some distance away but it’s clear what it is.  We take off and shortly come across a leopard at the edge of the bush.

We follow her (the guide told me it was a she) for about ten minutes as she moved along and eventually hopped up on a tree branch.

Meanwhile, our second safari vehicle had spotted a cheetah not far from where we were and we hurried to that location.  For comparison purposes, here’s the leopard on the left and cheetah on the right.  Notice the leopard has the shorter neck and larger head.  The cheetah is the fastest cat alive and can do close to 60 mph for a short distance.  If it doesn’t catch it’s prey in that 30 seconds, it has to rest before making another run.

We didn’t get a better look at the cheetah.  We had it for a minute or so and then it disappeared into the bush.  The leopard stayed around for nearly a half hour.  Crossing the road in front of us and eventually ending up about 10 feet from our vehicle.

Everyone on the truck was excited including our driver/guide.  It’s unusual to see a leopard.  It’s extremely rare to see both a leopard and a cheetah the same morning.  If Namibia had a lottery, I’d have bought a ticket!  It was an exciting morning.

We continued our game drive and as the light was improving we picked up a few more animals.

A Gemsbok or Oryk antelope.

  This is a blue wildebeest.  Actually it’s grey but that’s what kind it is.  There are also black wildebeest  but I haven’t seen one on the trip.  Kassie and I saw what we thought, at the time, was one in the rhino sanctuary but after looking at it again, I’m sure it was a blue wildebeest.  They have a sloped back that looks like it’s back legs are shorter than the front ones.

One of the attractions of the three resort/campsites inside Etosha are the waterholes.  Especially since they are floodlit at night.  (There was also a lit waterhole at another camp, Senyati, in Botswana.)  These waterholes are like small amphitheaters.  There’s usually some kind of natural rock seating, maybe a cover for the sun for viewers to sit and watch whatever animals show up….and it’s quiet.  Only whispers between viewers. There is also usually some kind of barricade.  A sloping wire fence that keeps the animals from the crowd.  At sunset, there could be 50 to a 100 people there.  During the day, giraffe, elephant, rhino, jackal are regular visitors.  Occasionally a lion may show but I didn’t see one and I only heard of one from another camper.  It apparently showed up about 10:30pm one night.

The floodlights give them the orange cast.  It’s difficult to totally remove it in editing.

The second day in Etosha I drove out to a nearby waterhole which was packed with springbok, gemsbok, jackal, ostrich and a small group of three elephant.  After a while, you become bored with springbox in particular…along with impala.  They’re everywhere and you ignore them.

A selfie in the side mirror….You can see another vehicle behind me.  There was probably ten vehicles along the rock barricade angling for a view.  The only thing between us and the wildlife was a row of rocks about the size of a basketball providing a boundary for us.

Here’s a couple of shots I happen to like.  The blue trees aren’t the actual color.  Just something I tried and liked.

Prior to leaving Botswana, I camped for three days at a place called Audi Camp.  It’s located on the eastern side of the Okavango Delta.   I spend one day on a mokoro trip.  The traditional mokoro’s are constructed from tree trunks but the government has outlawed anyone from building any more fearing the tree used would become extinct.  Now they’re built of fiberglass.  My poler, Tour (pronounced tore) said he preferred the fiberglass ones since the wood boats took three guys a month to build.  We moved through the reeds very slowing for about an hour and a half.  Went ashore on an island and hiked for another hour before having a packed lunch…seeing some zebra and elephants and then going back to the mokoro launch area.  I went out in a fiberglass one but returned in an original wood one.  During the raining season this entire area floods.

On the road from Audi Camp to the west side of the Okavango Delta, I took a side trip to Baine’s Baobabs inside Nxai Pan National Park.  They were discovered in the 1860’s by the British explorer and artist Thomas Baines.  He made them famous in his paintings.  These trees live for about 3000 years and have huge trunks.  It is difficult to age them because they become hollow as they grow.  Kassie and I saw one in Moremi Gorge that was believed to be about 800 years old.

They are on the edge of large salt pan for which the park is named.  The road is really just a track from previous vehicles.

Thanks for following my blog.  Time for breakfast and move on.

Ron

I’ve been told a million times, “Don’t exaggerate!”

In the past two weeks, Kassie and I stayed at a campsite where the elephants came right up to a patio for guests to sit, have a beer and watch the elephants up close.  We also stayed at a campsite that had an underground hide.  You entered a tunnel and worked you way to a small room where you could be close to whatever animals showed up at the waterhole.  We witnessed large groups of elephants and cape buffalo.

But this campground…Ngepi Camp…my first camp inside Namibia has a sense of humor that I sure people go back to her homes and talk about.

As you’re driving in, there’s a sign posted on the road for 4×4 drivers.

There are signs everywhere.

Behind the registration desk is the curio shop and the sign in the center on an upper beam says, “Nothing made in China”.

We’re all heard of shark diving cages.  This place has their own “World’s First”.

The bar’s a friendly place.

As we travel, we’re all worried about someone stealing our personal property.  They’re worried about it here too.

When you arrive at registration there’s a welcome board explaining all the activities available….game drives, sunset cruises, etc.  If you look at the sign…very bottom center…it says ablution tours.  Ablution blocks are what is commonly referred to as showers, toilets, wash basin and sometimes a separate area for hand washing clothes.

I thought it was another joke.

This is the ablution block I share with another campsite.  Yes it’s a unisex.  Just walk down the reed hallway and put up the stick that says “door” since there are no doors but this lets anyone entering know that it’s occupied.

Here’s another.  Gents go left:  Ladies go right…because they’re always right!

But no matter which door you enter.  Eventually you both end of here.

Notice the padlock on the toilet seat on the gents side.  The ladies get tile, toilet seat cover and small rug.  Now ain’t that nice?

This one’s self-explanatory.

Another ablution block.

Notice the bucket at the top.

The grounds at Ngepi are will attended to.  There’s a guy out raking the leaves out of the sand paths and open areas each morning.  There are three types of camping facilities.  A plain campsite like mine.

A already set up camp with bathroom inside and treehouses.  A lady from South Africa told me I could photograph her treehouse.  It has a mosquito net over the double bed but is open to the river side.

Last night Lydia tended to dinner being cooked over a wood fire in the open area.

It’s been a very relaxing day here.  I move on tomorrow.

A couple of additions to previous posts.  One my post about our game drives in Chobe National Park, I had meant to mention the monkeys we saw.  First were the vervets.  They are scavangers.

These cute little monkeys will steal your food and toiletries if you aren’t careful.  When we got out of our safari truck in Chobe for coffee and rust (hard cake that becomes eatable when dunked in coffee) we watched as the vervets jumped in the truck looking for food.

We also saw quite a few Chacma baboons.  In trees and on the ground.  These images are from Kassie.

Kassie also got this shot of three giraffe on the back side of these bushes.

We also saw these sable antelope.

Here’s a nice photo of impala, zebra and elephants all grazing together.

Finally, we saw quite a few kudu and I’ve shown you some of them already but I liked this shot with all the birds on this one’s back.

Hope you have a great weekend.  I am!

Ron

Today is Kassie’s last full day in Africa.  We’re going to spend it in Zimbabwe at Victoria Falls.  Our driver picked us up at our campground about 8am.  When we arrived at the border, another driver took over…helped us through immigration and drove us to town.  Our driver also had another couple…a young pair from Mozambique…and we headed to Victoria Falls.  As we drove, we worked out our schedule.  Obviously, we were there to see the falls but we also wanted to see them from a helicopter.  Kassie was also interested in trying ziplining.  Our driver coordinated our plans with the other couples and met us at each location, moved us to the next and arranged for everything we wanted to do.

This time of year is when Victoria Falls is at it’s lowest.  In the winter and early spring the falls are a torrent but due to the high volume you can’t see the falls for the spray.  Later, when the volume drops you can see the falls but they’re not as impressive.  They are still quite a sight to see.

Here are an assortment of pictures first from the ground.

Then we have lunch at the Victoria Falls Hotel.  A great old place that is still full of class.

We had lunch on the patio.  I tried the crocodile masala with noodles.  Pretty good!

Then we were off to the heliport.

That’s us…actually, our shadow…over a head of cows, I think.

After the helicopter ride, we were off to the zipline.

Then Kassie made her way to the launch site.

And a big smile when she was pulled back to the top.

Later we headed back across the border and our day was done.

On Sunday, I switched trucks from one agency to another for the rest of my trip.  I took Kassie to the airport in Kasane and she began the 30 hour trip back to Kansas.  She was a great person to travel with.  It was a tremendous experience for both of us.

I continue on…..

Ron

First a little test.  You may use the Internet or you can wait to the end and I’ll give you the answers.

First….we have a herd of cows.

Second, we have a ___________ of hippopotamus.

Third, we have a ____________of standing giraffe.

Fourth, we have a ___________of moving giraffe…either running or walking.

Five, we have a _____________of zebra.

Our second day at Chobe Safari Lodge gave us two game drives with Pangolin Photo Tours.  In the morning, we had Charl, our guide, and Kim, our driver.  Here’s our vehicle.

We didn’t shoot a lot on our two game drives.  We’d already shot lots of zebra, giraffe, more impala that we could count, etc.  What we wanted were lions.  We hadn’t seen a lion yet.  Finally, we spotted one, then two and eventually five but they were hidden behind some bushes and we couldn’t get a clean shot.  When we stopped to shoot, our driver turned off the truck to reduce the vibration.  After sitting there trying to find these lions, Kim tried to start the truck but it was totally dead. He called for help but it was going to be hours before they got there.  Apparently, there isn’t an Interstate distributor in southern Africa.  What else to do?  The four guys…three customers and our guide…got out and pushed and Kim popped the clutch.  It started and he never turned it off again that morning!  I’ve got a picture coming from one of the ladies and Kassie has it on video but I don’t have it to share.

Charl and Pangolin Photo took our group to lunch at a great pizza place in Kasane.  That Charl standing with the rest of our group.

While we were at the Chobe Safari Lodge, we stayed in a rondavel.

It was quite comfortable with a great view of the river.

After departing Kasane, we headed west to Muchenje where we camped.  We got there early and decided to drive ourselves through this part of Chobe National Park and see if we could find the lions.  No luck.

The next day, after checking out, we again decided to drive through Chobe as it was on our way to our next two nights camping at Senyati Camp.

Today, we hit it big with the lions.  We had stopped another safari truck and they told us there were some lions near the river and that the lions had killed a cape buffalo.  We headed there immediately.  Only problem was the kill was a long way from the road.

I’ve cropped this picture so that you can see there really are lions there.  Kassie and I sat there for three hours expecting the lions would eventually look for shade from the mid-day sun.   Finally, they started back toward us and they spotted three zebras.  It looked like dessert was on the menu.

The zebra made a run for it and the lions gave up and headed back to the shade.

They ended up about 20-30 feet away from our truck!

Here are a few other shots from the photo trips and the last is one of Kassie’s sunset pictures with an elephant.

And finally, this sunset shot from Kassie.  She had lots of great shots but I selected this one.

Now for the answers to the test.

It’s a pod of hippopotamus.

A tower of standing giraffe.

A journey of moving giraffe.

And a dazzle of zebras.

Sorry this one was so long.  I’m trying to catch up.

Ron

Kassie and I arrived in Kasane Tuesday morning.  I had made arrangements for four photo tours with Pangolin Photo Tours.  We had two boat trips and two game drives.  One each in the morning and one each in the afternoon.

We had the first one Tuesday afternoon on the boat.  Pangolin supplies each person on the boat (six of us) with a Nikon D7000 camera and a 150-500mm lens.  I used my own equipment but Kassie used the one supplied.

Our guide was Charl.  He did an excellent job of helping Kassie get started with what is not a “beginner’s” set-up.  The boat is equipped with a gimballed mount and swivel seats so the camera remains relative steady and you can swing from one side of the boat to the other.  As she took pictures, Charl walked back and forth between everyone helping where needed…and identifying the birds we were getting.  We didn’t need much help on the animals.  These are fish eagles.  Similar to our bald eagles.

We cruised the Chobe Riverfront looking at crocodiles.  This one would make a good purse or pair of boots, according to the other couple on the boat.

There were numerous hippopotamus on the island in the river and in the water.  These guys are big!

This is one hungry, hungry hippo!

The were herds of cape buffalo, as well.

Here is a selection of several birds we photographed.

This is a Glossy Ibis with a mussel he captured.

I’m quite please with these images but the “image of the day” goes to Kassie.  We were shooting this Malachite Kingfisher.  We’d followed it from branch to branch.  Finally, it settled on a branch and I fired away.

It moved again and then another malochite kingfisher, presumably the mother, came in landed and passed a small fish to the other.  Only Kassie nailed the shot!

Hopefully, this loads quickly.  I’ve had a lot of difficulties sending anything with photos until arriving yesterday, Monday the 12th, at Audi Camp.  The internet seems much faster here.

Ron

After spending Sunday self-driving through the Rhino Sanctuary we made it to our overnight destination in time for dinner.  I had reserved a chalet with two twin beds but when we arrived, it was a single double bed.  Kassie got the bed…I got the truck!  The chalet was powered by solar power so lights were extremely dim.  There was a list of rules most of which dealt with how soon your energy would drop to nothing if you turned on a hair dryer (I was safe on that one) and to only turn on one light at a time because when the power was used up, it was gone.

When we checked in we arranged for a guide to take us to the gorge at 7am the next morning.  Our guide was at the entrance promptly at 7…as were we.  Guides are required to go into the gorge.  Once underway, it was obvious why.

Tiko was required to go to 6 months of training before getting this job.  He was quite knowledgeable about local vegetation and also let me know he had a first-aid kit in his backpack.  Along the trail, there are a couple of places you had to hold onto a cable buried into the rock to get back to the trail.  We crossed several small streams by moving from rock to rock.

There are three waterfalls along the trail.  The first is rather nondescript.  Second a little more interesting and the third is quite beautiful.  Not Niagara Falls but interesting nonetheless.  This is waterfall #2.

This is waterfall #3.

The trip is 45 minutes up and 45 minutes down and we were on our way out of Moremi Gorge about 6 hours to Elephant Sands Campsite.  On our wait out of town we saw this man making bricks.  I stopped and ask permission to take his picture.  He said he makes 30 bricks a day.

Also, saw this home with watermelons for sale.

All along the road, little kids hollered at us and waved.

We got to Elephant Sands mid afternoon.  The place has a waterhole and elephants come to drink….literally feet from the restaurant/patio.

We also drove ourselves around the area looking for elephants in the wild and not at the waterhole.  They also wander through the campsite where we were set-up.

Sunset just outside the camp….

Our next stop is in Kasane near the Zimbabwe, Zambian border.  More on that later.

Ron