Our next safari adventure took us through both Namibia and Botswana and ended in Zimbabwe. There were many great moments, so I will get straight into telling you all about the safari, and hopefully tease you into the feeling that you have somehow missed out on a great time and make you want to sign up for an adventure yourself. No, do not worry - this is not a sales pitch - I really do enjoy sharing our adventures with you and getting the chance to make use of some of my photos. One day I will get around to creating a new website as a way to show some of the hundreds of interesting wildlife photos I have, plus it will get me into sorting out and making available some of the pictures that I have of so many of you on safari! I just need time - but then I would not be out there enjoying the wildlife with our guests - such a quandary!

Due to the timing of the flights into Namibia, our first night out of Windhoek was spent in a recreational area overlooking a dam and with a small game park, and so on the drive in and out we got to see our first Namibian wildlife as well as a family of Nyala - an antelope that was completely out of its normal range. We then headed further west through some great rolling hills and into the mountains, down a pass and arriving eventually at Sesriem and the entrance to the dunefields around Sossusvlei. After a quick snack we set off to explore the course of the now seasonal Tsauchab River. Along the way we found hundreds of the black and white quills that were the remains of a porcupine, which gave me the chance to explain and show how there are different quills designed for different purposes - the fine short “body” armour, the feeler quills, and the stout stabbing quills with their special sheath that enables these quills to pull out of the porcupine easily once embedded in the enemy! Unfortunately for this porcupine I think the leopard - the most likely predator in this case - had won the battle, though I am sure not without first having received a few painful quills embedded in its body! Walking along the riverbed and looking out across a desert landscape, one abruptly comes to the point where the river in eons past has exposed and washed away the substrate that cemented in place the water rounded smooth stones that make up the bedrock. At that point you are suddenly looking down into a deep canyon that the river has gouged out, exposing layers of the polished rounded stones. We descended down into the cool of the canyon to look up at the interesting mosaic of stones and shapes carved by the ancient river, and on to reach the point where the water still seeps out after its long journey underground from the mountains miles back, and where it collects into large pools of standing water - it is here that the many birds, animals, insects and reptiles are able to drink. We climbed back out of the gorge in time to see the sun set, but then had to hurry back out of the park before closing time.

The following day was spent surrounded by the impressive and picturesque red dunes of Sossusvlei. Taking off on the well beaten track into and over some of the low dunes we made our way to an area that, like Dead Vlei, was part of the old Tsauchab River course - here the advancing dunes had cut off the river’s access to the ocean so leaving the water to pool and then evaporate, and subsequently leaving behind the chemical substrates that had earlier been eroded out from the canyon many kilometres back. The resulting flat, white calcrete base now has huge towering dunes of red sand perched on top, which along with the cobalt blue skies above gives a great contrast of colour - add a few dead trees and it’s a photographer’s heaven! Once the scene had been well documented we moved on to Dead Vlei itself - which one has to say is even more impressive. In the photograph I took from half way up the tallest dune looking back down into Dead Vlei, the two members of our group at about a quarter of the way up the dune at the time are only just discernable, the two at the base of the dune just recognizable as vaguely human forms, while the two ladies about a fifth of the way across the pan are mere specks, and way off across the other side of the pan at the remains of some huge trees the people are no longer even visible. Instead of this photograph I have chosen to include some more active scenes that I managed to capture while everyone still had some energy left. It takes a good hour for the fittest guest to walk along the dune ridge up to the top of the highest dune (340 meters) that abuts Dead Vlei - but most of us are not that fit! To recover from the mornings excursions we continued on the short distance to Sossusvlei itself, where we voluntarily shared a packed brunch with a variety of the local wildlife - birds, mice and beetles! Later in the afternoon we took a more relaxing walk through the dunes, observing some gemsbok along the way before climbing to the summit of Sossus Dune for another spectacular 360 degree scene. Finally it was time to head back out of the park - the late afternoon light played with the colour hues of the sand dunes, before darkness engulfed the landscape but revealed a wondrous number of bright stars above. The next day an early start was in order so that the group could be in place for a dawn balloon flight over the desert landscape - this adventure ended with the traditional Champaign breakfast, which as is typical put everyone in a pleasantly mellow mood that was ideally suited for the next part of the day’s adventures - that is, relaxing and letting the miles of beautiful desert glide past in one vista after another, as we made our way across the Tropic of Capricorn, through two more passes carved deep into the surrounding landscape by the ancient river systems, and on towards the Atlantic Ocean. Oh yes, we also saw lots of bat-eared foxes, ostrich, springbok, gemsbok, a scrub hare, ground squirrels and six honey badgers along the way - all testimony to how much wildlife there is out there even in the most remote and harsh looking environment - one only has to take the time to look!

Although it is a more “touristy” thing to do, we would never pass up on the opportunity for a mornings boating out in Walvis Bay Harbour. There are so many great photographic opportunities to be had and it’s just plain fun! Over the many years that we have been enjoying these tours more and more creatures have become habituated to the boats, and so although the wildlife is still wild and free to depart at the end of each breeding season, there are many opportunities for close up encounters and to really see the creatures characters. Pelicans, gulls, cormorants, dolphins and seals all made it a busy morning, and with the right skipper at the helm the morning, as always, passed far too quickly - the only bonus of that being that the lunch, of fresh oysters, came around before we had time to feel too hungry! After lunch out on the water we returned to firma terra for the drive out to Sandwich Harbour and yet more spectacular and dramatic scenery. In the brackish water trapped between the towering sand dunes and the crashing waves of the Atlantic Ocean were a good number of flamingos. Occasionally some new flamingos would arrive, gliding in gracefully along the face of the dunes, causing delicate shadows to be cast on the sand. Using the hot air rising off the face of the dunes and the steady on-shore wind the flamingos would glide back and forth, slowly descending until making their final approach and landing amongst their compatriots. We returned to the vehicle for the exhilarating ride up into the endless dunes, until we reached a vantage point from where we could look down onto the lagoon below and along the coast line, where the incoming tide was now crashing up against the base of the dunes and effectively cutting off the route by which we had arrived. The way home was via a rollercoaster ride up and over the dunes, where we would use the long smooth 14 degree dune slopes to enable the vehicle to build up speed in order to catapult us up the steep slopes of the next dune. Every now and then we would take a “shortcut” - straight down the 30 degree slip face, surfing through the sand and listening to the sound of the dunes roaring, perhaps as if in protest of our invasion into this pristine world - but at least we know that by the next day the wind will have wiped out all trace of our tracks in the sand. On the way home we stopped at a spot where the adventurous members of the group made the most of the chance to try dune boarding - just you, a flimsy piece of plywood and the thrill of speeding down a 400 meter long dune slope!

We made the most of the shopping opportunities on offer in the quaint old colonial town of Swakopmund, before heading north up the coast along the “salt” road. To our west were the crashing waves of the Atlantic Ocean and miles and miles of deserted sandy beaches, while on our east lay miles and miles of sand! On the one side the icy cold wind whipped up the spray and sand of the dune hummocks along the beach, while off in the distance on the other side the heat haze shimmered and distorted the horizon - a desolate place indeed! - and of course a drive up the coastline would not have been complete had we not stopped off to record the further demise of the Skeleton Coast’s latest shipwreck. By mid afternoon we arrived at the Cape Cross seal colony, and the historic site of one of the earliest landings on this desolate part of Africa’s coastline by the early Portuguese adventurers of the 14th century. Being late in the season most of the mothers had left to sea for an extended period, as had all the males, and most of the pups had now been weaned and made their way out into the ocean to find food for themselves. Nevertheless there were plenty of seals remaining to provide a great wildlife spectacle. There were still a good number of mothers around with their late in the season pups still suckling, although most of the pups were now independent with many of them behaving much like your typical human teenagers - finding it much more fun to frolic around in the surf than with getting on and finding their way around in the big wide ocean! Every now and then one of the younger seals would make its way back up from the surf, hollering at the top of its lungs for its mother, and hoping to find her having returned from the sea and ready to provide a free lunch! - but in most cases the mothers had abandoned junior to his or her own devices, so after trying their luck at suckling from some of the still nursing females, the young seals would return to play in the surf once again, complaining all the way back. As the best of the late afternoon golden light began to fade we departed for the short drive to our night’s lodgings overlooking the ocean, from where we could still hear the sounds of the seal colony in the distance.

Our adventure the next day was to experience the great east wind! - the wind that blows hot and strong down from the interior mountain range, picking up millions of grains of sand and blasting everything in its path. We had an unfortunate direction of travel for the day, being almost directly into the wind. With this number of people aboard the vehicle can usually drive easily and comfortably at 120 kilometres an hour, but now we struggled to make even 80 kilometres an hour. By the time we made it into the shelter of the foothills around the Brandberg massive the paintwork on the front of the vehicle had been pitted, and all the glass of the headlights and the customized extra large windscreen had been sandblasted into an opaque haze (the windscreen had to be replaced). The wind speeds had been recorded at a steady 32 kilometres an hour, gusting at times to well over 40 kilometres an hour, yet once inland amongst the hills there was hardly a breeze. The lack of a “cooling” wind was especially noticeable as we later wandered up into the hills in the afternoon sun, whilst admiring the ancient rock engravings and learning about the history of the earlier inhabitants that are accredited with this artwork. Our last stop in the late afternoon was to a bottomless sinkhole from which, once the sun had set beyond the distant ridge of mountains, we watched a good number of bats flying out and off to feed. We returned to the lodge under a beautiful blanket of bright stars, which somehow always seem more impressive at this particular location.

The following morning, having recently discovered an area with lots of Welwitschia plants nearby to another geological feature, we made a small detour to take stock of these unusual plants that are endemic to the Namib Desert. Some of the specimens found are believed to be up to 1,500 years old, although none we saw were anywhere near that age. The “crown” of the plant looks a bit like the underside of an elephants foot, while the ragtag leaves that range out from the base of the plant are shredded and stiff as hard plastic and are in fact, despite their appearance, only two leaves that grow continuously, albeit slowly, from the crown. The male and female plants have different cones, and pollination is most likely via numerous insects, wasps and two unique beetles that live in symbiosis with the Welwitschia - one beetle feeds by sucking the sap from the plant, while the other beetle in turn sucks the juices from the first beetle upon which it preys. Having built up a good appetite ourselves we continued on, heading out of the hot desert to the town of Outjo for lunch, before the last short drive to the prime wildlife area of Namibia - but to read about the many thrilling sightings we enjoyed whilst in Etosha you will have to wait for next months newsletter.

Until next month....