Showing posts with label Namibia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Namibia. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Paul's Country Review: Namibia

Another beautiful country on the African continent, and we went on another safari to look at all the crazy wildlife. We rode in the back of another uncomfortable vehicle and got bounced around on the "highways" of Namibia. Despite the repetition, it was still a good time; even if the animals laid around not wanting to do anything. This because Namibia is in the middle of one the worst droughts on record and it was frikin hot! And dry! 

I wasn't all that interested in the wildlife having just seen it in Tanzania, but loved the countryside. I really liked just staring out of the window. One difference I noticed between the eastern African countries and Namibia on the west coast is the diet. Namibians eat a lot of meat. I joked that we are on a real game safari. This is where you spot an animal, photograph it and only then, can you eat it. Didn't see the oryx hiding in the bushes? Then you can't enjoy oryx fillet for dinner that night. We ate Zebra, Oryx, Kudu, Ostrich, Panda, Human - all of which was delicious and just better tasting than beef. Surprisingly not gamey at all and I became excited about the next animal I would sample. Relax, we didn't eat panda. But you can imagine, right? I would definitely eat here again.

We were also extremely fortunate to travel with some great, fun people. We are never really pumped to spend all of our time around total strangers, especially when you are as socially awkward as I am. I still don't understand why people get upset when I stand right behind them while breathing heavily, my hot breath tickling their necks - what's the big deal! All in all we had a lot of fun spending time with the group, falsely identifying the animals we found (Namibian Attack Crow?), drinking at the camp bars and other EXTREME! stuff.

Here are some photos of the animals we saw, animals I ate and some dirty kids I threw around. Enjoy.

I ate you


I ate you

I didn't eat the giraffes

I ate you guys

And you

I ate you too

We sat here for hours waiting for Ace Ventura to emerge

mmmmmm zebra

mmmmmm kudu

They were dirty

But they manipulated me into friendship by tugging on my heart strings

Team EXTREME (that's Frans' hand on the left - Christine's photo skills are slippin')



Namibia Part 5: Cheetah tracking and departure

On November 17, our last day of the safari, we drove back to Windhoek. On our way there, we stopped in Solitaire, a small town with a population of 92. We met up with a biologist from the Namib Conservation Centre to track some cheetahs.

Pretty bird at Desert Camp

Driving to Solitaire

Passing by some wildebeest

Population 92!

Why hello, Southern Masked Weaver (aka juvenile Namibian yellow attack bird)

Here it is flying into a nest

Fluttering

Action shot

Hanging on a branch

Ready to fly in

Made it!

Spartacus found us first so I got some good photos of him before we set off to track the other cheetahs.

Spartacus wanted to know what we were up to

He was very weary of us

Not too thrilled

I loved taking photos of him though

Looking off into the middle distance

Still staring us down

He eventually got tired and sat down

But would make funny faces at us

He's wishing he had some Cheetos right about now

Scary!

Mmmmmmm Cheetos

Muggin' it

He was just yawning

We then went to find some more cheetahs...tracking paw prints. We lost them for a bit but
Paul licked some grass and picked up their scent again. He's really learned a lot during our safaris. 

We found Rusty

She is 4 years old

Rusty (walking)  hunts with her mom, Laura (sitting),  who is 11 years old

Pretty cats

The two were quite annoyed with us so we let them walk off into the distance

After arriving in Windhoek, we had dinner with the remainder of the group one last time before everyone parted ways. We went to Joe's Beer House where they served some pretty good food!

At Joe's Beer House - skulls of a wildebeest, kudu, and oryx

We left Namibia for Cape Town, South Africa on November 19.

Paul was shedding a tear when we left Windhoek

Bye Namibia - we'll miss you and your delicious meats!

Namibia Part 4: Namib Desert

On November 16 we headed towards Sossusvlei and Deadvlei to see the amazing sand dunes and the salt/clay pan. This was one of my favorite days on our tour of Namibia.

I love how you can see the mist/dust in the background and the impala grazing in the corner

Hot air balloon rides

One thing that we have yet to do - still on my list!

Sunrising

More pretty scenery

Ostriches milling about

Lonely ostrich with sand dunes in the background

Love the shadows

Lone tree

More dunes

So red!

Dune 45 is the most photographed dune in the world, it stands over 170 meters and is composed of 5 million year old sand 

Surrounded by sand dunes

Very pretty

We had to take a 4x4 and drive towards the area where we would climb "Big Daddy"

Driving along

So simple yet so pretty

The shadows and shapes of the dunes were amazing

We didn't climb this dune but climbed "Big Daddy" instead

Big Daddy is the highest dune in the Sossusvlei area at about 325 meters high and yes, we climbed it. I honestly thought I would not make it - either by tumbling down the dune or because I was extremely out of breath! After climbing Big Daddy, we ran down the dune to walk through Deadvlei. Deadvlei is a clay pan that used to be an oasis for acacia trees. It now is home to blackened, dead acacia trees - which make for good pictures!

We didn't follow the markers - instead we climbed up Big Daddy!

The rhino beetle is one of the "little 5"

Dried plants open right up when you pour just the tiniest bit of water

Animal tracks in the sand

Dried salt and clay

Pretty

More tracks

The wind makes the patterns so evenly

I'm not sure what kind of animal made these tracks but they are tiny!

Lonely tree

Heading towards Big Daddy!

Cracks

Slinky shot!

Walking towards the big one

Pretty landscape all around

Panoramic

Starting the long climb up

Bunch of lizards slithering up as well

Hello Mr. Lizard

It almost looks impossible

Looking down towards where we started

My shoes still have sand in them

Yay, we made it to the first resting point

Another lizard next to our footprints

The white clay pan to the left is Deadvlei

Doesn't look real!

A view of Deadvlei with the dead acacia trees from Big Daddy

The colors are amazing

Thanks for the photo bomb, Matt

Another painting like photo

This is the top of Big Daddy - we did it!

Photos of the view at the top of Big Daddy

Deadvlei - our next stop

Running down the dune

Gives you some perspective of how big these dunes are

Walking down

Makes me feel small

Looking back towards the top - quite steep

Stopping for a selfie with the dunes behind me

We made it down...with about 20 extra pounds of sand in my shoes!

These trees have been dead for hundreds of years

"What!"

More cool shots

Unreal

We had a visitor during lunch

Caterpillars by Dune 45

An afternoon close up of Dune 45 - looks quite different without the shadow

Wooly Mammoth Caterpillar

In front of Dune 45

More scenery - that is an oryx

More oryx - one was looking left, the second looking straight towards us and the third was looking right

We headed back to Desert Camp to rest before exploring the Sesriem Canyon.

This is Sesriem Canyon

It is a natural canyon carved by the Tsauchab river

Sesriem in Afrikaans means "six belts"

It was given that name because it would take six belts to reach buckets down into the canyon to scoop up water

It was a nice little canyon

Mustache Kitty, get down from there!

Francois told us that this was the nest of a type of ostrich that adapted to living
in the canyon so it could climb the canyon rock using its beak and claws...
I'm so gullible, I believed him!

Cool shadows and rocks

PARKOUR!

Cool

Bye bye Sesriem Canyon

After a long and exciting day, we headed back to camp to enjoy the evening view.

The moon's in the middle 

Just loved this view

Pretty colors