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nutjob
Sport climber
Almost to Hollywood, Baby!
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Outstanding collections of photos and commentary, amazing trip of a lifetime! Supertopo has compiled an impressive list of good threads, and for me this is one of the best.
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Truly fantastic, both photos and commentary. Thank you so much for taking the trouble to post this. I have read each and every caption while marveling at all the photos, and look forward to more.
THANK YOU!
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Prezwoodz
climber
Anchorage
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 6, 2013 - 03:50pm PT
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Thank you Jan, nutjob, Donini, and everyone else who is taking the time to read this! Here's some more.
Ok I was sitting here rueing this post a bit. Mainly because it's going to be such an undertaking! Oh well, here we go!
My last post ended in the middle of our first day in Etosha National Park. Which is going to encompass a ton of photos so I won't commentary them all!
Giraffe
There were lots of Giraffe at this watering hole.
The funniest thing you will find at a water hole is a giraffe drinking. They get real close and then splay their legs out and bend down to the water. Then when they are done its a big wet slurp.
Most of the terrain in Etosha is flat great visibility. If it's standing, you'll probably see it.
Sometimes if it is laying down as well.
Oh and this is a Gemsbock, they are beautiful!
When we were at Kruger National Park we would head to the watering holes where there would occasionaly be animals. The problem there is that they have a lot of water located in the rivers and so the watering holes are not always so populated. In Etosha, you can easily just drive to a watering hole and wait the day away watching what comes to drink.
Its just amazing to watch everything come and go. In a few minutes the scenery changes to a whole new set of animals.
And they don't always get along. For example, this angry little warthog.
He went after everyone.
Not everyone was fighting.
A Kudu, it seems impossible for hunters to look at this animal without making a gun with their hand and pretend shooting at it.
This gal wanted to jump in and surprised everyone.
Springbok
Lots of them...
We were going on one of our normal drives, where we would leave the camp and be gone until the gate closed, when we ran into this guy. We came around the corner and he was walking directly toward us. I waited until he got pretty close then backed up until he decided to head off the road. That is really intimidating!
We went to another watering hole and found some elephants. That always makes Shasta happy. If you ever have a problem with an elephant, DONT honk your horn. It sounds like the babies to them and they will rip your car open trying to find them.
The elephant equivalent of NO PICTURES!! NO PICTURES!!
As we rushed to make it to the camp in time, if you don't get there when the gate closes it is a big fine, we found a Hyena eating a turtle! Definitely worth some pictures.
This is what the drive back to camp looked like.
Short intermission!
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Prezwoodz
climber
Anchorage
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 6, 2013 - 05:11pm PT
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Thanks Tami! Zambia is a cool place for the most part, I'd love to come back and fish for tigers some more. Glad you enjoyed the post!
Ok where was I.
Our first night in Etosha we stayed at Numatoni Camp. There are three camps within the park all spelled incorrectly by me as: Numatoni, Halali, and Okakuhejo.
We woke up the next morning to try and see some lions or another leopard. Instead it was a quiet morning at the water hole with some endangered black-face impala.
It was our first experience of seeing an Eland, which is Southern Africas biggest antelope.
Etosha Pan is well known for its mirages.
Zebra are not always nice!
Here a springbok is pronking. Its what they call it when they bound along.
This amazing and small mammal is called a damara dik-dik. They have very large eyes.
While we were in Zambia we met a few people who lived in Africa. One of them was named Longinus. He lived in a small village north of Oshakati in the northern areas of Namibia. He invited us to his house and we took him up on it. It was quite the experience! Here, i believe it was one of his cousins, is grinding the marula nut into a paste which was added to some oil. It was then added to chicken and pap (which is almost like a heavy paste of grits.)
In these areas the whole family lives in one "village" which is enclosed by a wall. This is where we stayed.
Here is Longi and his grandmum. Who seemed pretty spry. When we arrived we gave her a loaf of bread as a gift and had learned the proper way to greet with respect in their language. It went like this.
Walala po meme?
Ehh
Nawa?
Ehh
It is basically like saying:
How are you?
Good
You are good?
Good
Only with respect.
Because she was so happy with our gift and that they had visitors, we were given a live chicken.
Shasta was told to carry it back to our side of the village.
We took it back where Shasta and Longi's mom killed it and pulled the feathers. A few hours later we were eating it with our crushed marula nut oil. Delicious!
The view from our room, also the fire and dining area of the previous night.
Nature.
They use their crops for many uses.
Heres a little story I forgot about that previous day. We had tried to get into Angola. We previously hadn't planned on it but Longi said he liked to go up there and that it wouldn't be a problem, so we decided to try. We pulled into the lot and instantly got hassled by a few guys who were even making Longi uncomfortable. We walked into the customs office where the customs guy yelled at us "Watch those men! They are trying to rob you!" In the end it was a fruitless venture, as you need to apply for a visa ahead of time to get into Angola. Oh well, next time!
That morning after being in the village we stopped at a street vendor and ate Copani. Which is just beef. The red in the upper portions of this image is where they are cutting it right from the cow. Now that is fresh! And it was amazingly delicious!
We dropped Longi off at his work in Ondongwa and then headed back for Etosha National Park. Two days there was simply not enough! So here's a bunch more pictures of animals!
Goshawk
I believe this is a Large spotted Genet. It was hard to tell has he was hiding.
I had no idea that elephants rest their legs this way.
Sometimes spotting game in the park was a real trick!
Other times, it was impossible to miss.
You stay on your side...and I'll stay on mine.
The sunset routine is something like this : Just keep taking pictures, you are guaranteed to get something good.
We stayed that night at Onguma Lodge, as we had before. It was a great place and we were happy to return for our cheap camping. The sign had some odd advice however...
The next morning it was back to driving around. These days of driving the park are great but they have one huge drawback. For the most part you are never allowed to get out of the vehicle unless you are at a camp. That includes just stretching your legs. Here's part of the reason why...
And they do get close.
They were eating something and the Jackals were wanting in on it.
Random Zeb.
Steenbok
Red Hartebeest
Zebra's...reflected in a Zebra eye.
Laying down on the job.
And that is all I have uploaded for the moment! Tonight I am going to set it to upload and hopefully I have much more to post tomorrow. I have my favorite lion photos of the entire trip still to come!! Thanks for reading!
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Thanks again for posting!
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Brandon-
climber
The Granite State.
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Keep the pictures coming! Seems as if you're having an amazing trip!
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goatboy smellz
climber
Nederland-GulfBreeze
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Thanks for the trip Kelsey, your photos are very inspirational & show deep respect to the wildlife and culture.
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Delhi Dog
climber
Good Question...
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Loving the share, thanks so much.
Those are painted storks on the previous page if I'm not mistaken.
Wonderful colors captured.
cheers
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Prezwoodz
climber
Anchorage
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 7, 2013 - 04:20pm PT
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Jan, Brandon, goatboy, Dehli dog, and Tami - Thanks for the comments! :)
Here's another huge post.
This is going to be a big post. I apologize for those of you who have a bandwidth limit.
Remember earlier when I said we stayed on the Okavango? I finally got those pictures up. So here hey are!
This is a view from our tent.
Crocs and Hippos live in those waters.
Perfects evenings.
Now back on track...
We managed to find a place on Etosha Pan where you could drive onto the pan and actually get out of the vehicle. So we stayed a while and played around.
These are my feet. And this is what they look like since I arrived in Africa.
We jumped around a lot too. We don't get out of the car much so we took advantage.
Alas, we had to continue the drive.
Ravens.
More Jackals.
We were getting ready to head back to our camping area but figured we had enough time to check out one more watering hole. As I was driving down the road I spotted something sitting under a tree. It was a lion!! Finally!! We quickly slowed down and pull right up next to the lions as they were hanging out under the tree in the parking area.
There were two females and a big male.
I was very excited to finally get such close up pictures of wild lions!
As I was taking the shot above Shasta followed the females gaze and out of the trees walked 4 females and 3 cubs! We felt incredibly lucky to see 10 lions at once and we were right in the middle of them.
We looked out eachothers windows and snapped hundreds of pictures. The lions under the tree were less then 15 feet from our car while the others were on the other side at the watering hole.
Theres a lot of lion pictures...but I was so excited to take them that now I have to post them!
This little one was getting a little to close to the water.
So this one came and dragged it off.
This one was just watching. It's interesting because I really should have put my lens hood on but I liked the effect so much I just went with it. At time's its a bit much but overall, I'm happy.
The big male tried to mount a few females and then he walked around our car and gave us a good view from a different angle.
Had enough lion pictures yet? No? Oh good, me neither...
Okay I'll end this lion experience with the money shot. Color or black and white? I can't choose.
Okay, that was a ridiculous amount of lions! We drove back to our campsite, coming in a few minutes late due to a big bull elephant in the road who nearly charged a camper truck, and woke to another beautiful day. We were excited to see if the lions were still there so we went back to our water hole. I think it was spelled something like Neaumses. The lions were still there but they had moved off further away.
This bird was there too.
As were the Guineafowl. Because they are everywhere...
We continued to another watering hole, Reitfontein, and pulled up to find another 4 lions. These were further off but how lucky could we get!
To say there were a lot of animals at this watering hole would be a huge understatement. They were all a little skiddish.
So were just about to leave, figuring we've seen all the lions we will see for the rest of Africa. Then two big males come walking out of the bushes.
And now everything is acting a little more nervous.
After a while we decided to take a drive to find wild dogs. Which we wouldn't...so don't anyone get any hopes up because from what I have seen in pictures, they are unbearably cute. But we did find giraffe bones.
And the squirrel species called Chuck Norris Squirrels, on account of their giant nuts.
But there was someone nearby trying to take him on.
Yellow Mongoose, big carrier or rabies. How unfortunate for such a pretty weasel.
Okay, so were counting ourselves extremely lucky to have seen 16 lions in just two days. Were heading back and we decide to go to a place called Oliphant something or another (If you are really curious, I'll look it up proper). Once we arrive we see another lion. This is just getting to much!
What is he looking at? Oh, of course, its another male lion walking out of the bushes. He came right from where we were two seconds ago!
And behind him is another male. Thats 3 big males at this one watering hole!
Would you want to be attacked by this? Seriously, stay in your car.
That was a lot of lions. 19 lions in 24 hours. It was time to head back for our last nights stay in Etosha.
It was finally time to leave Etosha. I have to say I am sad to have to leave! I could spend another week in there driving around and seeing all those amazing animals. But there is a lot more country to see. So we continued our drive and stopped in a town who's name has escape me. We decided to go to a small crocodile farm and check it out.
They had lots of crocs at different sizes. Especially hungry ones.
We continued the really long drive toward Spitzkoppe but didn't quite make it before dark. We stopped at a place called Buschhotel and instantly Shasta and I fell in love with the place. We were the only ones there and it was an amazingly quiet, clean, safe, place.
If you go there, make sure you get room #3, it was the coolest room and only $50 per night for two people. We still camped, hey $16 is hard to beat, but we really wanted to do the room. But we are also pretty much out of money and coasting through Africa at this point! Just saving enough for gas and accommodation.
Dining on swinging tables.
Seeing weird trees.
A very german house and building. Reception is in there.
And then we arrive at the most awesome campsite yet and area. Oh and some rock climbing for those itching for some out of the car adventure!
It's the Spitzkoppe!
This is our campsite, there are bolted climbs on those rocks behind our tent. It took 5 seconds to get to or first climb of the trip.
This was a view to the right of our tent.
And from straight out.
This is the Spitzkoppe form the "easy" side.
Whew, that may be enough for tonigh. We'll see!
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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hey there say, wow! prezwoodz, don't know how i missed this, :O
but then, with slower dial up stuff this year i sure miss a lot, :(
and then, too, getting paintings and yard work, on going, have less time
to FIGHT with this ol' thankful-to-have-but-hard-on-the-ol-body, machine, :)
wonderful shares!!! did you get my email???
am sending the address in the morning... :)
happy safe trip, still, and more prayers...
god bless!!!
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Nohea
Trad climber
Living Outside the Statist Quo
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Right on! I've been from lanai, HI to St Petersburg, RU since you started and have loved this TR of sorts. Big Thanks for your efforts to carry us along.
Reminds me of only a week I had to visit in Kenya, and I have not been to zoo since.
Well I'm back on Lanai, camping by the beach, and just wanted to say Mahalo. Great thread.
Aloha, will
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Roxy
Trad climber
CA Central Coast
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wow there are some stunning pictures...you scored posting up at that watering hole, a who's who of African fauna!
great jumping shots...and crazy that asteroid was able to land in that little circled viewing area. Bulls eye! ;)
thanks for sharing, keep traveling!!!
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Prezwoodz
climber
Anchorage
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 17, 2013 - 03:59am PT
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Thanks Everyone for the posts!
Neebee - I've got your address from the email, thanks!
Tami - Glad your still following along!
Nohea - Where's the pics and TR of your journey??
Roxy - It was funny to see it in the viewing area. We expected something different too!
We’ve spent the last week attempting to get internet and its been a total failure for the most part. We got just enough to reply to some emails and that’s been it. We finally get a place that has internet and they forgot to pay their bill on time, so its been shut off and they estimate 6 hours before its on. Sometime around 2am. Which is the usual speed for anything to get done here in Africa, or as they would say “just now-now.”
Sometimes this is how things must be done in a country where you are not supposed to leave your hostel at night. I am writing this into Microsoft word, then I will transfer it later to the net and insert pictures there. Not always the easiest, but sometimes it is what works!
So, I think we were just getting to the Spitzkoppe? Well we didn’t waste any time and climbed a few routes our first day. Although I didn’t take any pictures of that climbing. It had been so long since we got on some real rock we were actually feeling pretty rusty and spent the day finding out how to move again. But where better then in the mountains to find a groove again!
Climbing in the Spitzkoppe is excellent. The rock is a very sticky granite much like Joshua Tree and there were plenty of fun sport lines on the massive boulders around the camping areas. Still, we wanted to climb something bigger. The guidebook quickly let us know that we would need two 60 meter ropes for almost any descent (we only had one) and trad gear was preferred (which we didn’t have). So it was slim pickens on the big routes. We decided on just doing a hike/scramble up a peak called Pontok 3, the nice big dome in this picture. There is an excellent looking trad line up the middle of the face.
We started our hike on a ridge and found the travel to be fairly easy.
We trudged on through some cactus and large boulder hopping that reminded us of home and Hatcher Pass in Alaska. The final portion of the hike is the best, it is easy 5th class scrambling up to the summit over slightly exposed faces with excellent views.
The mountains in Namibia seem to come from nowhere and suddenly rise to the clouds.
On top we found a rather old and nice summit register. There was even an entry from someone who carried their 8 month old to the top!
There are some really fun climbs on this section. Approaches are minimal.
At the end of the small road is a camping site. One of the many nestled amongst the rocks.
Local plant life taking over.
We decided to do some climbing on the formation that I showed in the picture above. At this time we were pretty tired after the hike. Especially since we had been sitting in the car for the last month taking pictures out the window! But it was great to be getting back into it. Shasta didn’t feel quite as confident on this one however.
It included moves like shoving yourself into a bulge head first and seeing if you could get out. Very awkward!
Then more fun moves to some bigger holes and another spot to shove yourself into.
Then a thank god jug and all is well!
Sort of…
But the approach was brutal. It took at least 5 seconds. But that was only because I parked so far away.
Many of the formations can be easily scrambled to the top for excellent nighttime viewing.
They also have some cool arches!
Shasta kissing a shadow.
And heres is a few more of the arch…because they can be quite beautiful.
I believe this is the tallest mountain in Namibia, Brandenberg Peak.
More Spitzkoppe Peak.
Some night time fun.
Pontok’s 2,3, and 4
The Rhino’s horn. Awesome! (John, are you thinking what I am thinking?)
By our final day our fingers were feeling quite tender from the very solid granite. So we decided on an incredibly easy (South African Rating 15) 3 pitch route up this lower face.
I got to the bottom and once again discovered I had left my climbing shoes at the car. It was fine though because I was wearing my New Balance Minimus shoes and they sure seem to grip the rock well!
Although to be honest some of the slabby sections seemed a bit steep for those shoes, and the 15 -20 foot runouts in a few sections made me feel a little nervous. But all went well. Shasta seemed to be enjoying it too.
A lot of not-yet-polished rock that reminded me very much of Tuoulmne Meadows.
It was a quick walk down and back to the car. One more shot of the face and the surrounding area.
As sad as we were to leave, it had to be done. There is still so much to see and our 4 days in the Spitzkoppe gave us a good light introduction. It was time to head to the coast!
Swakopmund is on the coast of Namibia and was highly recommended as a place to visit. When we got there it was mainly foggy and damp. It stayed that way the whole time we were there, but it was nice to see some water again. The first thing we did was visit a gems gallery where they housed the Worlds Largest Quartz Crystal on Display. It was pretty huge.
We only had a short time in Swakopmund so we decided on a boat and 4x4 tour that would be around 6 or 7 hours. The boat tour was interesting and included interactions where the seal would swim into the boat and then walk around. You could feed it by hand. There were a lot of them.
There were also a lot of very friendly pelicans which would land in the boat and then walk around looking for fish handouts.
They had very colorful red eyes!
Is that enough pictures of Pelicans? Probably....
But since they were posing so nicely. Here's just one more!
We also saw dolphins.
And Pelicans! Oh wait...
Get out of here pelicans...were on to dolphins now.
As you can tell by the weather it was a bit cold! Who knew we would be cold in Namibia?
We were in Walvis Bay which is apparently world famous for oysters. Here are some oyster farms.
They are very proud of their oysters and say they are less slimy and more meaty. I didn't notice to much difference but I'm not that well versed in oysters.
What is that....?
Ok guys seriously?! You had your turn pelicans...ok that is pretty cool.
Oh and there were seals. But we would see many more of those later.
And Humpback whales. A very active day for wildlife!
We then landed back on shore and hopped into a land rover with a few other people to be driven to Sandwich Bay which, we had heard, was supposed to be excellent. On the side of the road were flamingos! I had been wanting to see flamingos this entire time! So here's a bunch of pictures of them.
Greater and lesser flamingo's!
That should be enough for now! I was going to post more but just found out that I don't have any of the next photos online! Somehow I uploaded some from later but missed those. Double darn!
Hopefully I can post some more soon!
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crøtch
climber
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Jul 17, 2013 - 10:44am PT
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Awesome photos, Kelsey!
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Delhi Dog
climber
Good Question...
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Jul 17, 2013 - 11:26am PT
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My vote is the B+W on that lion image.
The sunrise/ sunset colors especially the tree is killer!
Maybe you already shared this but what lens have you found to be the one most used?
Maybe somewhere in Africa will be my next move I'm thinking.
Keep them coming! Absolutly wonderful.
cheers
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Brandon-
climber
The Granite State.
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Jul 17, 2013 - 12:09pm PT
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Hopefully I can post some more soon!
I sure hope so!
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Prezwoodz
climber
Anchorage
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 17, 2013 - 05:41pm PT
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Finally the hostel got its internet running again. Time for a big post.
Dehli Dog - I use a 70-200mm f2.8 with a 2x converter for all the up and close stuff. I wouldn't come to Africa for pictures without at least one lens thats 400mm or more!
My last picture was of flamingo's (if you haven't seen those in my pictures yet there on the previous page).
Our drive continued from a paved road to a dirt road, then a salt road, then something consisting of sand which resembled a road. Namibia is one of the only places in the world where the sand dunes meet the ocean and it was this sight that I most wanted to see on the 4x4 trip.
As was normal with our Swakop trip, the clouds obscured most of the view.
But when the clouds opened.......it was an incredible sight.
Behind Shasta as she climbs the sand dune, is the Atlantic Ocean.
And there are so many!
The sand dunes further inland are much more red (pictures of these later) because the dunes contain iron, which has further oxidized at that point. Now it's fresh and a bright orange.
Sandwich Harbor
Awesome shapes.
The atlantic ocean, Sandwich Bay, and the sand dunes of the Namibian desert.
More shapes, and iron deposits.
Shasta giving thanks to the mountain gods.
Then trying to fly, because that's what we do off of every dune!
I like this one.
But this ones great!
On our drive back our guide took use driving across the dunes and we parked on top of this one. The dunes in Namibia are the tallest in the world. It's amazing how they sweep down so steeply.
But there is life out there.
We decided to do something I've wanted to do since I was a kid. Visit the Skeleton Coast! I mean, who didn't want to when they first heard about it? Right away we come across a wreck. While it wasn't an especially old one, it was helping give name to the coast.
We continued along the coast which is wide open, with some hills and mountains off into the distance. The scene is barren and seems lifeless. But along the coast, this is anything but true!
This is the Cape Seal Colony. It's huge, smelly, and noisy!
But, as with all the other animals, here's a bombardment of photos!
Oh it smelled so bad....
You could not pay me enough to club one of these baby seals....How could anyone do that?!
Except that one....he's scary.
And mean!
But some are so cute! Here is Shasta being daring.
They love the water too.
And talking back.
And synchronized land movements .
But not fishing line...think about that before you toss your excess line in the ocean!
We stayed the night about 108km down the Skeleton Coast and the next morning drove back toward civilization. Along the way we saw Meerkats! Another animal I had been wanting to see! It was quick, but they posed just long enough for a shot.
That was the end of our fun along the coast of Namibia, it was short but very enjoyable. We decided to drive the paved roads through Windhoek and south to a small town called Sesriem. We could have shaved about 200km from our drive by going along dirt roads, but the risk of flats are high and we wanted to avoid that if possible. Our trip through Windhoek (the largest city in Namibia) wasn't generally unpleasant and after a quick lunch we continued along our way. We did stop just outside the city at a war memorial that was pretty cool. It was being worked on and we parked in the center of the main square. I'm pretty sure that wasn't right but I had no idea where else to park.
And the drive continued on. We drove many of these types of days, around 500km or more. This one was over 650km.
Ol' Bluebear is looking a little rough.
Oh and we stopped that night at a place called Hammerstien Lodge. It wasn't exactly what we expected but it was pretty cool. Here is a leopard, her name is Lisa.
Had enough leopard photos? No, of course not! It's a Leopard!!
And a Caracal! There like really big cats with small heads and big ears.
The money shots.
Why yes, I would appreciate it if you posed there and looked off into the distance.
And nearby was the fastest land mammal.
Those eyes make you feel like lunch.
And the claws make you feel all minced up.
Camouflage.
This was Shasta's favorite bird of the trip. The red breasted shrike.
Break Time!
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goatboy smellz
climber
Nederland-GulfBreeze
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Jul 17, 2013 - 05:53pm PT
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Outstanding!
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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Jul 17, 2013 - 06:36pm PT
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I hate to ask what you do for a living, because if it ain't taking photos, then something is wrong.
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Prezwoodz
climber
Anchorage
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 18, 2013 - 03:09am PT
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Thanks goatboy and k-man for the replies!
"A living" can be such a variable term!
This is my last morning in Africa and I am in Durban, SA. This place is known for having over 320 days of sun per year! And over a total of 7 days, we've had 3 days of rain. Doh! Oh well, good for continuing the post!
After Hammerstein Lodge we continued along the dirt road toward Sesriem and a park area known as Sossusvlei. We had heard great things about this area so we expected much.
Have you ever seen a picture where you immediately thought "I have to go to that place, and try to take that picture"? Well the picture of Namibia that made me immediately do that was a recent one from a National Geographic Photographer. It was the image here:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/06/namibia-park/behind-the-photo
Now, before I go into these images I'll admit that I wasn't about to get the shot. Not for lack of trying though! But I'll go into that later.
We arrived in Sesriem and got our campsite all figured out then headed on a drive into the park.
These are the red oxidized dunes that I was talking about earlier. This area is considered the oldest desert in the world!
The area is very well known for its "vlei's" which are pans of water that dry during the dry season and for its dead trees that are left after the dunes pass over them. Some as long as 600 years ago.
The desert was teaming with life.
Our first day there we only had a few hours so we took a short 2km hike over the sand to an area called Hidden Vlei. This pan was very quiet and the were the only ones there.
AFter the hike, which took longer then we hoped and sure felt like quite the slog, we headed to an iconic dune called Dune 45. Which was really windy!
Just taking my camera out in this probably added a new layer of dust to my lens/sensor.
But how could I miss out on these views?!
Such amazing shapes of beautiful red dunes.
And the way they seem to instantly disappear into the valley floor.
If you've seen postcards from this area, they probably looked like this, with this dune.
We went back to camp and spent the night looking at the stars though our tent, since we had still never used our rainfly. The next morning we were up at 5am to be through the gate by 5:45am when it opened. We drove with a convoy of other cars to the end of the road and paid $10 each to get a drive by 4x4 into the Deadvlei parking area. Unfortunately an unusual mist had settled over the dunes and turned into clouds. But we pressed on.
And this is the reason I couldn't get that iconic shot. It was made by waiting for the morning sunlight to fall down the dune until just where it reached the pan. We had even light until well after the sun was up. Oh well, maybe next time!
And now we get to the point where there are going to be a lot of images of dead trees and sand dunes. If you really just don't care about them then I urge you to scroll quickly!!
We decided to hike the biggest dune in Africa, which they claim is the tallest in the world. Not sure about the specifics but we'll go with it even if google doesn't.
It's called Big Daddy (seemed like a terrible name for such a feature) and we did our usual antics from the top.
Deadvlei from above.
This dune is really big! I was very excited to run down at full speed off the tallest dune so I set a timer and ran for it. It felt like it took forever and my legs were exhaused by the end! It was like a full sprint downhill! My clock said 8 seconds but I think it broke. Was more like 20 or 30 I think. Who knowsl but it was awesome!
The pan.
Shasta all bundled up! Always a smile on her face, best girl in the world!
Those tiny dots on top of the dune are people.
And then we finally got a little relief from the clouds and the sun decided to make a visit. I was able to shoot some images that made me happy and I was thankful for that.
We spent quite a bit of time there.
A few other souls climbing their way up Big Daddy.
While I didn't get the shot I was aiming for, in some ways I feel we were quite lucky for the weather. It was unusual and that made the shots interesting.
See you later Big Daddy and Deadvlei.
Breakfast break!
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