All labelled with location as far as possible. They are in chronological order. The shots aren't arty - just records. Some birds - especially the secretary bird - were extremely unco-operative and do not figure in the pictorial record. There are some duplicates from different locations. List of seen but unrecorded birds at the end - sorry, you'll just have to trust me on those! (L) lifer. If you find errors (Derek!) please let me know so that I can make corrections. Pied crow - Soussusvlei. Arid desert/dunes. Assorted sparrows enjoying crumbs in Solitaire. Short toed rock thrush - Solitaire. Desert biome. (L) https://www.solitairenamibia.com/ Greater flamingoes: the Lagoon, Walvis Bay (L) Grey heron: the Lagoon, Walvis Bay Lesser flamingo: the Lagoon, Walvis Bay (L) Walvis Bay is on The Skeleton Coast which is washed by the Benguela current. Much of the moisture comes from morning fog, rolling in off the sea. It is also well known for its salt pans which the flamingoes...
So, a quick tour of Windhoek, the capital city of Namibia. Namibia was originally colonised by Germany and this is evident in some of the older architecture. The country was also a part of South Africa till 1990 so guess what - townships. The HQ of the ruling party - SWAPO The monument recording Namibia's independence. Namibia's first president - his statue is in the previous photo. Christuskirche - more info: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christuskirche_(Windhoek) Then onwards and our first (but far from last) experience of an African massage. Namibia's roads are mainly gravel. The Namib is the world's oldest desert - but forget Saharan sands - this is a whole different, and infinitely varied, landscape. The tree has a huge sociable weavers' nest on it. For reasons which will become obvious, I'm not giving the precise location of our lodge for the next couple of nights. It did, however, offer an optional evening safari and we decided to take advan...
Up before dawn so that we hit the time the gate opens. This is pure desert time with spectacular dunes. The red colour indicates how ancient this desert is as it takes a long time for the iron ore particles to oxidise - the oldest dunes are 5 million (give or take). The redder the dune, the older it is. The actual desert is 55 million years old. Dunes begin as a small bush. No bush = no dune. Every dune in Namibia has a plant at its base. Seeing the dunes from the air seems popular. Big Daddy - the highest of the dunes. Yes, those are people climbing it. Jack - wondering whether to climb it. These camel thorn trees are thought to be 900 years old. The atmosphere is too dry for the dead wood to rot so they remain, petrified. There is life here. Sesriem canyon. It used to be 3/4 full of water in the wet season. When we visited, it was completely dry.
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