Erongo Mountains, Namibia D5
Day 5 in Namibia found us setting out at sunrise on a hike through the Erongo plains to visit Phillipps Cave, a shallow cave hidden in the steep granite cliffs of the Erongo mountains. The cave, which is a national heritage site, is famous for it’s cave paintings by the nomadic San People (Bushman), which include hunting scenes, antelopes, giraffes, rhinos, ostriches, antelope, springbuck, kudus, zebra, the famous white elephant, and 6 imprints of human hands. Some of the paintings date back to approximately 3368 BC. As always, click to enlarge.
Sunrise Hike to the Cave
Man Hunting Ostrich
Antelope
White Elephant.
Men Standing in Cave
Man Sitting in Cave
Family Sitting in Cave
View from Phillipps Cave
Stone tools dating to 3500 years BC,
View from Phillipps Cave
Bearded Dragon protecting the cave
Ants drying their grass seed harvest, a morning ritual.
Female Greater Kudu welcoming us on our return to camp
Tinkas Plains to Erongo Mountains, Namibia D4
Day 4 in Namibia had us setting out from our first wild campsite in the Tinkas Plains and driving to the Erongo Mountains. Throughout the day we were treated to extraordinarily beautiful landscapes and the most amazing wildlife. As always, click to enlarge.
Breakfast in Tinkas Plains
Three generations welcoming the morning sun
On the road again
Rock formations in the Erongo Plains
Quiver Tree, a succulent plant indigenous to Southern Africa, get its name from the San people practice of hollowing out the tubular branches to make quivers for their arrows. Quiver tree numbers are in decline as a result of climate change.
The dried leaves also make for great Commedia dell’Arte masks!
Ostriches
Springbok herd
Shieldback Katydid. These pests covered almost every bit of foliage and fencepost throughout all of the Tinkas and Erongo plains.
Safari Guide wannabe
Sascha with his new friend which he narrowly avoided while driving down the road
This massive monitor lizard strolled across the road an hid from us in this tree. Our guide Sascha says that this was one of the largest monitor lizards that he had ever seen.
Warthog
Puff Ader in Tinkas Plains, Namibia
Look who came to camp this morning to wish us well on the next leg of our journey! A cute little ol’ Puff Ader, a card carrying member of the venomous viper snake species which is considered responsible for the majority of snakebite fatalities in Africa.
Milky Way Over Tinkas Plains, Namibia
Night three found us in our first remote (very remote!) wilderness campsite. Namibia is one of the darkest locations on earth, and the desert’s extremely dry weather and pristine skies make for the most astonishing views of the heavens. Here is my shot of the Milky Way over a rock arch and cave in the Namibian desert. The girls and Sascha can be seen contemplating life in the cave. Their pow-pow was soon cut short when Shayna found a large scorpion crawling nearby.
Sossusvlei to Tinkas Plains, Namibia D3
Day three in Namibia had us setting out from the dunes of Sossusvlei and headed to our first wild campsite in the Tinkas Plains. Our path brought us through Solitaire, a “settlement” that consists of a general store, a small lodge, the only gas station for miles, and the world famous “Moose McGregor’s” bakery. Located on the crossroads of long dusty roads from Sossusvlei, Swakopmond, and Windhoek, Solitaire was the perfect spot for the scottish adventurer and baker Percy “Moose” McGregor to open a bakery and begin to sell, among other delicious desserts, his (soon to be legendary) German style apple pie made from an old family recipe. After hours of dusty and bumpy driving on endless rutted desert roads, a piece of his pie (à la mode, of course!) came in as one of the most delicious and gratifying meals (yes, meal) that I have ever eaten. Pie score: 11 out of 10.
Little Sossus Campsite
Upon our arrival to Namibia, we were immediately whisked away for our first big drive into the Sesrium region of the Namib desert. Our first two nights were spent camping at the Little Sossus Campsite, where sweeping panoramic views of the surrounding Namib plains provided an exciting introduction to wildlife watching as well as a few epic happy hour sunsets. Click images to open hi-res version.
Our travel vehicle was a Unimog, a German vehicle built by Mercedes Benz which is designed to withstand the most challenging drivable terrain in the world. Ours had been totally stripped down to the chassis and built back up to be a super long-distance safari machine capable of driving days between fuel refills in the most rugged terrain in Southern Africa. Inside was passenger space as well as food, a small fridge, a freezer, and our luggage. Behind we pulled a trailer with all the cooking and camping gear.
Our accommodations ranged primarily between campsites like Little Sossus Campsite, which had running water and washing facilities, to remote wilderness camping, where for as far as the eye could see, there were no signs of civilization. We did make sure to finish the two weeks off with a few nights in proper beds.
Watching a small nearby watering hole adjacent to the campsite
Namib plains
Blue wildebeest visit the watering hole
Epic Namibian sunset
Springbok and Oryx on Sossusvlei Flats
The drive from Sesriem, the gateway to the region, to Sossusvlei takes slightly over an hour and the park gates are only open between sunrise and sunset. As expected, every km/mile of the drive is breathtaking.
Springbok
Oryx
Oryx
Eerie Skeletons and Towering Red Dunes of Deadvlei in Sossusvlei, Namibia
Deadvlei (Dead Marsh) is a white clay pan in the Sossusvlei area of the Namib desert, Namibia. Surrounded by the highest sand dunes in the world, Deadvlei was formed when the river Tsauchab flooded it’s banks and formed shallow pools. Camel thorn trees once grew in abundance here, but decades of drought and the advancement of the nearby dunes ultimately blocked the water source, and the trees in the vlei were unable to survive. The trees are believed to be up to 900 years old and have been dead since the 14th century. Scorched black by the intense sun and able to stave off decomposition due to the arid climate and lack of insects, these bizarre skeletons along with the white clay pan and surrounding red dunes together make for one of the most unique and beautiful landscapes on earth. Click on any image to view Hi-Res version.
- Epic view from the top of Big Daddy dune of the Deadvlei pan and surrounding landscape.
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Entering the Deadvlei pan
Skeletal remains of long since dead camel thorn trees
Skeletal remains of long dead dead camel thorn trees
Some life stubbornly persists in the pan
Scorched black by the intense sun
Too dry to decompose
Barren forest amongst towering red dunes.
Climbing Big Daddy Dune, Namibia
Sossusvlei, with it’s massive red dunes and bleached salt pans, is Namibia’s most recognizable landscape. Big Daddy, the tallest dune in the Sossusvlei area and one of the highest dunes in the world, towers over the surrounding dunes at 325m (1,066ft). Extremely high heat and perpetually cloudless skies makes for an extraordinarily arduous 2 hour trek to the top, however climbers are rewarded with breathtaking views of the surrounding landscape. Click on any image to open Hi-Res copy.
Extreme temperatures and long travel time to the dune mandates a very early predawn start to the trailhead. To grasp the scale of the dune, click on the above image to open a larger image, and look for the specks of people over our heads that have started up the ridge.
10 minutes down, almost 2 hours to go.
Windswept ridge.
Almost to the summit, but about to get sandblasted by heavy winds.
Epic views of the Deadvlei and surrounding landscape.
Sossusvlei Sandstorm
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