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Thursday, November 29, 2012
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
best of pics posted
Sunday, November 18, 2012
11/18 Sesriem to Windhoek
There had been a brief strategy session last night exploring the possibility of heading back in to the dunes early this morning. At least it wouldn't be 113F - presumably. Working backwards, the flight to Jo'berg departs at 2:55pm and that would be a different country, i'd forgotten, so strictly speaking check in two hours ahead. Estimated drive time 5hrs. Could get up at 4am, bomb into the dunes (the 4wd taxis start at 5:30am) hike the 1.1km into deadvlei - wait wait, just for morning light versus evening?
Option declined. We are such wimps.
Instead, a quickie tour of the nearby Sesriem gorge, a slot canyon lookalike just 1km from the hotel and on the way to the park exit. Score!
Then for the hoped for morning highlight, grabbing some wifi time at the e-cafe at the park entrance. Cool (not literally of course) place with a living roof, lots of PV arrays attached and a real time display recounting their shrunken carbon footprint.
I would be remiss not to mention that the e-cafe lies just meters on the outside of the park. Empirical data reveals that guards become most alert and bureaucratic when the traffic is light. This morning was a night mare
and, remember, this to get out of the park, not in!
Paperwork, paperwork....
It all worked out, we got to the e-cafe "gateway to refreshment at sossuvlei" safely.
and in case you guys following along at home are thinking i'm making too much of the heat let it be known that at 6:20am the temperature was borderline freezing
the sign sez 23c (i know, too small)
Anyway, back to the storyline here, the wifi dhcp server is of a vintage that IOS6 throws it for a loop requiring manual intervention. The magic recipe had been lost yesterday but was retrieved ready for me this morning. But alas, my people talked to their people and no refund was possible for the unused minutes from yesterday. Negotiations paused and then ensued while the priniipals stomped off. My people (Geoff, diplomat extraordinaire) reclaimed my 30$N ($3.50). I resolved to wait for blog posting access in Jo'berg - i have people waiting for this stuff you know...
Nothing holding us now we headed north back to Solitaire (did i mention the particularly fine bathrooms as well as the bakery). I did manage to ID one of the wrecked cars as a Morris Eight - i bet that piece of metal could tell some stories.
At Solitaire we headed onto C14 - the short cut, or was it to be the long cut. Fascinating changes in scenery, even after two weeks we had to stop and stare at running water crossing the road ..
We made it to sophisticated downtown Windhoek in 4:40hrs - 20 mins does not equal a short cut. I note that upon arrival Windhoek looked like a hell hole**, but now, well its amazing what desert time can do to your perspective.
Geoff's plane to Cape Town leaves 30 mins after ours. As the clients I must say rather him than us dealing with the rental car company regarding the now damaged but repaired spare tyre. Did any of you know that it is illegal to rent out a car in Namibia with anything other than a brand new spare. There is a heap of almost new, repaired tyres outside Windhoek airport which the rental car company claims they burn. Yeh really.
A final lunch on Geoff's handsome tab and its the big goodbye.
As in goodbye readers - that's it, its over.
And for all you commentators, thank you, you have made this so worthwhile and particpatory. Oops, commentator - thanks Gilly.
Stay tuned for Guyana coming up next....
i might yet post my fave pics but bigger so that you can actually see them.
** Joe's jaegermeister place excluded.
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Option declined. We are such wimps.
Instead, a quickie tour of the nearby Sesriem gorge, a slot canyon lookalike just 1km from the hotel and on the way to the park exit. Score!
Then for the hoped for morning highlight, grabbing some wifi time at the e-cafe at the park entrance. Cool (not literally of course) place with a living roof, lots of PV arrays attached and a real time display recounting their shrunken carbon footprint.
I would be remiss not to mention that the e-cafe lies just meters on the outside of the park. Empirical data reveals that guards become most alert and bureaucratic when the traffic is light. This morning was a night mare
and, remember, this to get out of the park, not in!
Paperwork, paperwork....
It all worked out, we got to the e-cafe "gateway to refreshment at sossuvlei" safely.
and in case you guys following along at home are thinking i'm making too much of the heat let it be known that at 6:20am the temperature was borderline freezing
the sign sez 23c (i know, too small)
Anyway, back to the storyline here, the wifi dhcp server is of a vintage that IOS6 throws it for a loop requiring manual intervention. The magic recipe had been lost yesterday but was retrieved ready for me this morning. But alas, my people talked to their people and no refund was possible for the unused minutes from yesterday. Negotiations paused and then ensued while the priniipals stomped off. My people (Geoff, diplomat extraordinaire) reclaimed my 30$N ($3.50). I resolved to wait for blog posting access in Jo'berg - i have people waiting for this stuff you know...
Nothing holding us now we headed north back to Solitaire (did i mention the particularly fine bathrooms as well as the bakery). I did manage to ID one of the wrecked cars as a Morris Eight - i bet that piece of metal could tell some stories.
At Solitaire we headed onto C14 - the short cut, or was it to be the long cut. Fascinating changes in scenery, even after two weeks we had to stop and stare at running water crossing the road ..
We made it to sophisticated downtown Windhoek in 4:40hrs - 20 mins does not equal a short cut. I note that upon arrival Windhoek looked like a hell hole**, but now, well its amazing what desert time can do to your perspective.
Geoff's plane to Cape Town leaves 30 mins after ours. As the clients I must say rather him than us dealing with the rental car company regarding the now damaged but repaired spare tyre. Did any of you know that it is illegal to rent out a car in Namibia with anything other than a brand new spare. There is a heap of almost new, repaired tyres outside Windhoek airport which the rental car company claims they burn. Yeh really.
A final lunch on Geoff's handsome tab and its the big goodbye.
As in goodbye readers - that's it, its over.
And for all you commentators, thank you, you have made this so worthwhile and particpatory. Oops, commentator - thanks Gilly.
Stay tuned for Guyana coming up next....
i might yet post my fave pics but bigger so that you can actually see them.
** Joe's jaegermeister place excluded.
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Location:Johannesberg, RSA
Saturday, November 17, 2012
11/17 the vleis
Returning to the lodge, the only option is to hide from the heat. At 1pm the solar sign at the e-cafe located at the park gate entrance is bragging that its 45c. perfect time for a hike in the dunes. are you kidding me?
so, its complicated, but let me explain how this part of the namib-naukluft np works. the gate to the park opens at 6:15am and closes at 7pm. note also the sun rises at 6:15am and sets at 7pm - one wonders if these times are related. now the complication. it takes 60 mins are so to get from the park entrance to the dunes. the attraction here is an area of dunes very high and at least 100km in any direction. this part of the park features a 60km+ narrow valley that runs, dead flat, east-west into the dunes. the dunes are numbered from 1 to 60-ish starting at the ne corner (the valley entrance) and counting counter clockwise. the paved road finishes some 4km short and continues west as a soft deep sandy track to the end of the valley at a place called sossussvlei (vlei means lake and sossus means burnt feet). vlei is usually very dry lake bed although Geoff has seen this one flooded. the deep sand track can be navigated by 4wd vehicles, 2wd more than we have. for folks like us there is a taxi service. local dudes run 4wd drive regularly over this last 4km of scalding hot sand starting at 5:30am finishing at 5pm. thats odd, you say, the park entrance 60km away doesnt open till 6:15am. so here's the deal, a few lodges are inside the park, ours being one of them (clever Geoff) and neednt worry about gates, open or closed. so everythings good, right? well no because if you have a two wheel drive and you have an interest in photography them you want to be at the end of the valley at sunset. ie after the taxis have stopped.
big deal, you say, seen one dune, seen 'em all. but no no no, i forgot to mention that 1.1km south of sossussvlei is deadvlei another lake bed silently inhabited by dead trees revealed to have died 800 hundred years ago. well, you've got to see those right? and at sunset, of course.
so we drove to the end of the paved section, took the taxi one way in.
attempted to climb the dune at sossussvlei. good for james and geoff as someone told them wearing sandals was idiotic when the sand can burn your soles off. "how would you like those done, sir?" i made a noble effort before a pragmatic retreat. maybe an hour later things would be cooler. no not really. so after waiting under a tree for a boring hour we started south through deep scalding hot sand for deadvlei, knowing full well that the last taxi would be long gone before we got the returning 1.1km done followed by the 3.5km back over the taxi route to our 2wd. (about 6km in soft near melting hot sand - note to self, what temp does sand melt anyway. i now know what temp human skin burns at)
a word about dieing of thirst. perhaps it is james and my shared interest in endurance racing or tim sheeper's liquid intake rules (1L/1hr under heavy load) but we were seriously under watered before heading in to this mission. embarrassingly so.
geoff won "best line of trip" with "i always feel really good on the day following nearly dieing of thirst" - no kidding. should mention that i held off my appreciation of this line until i felt confident that i had my own survival locked in.
it was worth it.
here's the bigger picture of deadvlei (if its a lake bed why does it distictly slope from right to left)
and the individual "models" (warning hallucination likely - but water would have fixed that)
i had a whole bunch of things to do this evening but as i was fully engaged filling bottles and drinking water there really was no time left for anything else.
this thing could have been ugly!
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so, its complicated, but let me explain how this part of the namib-naukluft np works. the gate to the park opens at 6:15am and closes at 7pm. note also the sun rises at 6:15am and sets at 7pm - one wonders if these times are related. now the complication. it takes 60 mins are so to get from the park entrance to the dunes. the attraction here is an area of dunes very high and at least 100km in any direction. this part of the park features a 60km+ narrow valley that runs, dead flat, east-west into the dunes. the dunes are numbered from 1 to 60-ish starting at the ne corner (the valley entrance) and counting counter clockwise. the paved road finishes some 4km short and continues west as a soft deep sandy track to the end of the valley at a place called sossussvlei (vlei means lake and sossus means burnt feet). vlei is usually very dry lake bed although Geoff has seen this one flooded. the deep sand track can be navigated by 4wd vehicles, 2wd more than we have. for folks like us there is a taxi service. local dudes run 4wd drive regularly over this last 4km of scalding hot sand starting at 5:30am finishing at 5pm. thats odd, you say, the park entrance 60km away doesnt open till 6:15am. so here's the deal, a few lodges are inside the park, ours being one of them (clever Geoff) and neednt worry about gates, open or closed. so everythings good, right? well no because if you have a two wheel drive and you have an interest in photography them you want to be at the end of the valley at sunset. ie after the taxis have stopped.
big deal, you say, seen one dune, seen 'em all. but no no no, i forgot to mention that 1.1km south of sossussvlei is deadvlei another lake bed silently inhabited by dead trees revealed to have died 800 hundred years ago. well, you've got to see those right? and at sunset, of course.
so we drove to the end of the paved section, took the taxi one way in.
attempted to climb the dune at sossussvlei. good for james and geoff as someone told them wearing sandals was idiotic when the sand can burn your soles off. "how would you like those done, sir?" i made a noble effort before a pragmatic retreat. maybe an hour later things would be cooler. no not really. so after waiting under a tree for a boring hour we started south through deep scalding hot sand for deadvlei, knowing full well that the last taxi would be long gone before we got the returning 1.1km done followed by the 3.5km back over the taxi route to our 2wd. (about 6km in soft near melting hot sand - note to self, what temp does sand melt anyway. i now know what temp human skin burns at)
a word about dieing of thirst. perhaps it is james and my shared interest in endurance racing or tim sheeper's liquid intake rules (1L/1hr under heavy load) but we were seriously under watered before heading in to this mission. embarrassingly so.
geoff won "best line of trip" with "i always feel really good on the day following nearly dieing of thirst" - no kidding. should mention that i held off my appreciation of this line until i felt confident that i had my own survival locked in.
it was worth it.
here's the bigger picture of deadvlei (if its a lake bed why does it distictly slope from right to left)
and the individual "models" (warning hallucination likely - but water would have fixed that)
i had a whole bunch of things to do this evening but as i was fully engaged filling bottles and drinking water there really was no time left for anything else.
this thing could have been ugly!
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Location:sossusvlei, sesriem, namibia
11/17 AVPs (animal viewing platforms) cont.
in this case, up up and away.
an early start got us to the launch site just as the inflation was completing.
lots of btu needed for this 12 passenger bad boy
all very cool (well hot)
Dune 1
no kidding, we landed on the trailer. but only after a little help dragging us, still airborne.
the champagne opened, (with machete) of course by John the pilot.
hot face towels and then breakfast in the desert.
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an early start got us to the launch site just as the inflation was completing.
lots of btu needed for this 12 passenger bad boy
all very cool (well hot)
Dune 1
no kidding, we landed on the trailer. but only after a little help dragging us, still airborne.
the champagne opened, (with machete) of course by John the pilot.
hot face towels and then breakfast in the desert.
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Location:Sossusvlei, Namibia
Friday, November 16, 2012
11/16 Swakopmund to Sossusvlei
We succeeded in checking out of the guest house before 8am and headed immediately to the pastry shop
where we loaded up with cheesecake (james) and two apple strudels (extra large).
Some car watch dude pointed out that the left rear tyre looked down a little so swung by the gas station to fill with air and petrol. Nothing stopping us now so we headed south to Walvis Bay before turning inland and grinding down C14.
We pulled over after 100kliks to check out a rocky out picnic crop. As we got out of the car Ames could hear the air escaping from that tyre.
No choice but to change it.
luck that we had a real full size spare so with that bad boy installed we were rattling down C14 again, forgetting to picnic. This may be the roughest road yet for us on this trip with 240km still to go today.
By 11am it was time for elevensies and what better place to stop than at a quiver tree
Nice tree but nicer pastries...
Next stop Solitaire! But before that we cross over...
then on to....
What an oasis this place is. A gas station, an auto workshop to repair the flatted tyre, a lodge in case the tyre never gets fixed and, no kidding, another bakery.
Steak and pepper pie for me and chocolate peanut brittle for dessert.
This place reminds me of Baghdad (the movie - w/ a german lady or two)
Wrecked cars abound
also its 12:45pm and the sun is hot and high - check the shadow here
So with everything fixed it is on to Sesriem to check in to Sossus Dunes Lodge
Needless to say it is very hot here at 2pm. We dump bags and head west up to Sossusvlei with the intention to just stop at Dune 45 and take some snaps as the sun sets. Further exploration to Sossuvlei and Deadvlei planned for tomorrow.
back in time for an outdoor dinner with view included.
a nice hot room
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where we loaded up with cheesecake (james) and two apple strudels (extra large).
Some car watch dude pointed out that the left rear tyre looked down a little so swung by the gas station to fill with air and petrol. Nothing stopping us now so we headed south to Walvis Bay before turning inland and grinding down C14.
We pulled over after 100kliks to check out a rocky out picnic crop. As we got out of the car Ames could hear the air escaping from that tyre.
No choice but to change it.
luck that we had a real full size spare so with that bad boy installed we were rattling down C14 again, forgetting to picnic. This may be the roughest road yet for us on this trip with 240km still to go today.
By 11am it was time for elevensies and what better place to stop than at a quiver tree
Nice tree but nicer pastries...
Next stop Solitaire! But before that we cross over...
then on to....
What an oasis this place is. A gas station, an auto workshop to repair the flatted tyre, a lodge in case the tyre never gets fixed and, no kidding, another bakery.
Steak and pepper pie for me and chocolate peanut brittle for dessert.
This place reminds me of Baghdad (the movie - w/ a german lady or two)
Wrecked cars abound
also its 12:45pm and the sun is hot and high - check the shadow here
So with everything fixed it is on to Sesriem to check in to Sossus Dunes Lodge
Needless to say it is very hot here at 2pm. We dump bags and head west up to Sossusvlei with the intention to just stop at Dune 45 and take some snaps as the sun sets. Further exploration to Sossuvlei and Deadvlei planned for tomorrow.
back in time for an outdoor dinner with view included.
a nice hot room
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Location:Sossus Dunes Lodge, Sesriem, Namibia
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Swakopmund, Namibia
Crazy place! A completey German town. Check out the downtown architecture - but first Kucki's, last night's fabulous fish dinner venue. We're in Africa for goodness sake.
it is right on the ocean - huge surf break just south of town
and we can't forget the street market. its a wonder there are any trees left.
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it is right on the ocean - huge surf break just south of town
and we can't forget the street market. its a wonder there are any trees left.
- Posted using BlogPress
Location:Hendrik Witbooi,Swakopmund,Namibia
11/15 Sandwich Harbour and back
The Cornerstone Guest House here in Swakopmund is very good. They provided a nice breakfast before Bruno swung by with the Land Rover Defender
and we roared off (as a diesel might) south to Walvis Bay to pick up permits to enter the coastal section of the Namib-Naukluft NP. Walvis Bay is a deep water port that currently takes care if exports and imports to Namibia, Botswana and places beyond. Very active - even saw yet another crazy Mad Max vehicle on a flat bed leaving the port, headed to the desert set. The film crew has a workshop at the dock.
After leaving the salt pond area we bolted for the 5 meter narrow strip of sand between the waves and the steep dunes to the east. We went south some 25km like this rushing to beat the incoming tide. Wow betide(sic) any vehice that gets hit or disabled.
The only other humanity are local surf fishermen (this shot taken later north bound)
Why were we rushing south? To get to the lagoon at Sandwich Harbour. No one has lived there for 80 years, once a whaling station where the whales were killed in the bay. The lagoon is interesting because it is fresh water. No river but fresh water creeps out year round from under dunes.
Have dunes, must climb - and that's what we did
After returning to the vehicle Bruno proceeded to wind the Land Rover up to the top of the dunes all the time explaining what skill it takes to navigate this soft sand. We parked and ate lunch at the top. A nice lunch, killer rye bread, home made pate, and home made lasagna.
More stories over lunch recounting how if he sees a tourist stuck in the sand he has clients on board and just cant stop to help. Fair enough.
With the tide now in, the return journey north is made mid dunes, some 2-3km inland. Huge dunes, huge steepness, masterful driving and then ....
even lowering the tyre pressure to 30% of normal failed to unstick us. (the video is hilarious). But we 5 passengers did manage to push us out.
Slight embarrassment ensued.
Dont get me wrong Bruno is a great guy and the other aspect of his business is running a private game reserve up near the SE corner of Etosha NP.
There he has been involved for years tagging and tracking the diminishing pangolin (scaly anteater, reminiscent of an armadillo). Apparently the market is in China. A bowl of Pangolin soup costs $12,000 - thats what Bruno sez anyway.
Anyway a fun and unusual day that i'm sure Geoff appreciated at least.
Dinner at Erick's tonight. Yum.
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and we roared off (as a diesel might) south to Walvis Bay to pick up permits to enter the coastal section of the Namib-Naukluft NP. Walvis Bay is a deep water port that currently takes care if exports and imports to Namibia, Botswana and places beyond. Very active - even saw yet another crazy Mad Max vehicle on a flat bed leaving the port, headed to the desert set. The film crew has a workshop at the dock.
After leaving the salt pond area we bolted for the 5 meter narrow strip of sand between the waves and the steep dunes to the east. We went south some 25km like this rushing to beat the incoming tide. Wow betide(sic) any vehice that gets hit or disabled.
The only other humanity are local surf fishermen (this shot taken later north bound)
Why were we rushing south? To get to the lagoon at Sandwich Harbour. No one has lived there for 80 years, once a whaling station where the whales were killed in the bay. The lagoon is interesting because it is fresh water. No river but fresh water creeps out year round from under dunes.
Have dunes, must climb - and that's what we did
After returning to the vehicle Bruno proceeded to wind the Land Rover up to the top of the dunes all the time explaining what skill it takes to navigate this soft sand. We parked and ate lunch at the top. A nice lunch, killer rye bread, home made pate, and home made lasagna.
More stories over lunch recounting how if he sees a tourist stuck in the sand he has clients on board and just cant stop to help. Fair enough.
With the tide now in, the return journey north is made mid dunes, some 2-3km inland. Huge dunes, huge steepness, masterful driving and then ....
even lowering the tyre pressure to 30% of normal failed to unstick us. (the video is hilarious). But we 5 passengers did manage to push us out.
Slight embarrassment ensued.
Dont get me wrong Bruno is a great guy and the other aspect of his business is running a private game reserve up near the SE corner of Etosha NP.
There he has been involved for years tagging and tracking the diminishing pangolin (scaly anteater, reminiscent of an armadillo). Apparently the market is in China. A bowl of Pangolin soup costs $12,000 - thats what Bruno sez anyway.
Anyway a fun and unusual day that i'm sure Geoff appreciated at least.
Dinner at Erick's tonight. Yum.
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Location:Hendrik Witbooi,Swakopmund,Namibia
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