Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
All four images feature the same moon.
However, as is true of just about anything observed more than once, “our” moon offers an infinite number of different “faces”.
The featured image shows a “blood moon” over Perth’s Lake Monger at 9.31 pm on 31 January 2018.
Comments closed
The mangled – but not rusted – metal object pictured above has sat on one of the world’s most “desolate” beaches since shortly after 29 January 1943.
It is an engine cowling from a Lockheed Ventura bomber which plunged into the nearby Atlantic on that day, off Namibia’s Skeleton Coast.
A short distance inland – as you can see, above – is the western edge of the world’s oldest desert’s “sandsea”.
That Ventura, several other planes, a number of ships, and a land-based convoy’s extraordinarily arduous/audacious mission were all part of an amazing true story of shipwreck/s, a plane-crash, and herculean rescue efforts.
MV Dunedin Star’s demise resulted in far fewer deaths than did RMS Titanic’s, but the smaller vessel’s end-story is, arguably, the more “titanic”.
One CommentAlso starring a fine example of “sleepless rust”, this post’s featured image is much easier to “read” than was the immediately-preceding, teasing post’s.
Obviously, here, you are looking at a shipwreck.
No reliable figure is even possible, but it is generally reckoned that Namibia’s Skeleton Coast is the world’s largest “ships’ graveyard”.
At least several hundred vessels – quite possibly, more than one thousand – have succumbed to its “treacherous” mists, turbulent waters, “carnivorous” rocks.. and to its utter remoteness.
For several centuries, sailors who outlived their ship would, inevitably, soon share its fate – on a shore where rain hardly ever falls and no rivers permanently flow.
Until well into the 20th century this was a place no road reached, and where no humans lived.
Even so, whales have provided far more of the Skeleton Coast’s skeletons than have ships and sailors.
Comments closed
Namibia’s Skeleton Coast is one of the world’s starker, least-peopled, least-rainy shorelines.
Apparently, its name refers to its extraordinary high number of visible skeletons/bones of two things – whales and ships.
However, whales and ships are not the only providers of startling “skeletons”…
Comments closed
“Intelligent, opportunistic, cooperative, yet also aggressive/territorial, highly attentive parents, omnivorous, oft-monogamous, very vocal, highly adaptable.”
Homo sapiens?
Yes, the “cap” fits, but not exclusively.
It is also a good description of another species – one which many humans revile, resent, defame and kill.
One CommentWhen even the most ardently water-wise member of our own species has a thoroughly enjoyable bath, water may not be wasted, but it is necessary.
Some other species, however, have hugely-enjoyable baths without getting damp, at all.
Comments closed
My camera registers the time that each photo is taken.
It was 6.30 pm when I took the immediately-preceding post’s final image; Lila had then just ceased “snacking” and was sitting still.
Directly in front of Lila, probably still warm, also motionless, was her kill.
It was still 6.30 pm when Lila had completed the demanding task depicted in the sequence which begins with the featured image, then continues with the next three photos.
Almost certainly, I will never witness a more prodigious physical feat.
From “red hartebeest calf carcass, stationary, flat on the ground” to “carcass securely stashed in the tree’s crown” took Lila circa thirty seconds to achieve.
One Comment
The featured image – photographed by fellow traveller Ian Millar, to whom my thanks – shows John M (a very capable nature guide/driver/researcher/educator) radio-tracking a leopard.
All of the leopards in Okonjima are 100% wild animals, but some have been “darted”, then fitted with radio-transmitter-equipped collars.
Okonjima, in central Namibia, is centrally focused on wildlife conservation and research, which is in large part funded by tourism.
At the time Ian took the featured image John had located unmistakable evidence of a leopard having very recently dragged his/her “kill” across the track on which “our” vehicle was driving…
One Comment
As is true of not a few other “country clubs”, the one in Namibia’s capital city is in fact well inside an urban “footprint”.
The Windhoek Country Club Resort offers luxurious accommodation, decent food, a casino, an 18 hole golf course, a gym, and extravagantly “Afrokitsch” reception and dining spaces.
To the astonishment of this non-gambler, non-golfer – and non-fan of Afrokitsch – my beloved and I there enjoyed an unforgettable wildlife experience, just a couple of human footsteps away from “our” room!
Comments closed
This post’s actual footprints come from bears in Alaska, birds on the Indian subcontinent and continental Australia, a Tasmanian wombat, and humans in an African desert and Australian suburbia.
The musical bonus is courtesy of one of the greatest jazz musicians – equally so as composer, virtuoso instrumentalist and inspired improviser.
There’s also a metaphorical footnote which involves New Zealand’s largest farm…
Comments closed
