Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
At 5. 26 pm on 14 November 2022 we stood on shifting sand, and in pleasantly cool air.
Below, in front of us, was the Atlantic Ocean, lapping Namibia’s “Skeleton Coast”.
We stood in a “sea” of sand – sand, only, it seemed.
However, the beach/coastal plain below us was clearly not devoid of vegetation.
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The world’s oldest desert gives its name to one of the world’s sunnier, hotter, dryer (and least-populated) nations.
Q: so why would a series that celebrates the northwestern portion of the Namib Desert begin with a photo taken on an Atlantic Ocean beach, as obviously-moist air swirled around me, on a cool early evening?
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The gemsbok – Oryx gazella – is the largest of four oryx species.
This superbly-adapted desert specialist is Namibia’s suitably majestic, emblematic mammal.
Gemsbok are also found in neighbouring southern African nations, and are sometimes known as “South African oryx” or “African oryx”.
They have striking, long, spear-like horns.
Atop the head of each adult male and female, the pair of horns is usually an example of nigh-perfect symmetry.
Not so, here!
Q: could this deformity cause any serious problem for the pictured individual?
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If beetles had their own Olympics, the one you are looking at would be an unbackable “certainty” in sprint events.
When the pictured individual “took off”, haring across a dune above Sossusvlei, I could barely believe my eyes.
As I later discovered, the Namib Desert’s dune-dwelling Toktokkies are believed to be the fastest runners in all beetledom.
And that is not this particular Toktokkie’s most amazing aspect!
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Generally, when it comes to encountering wild animals, humans think, “the closer, the better”
Many wildlife photographers think similarly; they spend large sums of money on huge lenses that prove equally damaging to owners’ bank balances and backs.
Photographers usually try to ensure that the splendid beast/s “fill the frame”.
A shallow depth of field is favoured, thus emphasising the beast’s splendour, and minimising any “distracting” background detail…although “attractive” bokeh is more-than-acceptable.
(if “bokeh” is new to you, click here)
But, but…
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The featured image looks north/ish, to the silhouetted edge of the Namib’s “sand sea”, circa 40 kilometres east of Sossusvlei.
I took the photo at 7.37 pm – Sossusvlei’s sunset time on 21 November 2022.
This little series’ final image was captured 7 minutes later.
Had I had available the necessary time and technology, I would then have loved to listen to a particularly sublime musical creation which I first heard in 1989, and which amazes and inspires me, still.
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I took the featured image at 7.21 pm, 6 minutes before sunset, in the Sossusvlei area on 21 November 2022, looking south/ish from Kulala Desert Lodge.
Had I an additional pair of eyes in the back of my head, they would at that moment have been looking north/ish at a very different sight -the suddenly-silhouetted southeastern edge of the Namib’s “sand sea”.
However, even if my single pair of eyes had maintained an unmoving, “fixed focus, static camera” perspective they would have very soon delivered a beautiful example of “exactly the same, but completely different”…as this post’s final image illustrates.
Happily, I could – and did – move my head, hands, feet and camera.
The image below was taken just one minute later.
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The featured image looks north/ish from Kulala Desert Lodge to the nearest dune on the edge of the Namib Desert’s “sand sea”.
The sand sea’s most easily accessed portion is in this area, which includes Sossusvlei.
As you can see, the dunes are not “lifeless”; as well as being huge and exquisitely formed, their core structure is very much more stable than most people imagine.
The above photo was taken at 7.09 pm on 21 November 2022, 18 minutes before sunset.
Two hours earlier, when looking from the same vantage point, this dune was invisible.
The next photo was taken ten minutes later, looking northwest.
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6.55 pm, 21 November 2022, 32 minutes before sunset: all 10 of us – 8 “punters”, plus tour leader and nature guide/driver – are standing on the deck in front of Kulala Desert Lodge.
Individually and collectively, we are agog.
We have a 360 degree field of view.
Wherever we look, the landscape’s apparent nature is in flux – its face/s changing dramatically, second by second.
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At 5.08 pm on 21 November 2022 “our” Namib sandstorm was vanishing, as quickly as it had materialised, circa one hour earlier.
When I took the featured image, all visibly-flying sand was some kilometres east of us, as we stood on the deck of “our” cottage-tent.
Kulala Desert Lodge is around 40 kilometres east north east of Sossusvlei, and less than 2 ks from the southern edge of the Namib’s “sand sea” – the dune field in which Sossusvlei is the tourist “magnet”.
(Sossusvlei – our destination the following morning – has to be seen to be believed. It will, eventually, have its own series of posts. Suffice for now, what transpired on 21.11.2022 had a very beneficial impact on our 22.11.2022 experience)
For the next ninety minutes we relaxed in our quasi-tent’s interior; inevitably, it had been infiltrated by a generous dose of very fine, reddish sand – smoothly luxurious bedding had become decidedly gritty.
Then, suddenly, my ears and nose suggested something very unlikely was happening…
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