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Tag: Namibia

Okonjima sunset (with “astounding” musical bonus)

Published February 8, 2023 by Pelidoug

Okonjima sunset (with “astounding” musical bonus)

This post’s musical bonus really is astounding, I think.

November 4 2022, at Okonjima, was one of the most rewarding days of our lives.

The immediately-preceding post’s leopard encounter was its most electrifying moment, but we also saw another leopard, giraffes galore, cheetahs, many other animals, and some beautiful country.

Circa 7 pm, we adjourned to a hilltop, to enjoy “sundowners”…and/or the actual sundown.

I took the featured photo at 7.06 pm.

The other images, below, are in chronological order.

read moreOkonjima sunset (with “astounding” musical bonus)
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Lila (the leopard) returns to her kill.

Published February 6, 2023 by Pelidoug

Lila (the leopard) returns to her kill.

 

This post is the “morning after” sequel to the one that showed Lila stashing her “prize”, shortly after she had killed a Red Hartebeest calf, late in the afternoon of 03 November 2022.

I took the featured image, above, at 7.55 am on 04 November 2022, when we returned to the relevant tree.

As you can see, Lila’s kill was quasi-intact, still “safe” in the tree’s canopy.

“When will Lila return to it?”, we wondered.

read moreLila (the leopard) returns to her kill.
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Survival epic’s relics, 80 years later: Skeleton Coast, Namibia

Published January 27, 2023 by Pelidoug

Survival epic’s relics, 80 years later: Skeleton Coast, Namibia

 

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”.

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Sleepless rust, explained: Skeleton Coast

Published January 25, 2023 by Pelidoug

Sleepless rust, explained: Skeleton Coast

Also 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.

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Morning of the (very attractive, unusually close) jackal

Published January 21, 2023 by Pelidoug

Morning of the (very attractive, unusually close) jackal

 

 

“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.

read moreMorning of the (very attractive, unusually close) jackal
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Lila (the leopard) stashes her kill

Published January 15, 2023 by Pelidoug

Lila (the leopard) stashes her kill

 

 

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.

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Locating Lila (the leopard)

Published January 12, 2023 by Pelidoug

Locating Lila (the leopard)

 

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…

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Weaving at the Windhoek Country Club

Published January 10, 2023 by Pelidoug

Weaving at the Windhoek Country Club

 

 

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!

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