Photo Expedition Namibia

On Our Way, Tuesday & Wednesday, August 8-9, 2017

Taking off for our 2nd Africa Safari

Left the house before 3pm – with my sister and JY staying at the house, I felt so much better!! The dogs were in good hands!

20 minutes out of the door, I found out that I forgot to bring my wind/rain breaker! Did not want to go back because we would miss the 4pm bus, so we had to stop at REI and picked up a new one. Sigh ….

Our flight was scheduled for 6:59pm departure, but it was delayed for an hour. We got to the airport 3 hours early, for peace of mind. Waiting in the biz class lounge was not that bad – first time flying Delta for international travel, better than United!

Flight to Amsterdam was almost 6 hours – smooth flight, comfortable seating, and I watched a few movies, slept some. The one hour delay did not cause our connection problem. We got on the connecting flight to Johannesburg without issues. It was a KLM flight. The biz class seats were the normal kind of biz class seats, comfortable but nothing spectacular. The service however was very very good! Pleasant! Friendly! Attentive!

It was an almost 11-hour flight to Joburg and we touched down before 10pm local time (5 or 6 hours difference from home). Oryx had arranged a VIP pickup for us and the lady was waiting for us right outside the gate. All was smooth until the luggage pickup time – the airline lost one of my three bags! After much waiting and negotiating with the lost luggage manager, they found out that that piece of my luggage did not make it onto the plane! What?!?! How can that be???? We checked in all three piece of luggage at the same time! Ugh!! …. I was stressed out and worried beyond belief! That bag had all MY clothes and the tripod head! I did not know how I could survive this safari, not to say enjoying it! And without the tripod head, I cannot take landscape photos! Ugh!!!! ….

By the time we checked into the Intercontinental hotel at the airport, it was after 11pm. I was too upset to sleep despite the fact that I was tired …. I kept telling myself to relax, to learn from the Indian girl on the Svalbard expedition whose luggage was lost by the airline and she had to rebuy all her arctic clothes, but she was in good spirits! But no matter how I tried, I was very very upset!

In bed after mid-night. I know I was still awake after 3am. Took a 5mg melatonin pill, but it did not work ….

Windhoek; Thursday, August 10, 2017

Arrived in Windhoek

We met the VIP guide arranged by Oryx at the hotel lobby at 9am. She was a pleasant nice lady! With her help, checkin and going through security and immigration was a breeze! Seems like the VIP service was provided by the airport (of course with extra pay, I guess). Next time if I ever come back to Africa, I would definitely get it!

Oh, by the way I emailed Oryx last night asking for their help to get my luggage on 8/11 Friday. Marius responded early this morning and assured me they would help. It made me feel so much better!

The 2-hour flight from Johannesburg to Windhoek was uneventful! Best part was the plane was not full, which made everything so much more pleasant! And the flight was on schedule. We landed at Windhoek around 1pm local time (2pm Johannesburg time). It was a smallish airport and it took a while to go through immigration and luggage pickup. After we got our two pieces of luggage (3 became 2 now) and went out of the door, Marius was right there! First time meeting him and the driver. Marius was very pleasant and very nice! Guess what?! He was also a Canon shooter!! Yeah!! Lots to learn!

We drove through Windhoek, chatted along the way, and got to our first lodge/hotel “The Olive Exclusive” about half an hour later. Our room was suite #2, a very elaborate suite, decorated nicely with all local flavors, with a big bathroom, large outdoor deck with a swimming pool. Unfortunately I did not have clean clothes to change into. And the weather was not hot enough to swim. I washed my two new t-shirts (bought at the airport) and aired them outside. Marius told us to relax this afternoon and we will meet around 6:30pm for dinner.

Did not do much in the afternoon – today was the day to unwind and relax, rest. We rested in our big suite till around 6pm, then we went up to the main building. They did not have much snacks – got some nuts and some beef-jerkey type of meat. I was hungry but did not quite like the snack. Marius came shortly after and we had dinner together. Like him a lot! If we could afford it, I would love to go to India with him to shoot the tigers! He brought us each a Oryx shirt and hat. Had more details about my lost luggage – it was supposed to arrive Windhoek tomorrow 10:20am. Fingers crossed!! Knock on wood!! Pray!!

Finished dinner at 8:30 then back to the room and called it a night – nothing else to do. We will have breakfast tomorrow at 8:30am.

Heading to Sossusvlei; Friday, August 11, 2017

First of all, I got my bag!! But it was badly damaged – something slid the top with a big gash that went through, damaged my hat which was on top of the bag, and some other stuff. The zippers on the top and one side were also badly damaged. I was very mad but there was no where to file a complaint. Marius took me to the KLM window, but they were only responsible for stuff on a specific flight today, mine came on a BA flight, so that was no use. Marius told me to take lots of photos of the bag and I’ll have to deal with it after I get back to Boston. Very bad!!

So, we were up before 8 – I slept well and long, a badly needed good night’s sleep! Met Marius for breakfast at 8:30. Then went back to the room to relax. Checkout was at 11am. We went to the lounge, while Marius got on the phone with the airport Wilderness Safari people dealing with my lost bag. Shortly after 11, the good new came – they got the bag! Bad news was it was damaged. I did not know how badly damaged it was until we got to the airport.

A taxi took us to the airport – it was at least a half-hour ride. We had a private plane which was supposed to pick us up after 1pm. So we waited at the Wilderness Safari lounge at the airport – very nice to have such a place, in the crowded small airport. We even had a lunch – Marius knew the place well so we ate at the restaurant near the lounge. I had a toasted chicken salad sandwich – it was basically a panini, and their name of the chicken salad was chicken with mayo. Not bad. Then our place came early, so we boarded it shortly after 1pm. It was really nice to have Marius!!! Nice guy, very helpful and knowledgeable!

There were only 6 passengers on the plane which could take around 10 people, I guess, plus the pilot and co-pilot. Plane was loud but we all had ear plugs on. The only thing was, it was very hot especially since I was sitting on the right hand side where the sun just beat down mercilessly. About 50 minutes later, we arrived at Kulala. Our local guide, Charles, and the jeep were already there waiting for us. The jeep was different from what we used in Botswana. It was all covered, I guess it was because here it was way too sandy. They loaded all our stuff onto the jeep, and off we drove towards our lodge – the Little Kulala. It was one of Wilderness Safari’s premium camp, kind of like Little Mombo. The nearby Kulala camp was one tier down.

We arrived at Little Kulala! It had 12 individual lodges, all scattered around the main lodge which housed the lounge, dining room, library, offices, little gift shop, etc. The food and beverage manager on duty, Andrew, showed us around and took us to our lodge which was the one closest to the main lodge. The walk to the lodge was all in sand, and the path was lined by small rocks.

Our lodge was similar to the one we stayed with Nat Geo that time, not as fancy as Little Mombo. It has a large room with a king bed. The room was separated behind the bed by a mirrored wall to a narrow place with a counter for drinks and a small frig. Behind that counter was the bathroom, with a spacious shower, a double sink vanity and a separate toilet room. There was also an outside shower. What was pretty amazing was the roof top observation deck. A steep narrow ladder led to it and there was a big bed there – if we wanted they would get things prepared for us to sleep there and watch the stars! And we got a good 360 degree view from the deck!

The lodge had its own small yard, which had a plunging pool! Not sure if we would have the chance to use it. In the yard of the main lodge there was a nice swimming pool also!

We went to our lodge around 4:15pm. Marius said Charles would take us to an introductory ride around at 4:50. There was not much time, and I rushed to get my cameras ready. The 100-400mm on the 7D, 16-35mm on the 1DX. But I forgot to check the batteries of the 7D, and it was totally out! (How did this happen?? I checked it back at home!), so I missed some shots. On the drive, we saw Oryx and spring bucks! Marius taught me lots of tips. Unfortuntely I did not have the right lens on. Hate myself!! Charles also told us stories about how the name Kulala came about (it meant “to sleep”) and how this place became such a desert – all vegetation was eaten by the sheep introduced!

Sunset was at 5:30. The temperature dropped immediately after sunset. It was quite hot during the day, but quite cool at night! I brought many wrong types of clothes!!

We came back to the lodge after 6. I continued to unpack, charge the camera battery, etc. Dinner was at 7. Nice dinner! After dinner, the lodge staff put on a show – African singing and dancing. I think the African people were born with rhythm!! Pretty amazing!

We were back at the lodge after 9. More unpacking and sorting things out for me. Tomorrow we will meet at 5:45am. Marius has ordered breakfast to go and we will beat the crowd to get to Sossusvlei and take photos!!

I’ve set up my alarm for 4:30am. I need the time for my morning “rituals”.

Oh, more important: I LOVE AFRICA!!! So very glad to be back!! The BIG sky, the beautiful sceneries! The emptiness!! LOVE IT!!!

In Sossusvlei; Saturday, August 12, 2017

I was up at 4:30am and Bob was up at 5. We were to meet Marius and Charles at 5:45 and to leave at 6 sharp, so we could beat the crowd at Deathvlei, the famous dead tree spot I’d been dreaming about! I did not sleep well last night, too many things to take care and too excited to sleep, then it was a little too warm for me – the maid even put in a warm water bottle in the bed for each of us (same as in Windhoek), of course we quickly took them out J It was the winter here so they were afraid we might be chilled.

We were not alone as the early risers – quite a few were already eating breakfast which opened at 5:30am. Charles already packed breakfast for us, and I did not want to eat anything – nothing in, nothing out, which made me feel better, safer ….

The sunrise behind the sand dunes and the color it painted were absolutely unbelievably beautiful!! But Marius told us we must focus on getting to Deadvlei early and not be side tracked by the beauties along the way, which we would cover in the next couple of days. The drive was beautiful!! Absolutely amazed and LOVE this desert area!! It took us more than an hour to get to the parking spot of the deadvlei. By the time we got there, the sun was already up and there were a few people ahead of us already. But the light was still good. There was a half-mile walk from the car to the deadvlei, walking on the sand! Marius too my tripod and Charles took my heavy camera bag that has two cameras. The walk to me was quite strenuous but we made it! The deadvlei was next to the “Big Daddy” sand dune. Many people were here to climb that dune and there were already a few when we got there. Wow! Do admire them but I would not tempt that even for a prize! The walk to deadvlei was hard enough.

For the next hour or more, Marius taught me how to shoot, how to compose, etc. Very helpful!! I think I got a couple of decent shots. Yeal!!! By the time we were leaving, there were already too many people there, too many! Thank god Marius arranged for us to be early!! BTW, the deadvlei and sand dunes were all in the national park. Somehow Charles had the key to the gate and we were lucky to get in before the gate opened. Wow!! ….

Driving back to Little Kulala was quiet – everyone was a bit tired. Oh, after shooting in the deadvlei, we had breakfast near the parking spot, under a tree, with shades. I did not eat much since I was not hungry and much prefer not to eat then. We came to the lodge shortly after 11am. Bob and I would have lunch at 12:30, but Marius did not want to eat – he said he ate too much at breakfast.

After coming back to the room, first thing was to clean up myself and the camera, then recharge the batteries, offload the images, etc. And it got to 12:30 before I realized it. Lunch was at the main lodge’s outside deck, very pleasant in the shades and with a breeze. And lunch was just delicious!! Some sort of pork and rice, and salad. Yummmmm!!

Back to the room (chalet?), finished downloading, made duplicate copies, and looked at the photos briefly. Thanks to Marius, I think a couple came out OK. He did not want me to use automatic white balance, but set “Kelvin” to 5000 and it worked really well!!

One bad was my tripod was broken – somehow Marius pulled one section of one leg out and could not put it back right. Sigh ….. Marius does not use a tripod – not sure how he was able to get steady shots – so he was not that familiar with the tripod. Oh well ….

This afternoon we would meet at 3pm for our helicopter ride at 4:30pm. Marius said it would be fantastic to get the aerial view of the entire area. He told me to bring the 70-200mm lens on the 1DX. Somehow I am not sure how good the aerial view can be that good, but I will certainly try! We had another helicopter ride tomorrow morning, then we would go shoot the sand dunes. Can’t wait!

We met at 3pm and set out for the helicopter place which was about half an hour’s drive away. We waited there for a while for our 4:30 flight and got on before that. Marius told me to use Aperture priority, set ISO to 640, and shutter speed must be at least 1/1000. I was a bit scared at first, about riding the helicopter without doors. But after I got on and started seeing the scenes, I was absolutely stunned by the beauty and magnitude of this place! We flew to the Deadvlei where we were this morning, saw Big Daddy and Dune 45 from above, simply breathtakingly beautiful and amazing! Our pilot was a young man, very nice! Even took us for 10 minutes extra which was a big deal! By the time we landed, the sun had gone down. We came back to the lodge after 6:30. I had a little time to download the photos before we would meet at 7:15 for dinner.

Very disappointing! I don’t think I took ANY photos that I feel proud of! …. Tomorrow we will have another helicopter ride at 6am, to catch the morning light. I hope to learn some lessons and do better. We will meet at 5:15 and leave at 5:30 sharp. Will be back around 8am. Then Maius will help me editing some photos. Yeah!!

11:30pm now, I must get some sleep. I will be up at 4:15am to get everything ready.

Helicopter Ride without Doors; Sunday, August 13, 2017

Last Full Day at Little Kulala

I was up at 4:15 and Bob at 4:45, and we left the lodge at 5:25 driving towards the helicopter place, in pitch dark. The sun started rising behind the mountains/sand dunes and painting the edge of the sand dunes and mountains with beautiful colors which I wish I could capture somehow. When we got to the helicopter place, it was still too dark to get into the sky, but the sunrise continued its course. The sky became brighter gradually. The morning misty fogs added more beauty and mystery to the surroundings.

We climbed into our helicopter – we had the same pilot and same helicopter. A very pleasant nice young man. Marius is good friend with his boss and he treated us well. It was pretty chilly at that time of the day. Bob and I both were in fleece plus the windbreaker. Marius even wore his gloves. And we each had warm beany hats on. The pilot told us it was actually warmer in the sky than on the ground at that hour, and he was right!

Up we went, and it was another gorgeous fantastic ride! Attempted to shoot as many pictures as I could. This time I had the 16-35mm lens on the 1DX, 70-200mm on the 7D. Both worked out well, except it was a real pain dealing with 2 cameras. Absolutely fantastic ride, in the golden light!

We were back at Little Kulala before 8:30am and immediately had breakfast before we went back to the room. After breakfast we came back to the room, I downloaded the photos, recharged batteries, etc. Then I met Marius at 11am to look at my photos and he would show me how to make them “pop”. He helped me edit about 20 pictures in less than an hour and they truly became very good ones! He was quite fluent with LR and showed me some tricks. He also showed me now to “air drop” the LR exported JPG file to the iPhone. Very cool!! Very much appreciate his help!! Even though Marius might not be the greatest photographer, he was most helpful for me, as he taught me 1x1.

We had lunch after 12pm, Bob and I. Marius did not eat – he said he could not eat this much food every day and he appeared to be a very health conscious person. After lunch, I continued with the photography stuff, practices what I learned from Marius, etc. Then we met Marius and Charles at 3pm to go out for our afternoon sand dunes shoots. This time we drove to the “big daddy” sand dunes area and tried various shoots. Unfortunately there were too many people that climbed the sand dunes and destroyed the “lines”. We did not really get any good shots and drove back during sunset, that is, around 5:30, and got back shortly after 6pm. And it was all dark by then.

It was hotter today than the previous days, not to the extent that it was an effort to go out and shoot photos. Even though we did not shoot much before dark, I guess I was ok. Marius said we would do night photography tonight, but then he postponed it to the last camp, Serra Cafema. I think he was just procrastinating. Oh well ….. Marius is a good guy and I like him a lot! But he is a business man. And I am not a serious photographer which probably made him “more relaxed” in everything.

Dinner was at 7. Pleasant dinner and chat with Marius. Back to the room and continued packing. The damaged bag is really a problem now – don’t think it could last this trip, zippers ripped, handled ripped, cover slit through ….. Sigh …. They had no duct tape here so I don’t know what to do ….

Tomorrow we will have breakfast at 7:30, then leave the camp at 9-ish to start the next leg of our journey, to Hoanib Skeleton Coast camp. It will involve 2 connecting flights somewhere. And the day is supposed to be hot again. Not looking forward to the trip itself…. Marius said it will be mainly wild life there – giraffes, elephants, etc. Oh, today at lunch time, the water hole here was quite busy – 5 or 6 oryxes came, and 4 big ostriches!! I took a bunch of pictures using my phone, under the harsh mid-day sun.

Will pack up the laptop now. From tomorrow on, we’re completely leaving “civilization” – there will be NO internet, until next Sunday when we return to Windhoek/Johannesburg. I totally forgot what day of the week today was until I asked Marius.

Oh, met a nice lady “Nizza” who just came to Little Kulala at noon. She is a lawyer , from Harard, and used to work for Microsoft in Seattle. Now she has lived in Delhi, India for many many years. Her goal is to travel to 100 countries before she dies. Nice goal! We’ll need to count how many we have been to so far!

Arrived at Hoanib Skeleton Coast Camp, Monday, August 14, 2017

We are here now! And it IS HOT!! It feels like at least 90 degrees or more but the staff said no, even though they admit it is HOT!!

I was up at 6:15 and Bob got up half an hour later. After washing and the last bit of packing, I went out to take a few photos in the beautiful morning light. The three of us had breakfast and then we went back to our room to get everything fully packed. Then we went back to the main building to settle bills (I bought a scarf type of thing to wrap my cameras in preventing sand, and the tips – for Charles the guide and for the staff. I asked Marius the tipping guidelines. He said $20 or $15 per person per day for the guide, $10 for the staff who will share the pool. I learned from his hint that we were supposed to pay for his part as well. That was a surprise, after paying such a high bill for this trip. But I did not question it. For an extra 2 hundred $s, not worth building a “wall”. But it’s a lesson learned, just like in Iceland. Next time we learn to make clear at the beginning!!). Our Toyota jeep left the Little Kulala lodge around 9am. In about 20 minutes we arrived at the air strip where we landed 2 days ago. The same little plane, the same pilots who actually stayed at Kulala (the other bigger one) I was told.

This time we had a few more people than coming over, 10 of us. Our first top was Swakopmund where the plane refueled and dropped off all others. Then a girl got on, so the plane took the 4 of us to the next stop, Dorra Nawas. There, we got on another plane, a bigger one called “the caravan” that had a 1 and 2 seats per row arrangemet and was more comfortable. Only one pilot named “Room” (by sound). Nice guy! 45 minutes later we arrived at the Skeleton Coast. The camp’s jeep was already there. Clement was our guide. He and Marius apparently knew each other well (Marius was a guide in south Africa before he had his own company Oryx). Clement was the GM of this camp. A rather street smart guy. In less than 10 minutes we arrived at the camp. It was before 2pm. It was HOT!!!

The camp was quite different from all the camps we’ve been to. From the outside, it looked ultra modern. The main office was nice and in the same kind of tent as the 8 chalets. Clement briefed us quickly and Bob and I had lunch. Then a staff took us to our chalet #4 (in Little Kulala ours was #9). She opened all the doors and windows to fresh the air. The room did not have AC, but there was a floor standing fan. With the fan and all the windows open, it was definitely OK. I was sweating like a pig. Unpacked everything. We would go out at 4pm. Marius said to bring both cameras with the 70-200, 100-400 lenses, and the 15-35 just in case. All right.

This area is entirely different from Sossusvlei! We witnessed the scenery change from the planes. Here it is as dry, but with a lot of rocky mountains. This afternoon our drive will show us more.

At lunch we met a girl who turned out to be someone here doing research with a German professor on brown hyenas. I said the brown hyenas were ugly which might have offended her and she said they were beautiful:-) The professor showed me some pictures of the brown hyena. They were actually cute. Oh well …. To each of his own!

It is 3pm now. I will rest and be ready to brave the heat at 4pm.

We left promptly at 4pm – Clement was our guide (who was also the GM of this lodge/camp). They decided that today we would drive to the river bed nearby – we only had about 1.5 hours before the sunset. The activities here mainly included shooting for wild life – giraf, hyena, oryx, elephant. Soon we saw some oryxes. Marius said it would be the good shot to get the Oryxes against the tall river bed wall. It was against the falling sun, and I had a real hard time getting any decent shots. My exposure and focusing point were always wrong. And the target kept moving, our jeep kept chasing. It was very stressful! I was shooting standing on the seat out of the top window, off the jeep lying down on my stomach, etc. But I never got into the groove and did not get a single good shot L. Later they tracked the foot prints of a giraffe and we found him. We shot a lot, but again my metering was all wrong. Only have myself to blame. Marius was shooting and helping me at the same time. Clement was also shooting. Finally the sun started falling down. The temperature got to be comfortable, but could no longer shoot. We came back to the camp shortly after 6. Went back to the room – they already turned down the bed, put up the mosquito net, closed all the windows. Even though it was not as hot as before, but it was stuffy. I opened the windows, started the fan, downloaded the memory cards, got very discouraged. Then we went to dinner.

This camp has 8 chalets. Now there is a group/family of 10, from Spain, very very loud. We finished dinner around 8:30. Clement then walked us back to our room – we must be accompanied to/from our room when it is dark. Supposedly there are lions around, not sure if we will have the luck to see them.

Tomorrow we will be meeting at 6am, continued to look for/shoot giraffe, oryx, and/or elephant. We will be back around 10:30, then Marius will help me with some LR postprocessing. Then we will go out again around 4, like today. Nothing too exciting. Then the day after tomorrow we will go to the coast of Skeleton Coast for the day! That is going to be more exciting.

Calling it a day now.

Day 2 at Hoanib Skeleton Coast Camp, Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Up at 5 for our 6am meet to start the day. I was awake a lot earlier, somehow fearing the alarm would not ring. It was very comfortable sleeping at night – the temperature difference between day and night was like our summer and winter! I was sleeping with the big comforter on. Wish to sleep a few hours longer!

It was pitch dark. By around 5:30, the birds started chirping.

We left the lodge shortly after 6 – the sun had already risen and there was enough light to photograph. We did not drive far and encountered giraffes, springboks, oryxes, and elephants. Marius wanted to shoot against the sun to get the dramatic effect, in the beautiful soft sunlight. I struggled with it, also struggled with my position in the vehicle. He was sitting in the front row next to Element. The backseats’ windows do not go down all the way, and I had to stand on the seats to shoot from the top window. Very awkward. This in addition to the fact I was slow in getting the focus point adjusted with each shot, and fumbled with the metering. Two hours later we were done shooting and the sun was already too high and too harsh. I did not get even one photo worth looking at …. Clement brought lunch and set up a table in the “mini sand dunes” area that had a nice opening. We had some breakfast, then came back to the lodge before 10am. And it had already got quite HOT!

BTW – the temperature and the room and bed and beddings were really comfortable last night. I had to use the big comforter they had on the bed and it was quite chilly in the morning. I cannot fathom how the weather could get SO HOT just a few hours later! PAINFULLY HOT!!

I downloaded all my photos and was very discouraged…. This afternoon I think I will ask Marius if I could switch seat with him so I can shoot from the front seat (Bob said it was OUR trip that we paid dearly for). M said last night that we would go over my photos this morning after the morning drive. Now he changed to tomorrow. I asked if we could do some today, then he said at 3pm, an hour before we take off for the PM drive. Well ….

We had lunch around 12:30. The staff was very accommodating and especially made the ice tea Bob liked (Bob asked yesterday and they said they would have it ready today but did not ….). The Spanish speaking family of 10 left today – kind of happy they did because they were very loud and rowdy, with 3 kids that sounded like 10. Today a new bunch came, a few were from France I guess, smoking outside the public lounge and the smoke was all blown in. Ugh!!! ….

Met another couple who did gorilla trekking in Rowanda and highly recommended it. Marius also told us that was the #1 most exciting thing in Africa safaris. I did not have much interest before, but now I am considering, after they told me how the silver backs interacted with them….

PAINFULLY HOT!! I think I will need to put on some sunblocks before we drive out this afternoon. Even though we leave 1.5 hours before sunset, the sun was just way too strong!

At 3pm Marius and I met at the “lobby” and went through a few of my photos. Of course he was able to pick out a few and he said I did well. After his processing, I think they look decent also, my LR skills really need to be improved, and my experience! We were done in less than half an hour and we then went back to our rooms. At 4pm we all met again and started our afternoon trip.

We were hoping to find more of the animals we saw this morning, but it turned out we saw only a couple Oryxes, a few Springboks, and a few elephants. We spent most of our time watching and photographing the 2 sparring male elephants – Charles and Olie. It was fun to watch the elephants standing up to pull down the tree branches. I wish I could have gotten some good photos, but I was not able to. I sat at the front seat and was able to shoot much more comfortably. But I did not have the right angles, etc. Oh well ….

Back to the campt after 6:30, in the dark. Then dinner at 7:30. Then back to the room after 9pm. Today the camp had a new bunch of people, including the lady “Nizza” whom we met at Little Kulala.

Tomorrow we will be going to the Skeleton Coast (so do the others). It’ll be an all day trip starting at 6am again. I hope to get a longer night’s sleep.

To the Skeleton Coast; Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Exciting Day Going to the Skeleton Coast

We were to meet at 6am for breakfast then immediately leave for the drive to the Skeleton Coast which would take 3+ hours. It was supposed to be mostly for wild life photography – the usual ones plus seals and possibly the brown hyena, plus the sand dunes.

I was up at 5am – very reluctant to be up and would have loved to stay in the warm bed longer, but I dragged myself up. It was chilly at that time of the day. Bob was up at 5:30.

I did not dare to eat much breakfast for bathroom concerns, since I was able to go “on damand” and there would be no bathrooms the whole day. I did not mind #1 behind the bush, but ….

We were on the road around 6:30. It was a cloudy/overcast day (for a change) and there was no sunrise pretty colors. Marius and Clement told us the fogs were rolling in. We could see that. It was chilly, we both had our fleece on (Marius had his down sweater on). We drove through the usual place that we had been to in the last two days, then onto new territories. The first photo shoot was a “family” of Oryxes, 3 adults and 2 babies. In the beautiful pale sand desert. The next one was also oryxes, against the pale sand dunes. I could not get my focus point low enough to get the composition I wanted, but I did get some sharp photos. Then I asked about the roaring sand dunes, so Clement drove onto the top of a sand dune and showed me how to make the roaring sand. Marius and I scooted down the dune on our butt, Clement drove the car down with Bob to pick us up. FUN!! I had fine sand in my boots, in my pants’ back pockets, and all over! I used the phone and video’d the whole thing.

By around 10am, Marius said we would have another breakfast. Clement drove onto a flat spot somewhere in the desert, set up the “table” with Marius on a beautiful high rock. Clement made fresh coffee with the French press. They all had coffee. I adhered to nothing-in-nothing-out policy J Around that area, it was the flood plane, with thick bushes, birds, and cracked plane. They told us it was a place with snakes and scorpions, plus ticks and told us never to turn over a rock and never to go into the bushes. YES SIR!!!

We continued on the road, drove through absolutely beautiful sceneries, with pale sand dunes, mountains mixed with sands that really looked like a Chinese painting. We got plenty of African massages and the “road” was quite tough! Driving in the sand was quite treacherous, but Clement was an experienced driver and guide! We were lucky!

Finally we got to the coast! First went to some sort of a station with a “museum” that had a bunch of relics from the Skeleton Coast, including a human skull … I bought a purse made with fur seal fur, but we did not bring cash, so we will give the $N150 to Clement after we went back to the lodge. Got to have this for memory!

That place actually had a toilet! Quite clean even though I could not figure out how to flush it. But Bob was able to do it. Phew, glad to have a place to pee and not in the bush!

That station was very close to the shore which we got to in a minute drive. I did not realize how many stinky seals there were until we got close. And lucky us, guess what, there were two brown hyenas right there, with a fresh kill of a baby seal. The two brown hyenas were both well researched – one was named Bonnie, and her brother is Clyde but he was also named McDonald because on one of his arms there was a place that looked like the letter M. Bonnie had a collar tag on, but McDonald did not and he was not skittish about cars whereas Bonnie was more skittish. M was eating the seal, with 3 jackals stealing bites around him. All of us started shooting frantically and excitedly – this was a treat none of us dared to expect!! But we did not get to shoot long. Just before we started shooting, Clement got the call from the radio that the other jeep of our lodge with all its guests were stuck in the desert. Of course we must go help. So we only lingered a couple minutes to shoot the hyenas, before driving back retracing our paths to rescue the other jeep.

We retraced our path and Clement drove fast. Don’t know how he knew exactly how/where to find them, but he did! It took him 4 or 5 tries to drive up the sand dune and he succeeded. At the low place by the “Oasis”, it was the jeep with its left side sunken in the sand. Clement parked our jeep on a hard surface on the dune, and ran down to help, so did Marius. They told us to stay in the car and have some lunch – they packed lunch for all of us. From where we were, we could see clearly the 5 guests standing by the stuck vehicle, the guide had shovels there, etc. Clement worked hard for about an hour, finally got the car out! Phew!! He was REALLY GOOD! It turned out that the car was stuck from 10am! And it was 2pm already by the time they were rescued! Marius told us one guy was very pissed and asked him if we saw the brown hyenas. Marius told us not to tell them we saw the brown hyenas and not to aggravate them.

We were supposed to all fly back in the “caravan” plane and the plane was already waiting for us. We were getting late, so Clement drove really fast to get us to the “hanger” strip. For the other car, the guide asked them if they wanted to continue the course to the Atlantic coast line or fly back, they decided to continue and then drive back (I would too!).

It was the same plane that flew us to the lodge, the same pilot Roome. Even though it was windy, the fly was very smooth and I was able to capture the beautiful scenes below. We were back to the lodge around 3.

BTW – even though at the lodge it was much warmer than the coast, it was NOT BAD AT ALL! Order of magnitude more pleasant than the last two days!! Really nice!! While downloading my photos, Bob and I went to the lodge and got some snacks – I was hungry and really enjoyed the snacks!

At 6pm, we went to the lodge to watch a short film. It turned out that we first listened to a lecture given by a German young researcher doing research on cheetahs, followed by the documentary film “Vanishing Kings – desert lions” which was about the desert lions in this area. Very well made and very sad! I want to get a copy of it!

Back to the room after dinner and started packing. It was chilly and we had all the windows closed for the first time! Finished most of the packing and downloaded the photos – very disappointed about myself!!!!! Went to bed after 11pm.

To the Serra Cafema River Camp, Thursday, August 17, 2017

I was up at 5am again – very chilly morning! First ever since we came to Africa! Bob was up at 5:15 and we met Marius at 6 as scheduled. Shortly after we took off for our morning drive, to shoot whatever that would be good! It was a foggy chilly morning and the fog rolling in front of the mountains and sand dunes was just beautiful! On the way to the scenery spots, we were lucky to run into another brown hyena carrying a large giraffe bone in his mouth, running towards the mountain (where the den was). We rushed to capture the photos! We also saw quite a number of springboks – one of them jumped so high which was really cute!! Also saw oryxes and giraffes, but we did not stop, headed towards the top of a hill to capture the rolling fog scenery. I took a bunch of photos, but unsure if anything was good.

We were back at the camp shortly after 8. Bob and I had some breakfast, settled the bill/tips, then went back to the room to finish packing. They would come to collect our luggage at 10.

By 10am, we were back at the main lodge and Clement took us on the drive towards the air strip soon after. The same air strip as we came, the same plane and same pilot, Roome.

A smooth 45 minutes’ flight later we arrived at Dorra Nawas, a mere few minutes later we switched to another plane and there were only the 3 of us plus the two pilots. Again smooth flight and beautiful landing. An hour later, we arrived at the air strip for Serra Cafema. Our guide, Darius, was already waiting for us with the jeep – the same kind of jeep as we used in Botswana, open on all sides, but they no longer used Range Rover, Toyota instead!

The three of us on Darius’s jeep, with all our camera bags, and our luggage was on a different jeep which carried the two pilots. They prepared welcome snacks for us at the air strip, under a simple tent, nice gesture but we really were not hungry. We all ate something any way.

The ride to the camp site was about one hour, on mountain road, with serious African massage. We can see the mountains in front of us, which was on the Angola side. This camp was right on the border between Namibia and Angola. Interesting landscape and some parts were very pretty!

We arrived at the camp. One of the managers, Hendrick, welcomed us and briefed us on the regular stuff. We signed whatever we had to sign, the same at each of the camps. Then Hendrick took us to our chalet, again #4.

The room was very big, same size as in Little Mombo, also with an outside shower also, and a spacious deck right by the river. The path to each chalet was on raised wooden planks which made me feel safe(r). Marius told us this used to be a Premium camp but is aging and has been down graded to Classic. I can see why – it indeed showed its age, but still quite nice!

I unpacked everything and connected all the electrical stuff – had to get the manager come to help because the room only had a couple of outlets at rather inconvenient spots. But he helped to solve the problem by bringing a long extension cord. Cool!

It was about 3pm when we settled in the room. We then met Marius at 4pm in the main lounge for afternoon tea followed by a boat ride on the Kunene river. Our guide Darius was a nice young man. The three of us got on the motor boat and spent 1.5 hours on the river. We did not really see much and there was really nothing to photograph, except some memory shots using the Sony. We chatted about the Himba people whom we will be visiting tomorrow morning, etc. Then we stopped at one spot along the river which was actually on the Angola side, and had our sun-downer. Then we headed back and arrived at the camp before 6. By that time the sun had already set.

Dinner was at around 7:30 and we would meet Marius around 6:45. Tomorrow we would meet at 5:30am and set off at 5:45 to shoot scenery. Then we will go to the Himba people’s village. Marius said he would teach me to shoot people.

They lit the fire in the fireplace in the main lodge which was REALLY nice!! We sat with Marius by the fire before dinner and chatted. I pulled a chair close and sat right next to the fire. It felt SO GOOD! I was SO COLD!! Unpleasantly cold!! Wish I had brought my wool base layer and the down sweater!! Dinner was fine – I had two appetizers, soup and dumplings, but ate only a little of the entrée, fish which was quite bad, very watery, probably from a frozen piece, and fishy! If it were a good piece of fish, it would have been nicely browned. Oh well…. The service was very good!

After dinner, we soon came back to the room. Cold! I hesitated about taking a shower ….

Tomorrow we will meet at 5:30, out on the wheels by 5:45, to catch the sunrise at the overlook. Better go to bed now!

Meet the Himba People, Friday, August 18, 2017

I got up at 4:15am when the alarm woke me, very reluctantly! It was so nice and warm in bed and it was very chilly in the room. But I dragged myself up. Got my cell phone (alarm) and went back int the warm bed for a few more minutes, then got up. Used the wet face cloth and wiped my face – the sink was pretty much unusable, a fancy copper shallow sink. Bob was up around 4:30. We got ready and met Marius and Harius at 5:30, then took off at 5:45 in the darkness.

It was about a 15 minutes very bumpy/rocky drive to the Schoemann viewpoint. Set up my tripod and followed Marius’ instructions for the aperture and shutter speed, and the composition, we started shooting. There was a very heavy dark cloud on top, so the sunrise was not really spectacular, but good enough. We took a bunch of shots, until the sunrise was “done”. It becamse purely cloudy, so we drove back. It was about 8am, and we had our breakfast.

We had enough time for the breakfast, but not much more, then we met at 9am to head for the Himba village for people photogrqphy. I was apprehensive about visiting the primitive Himba people but I was willing to give it a try. We got to the village about 25 minutes. It was pretty amazing! The Himba people is the probably the last true Nomads. They live in these extremely primitive “huts” and are not integrated with the modern society at all! A man has many wives. During the day the village had only the women and children. Marius had been here many many times and he was very friendly with them, especially the matriarch “Crocodile” – she got the name because one of her breasts was bitten by a crocodile while she was washing clothes in the Hunene river! Thanks to Wilderness Safaris, she was saved! Last time Marius was here in May with clients and they visited the village. They were stopped for a few minutes and were told that she just delivered a baby ten minutes ago!! Now the baby (boy) was 3 months old. When we were there, the baby was sleeping in rags right by their hut. Darius told us there were about 20 Himba people in that village, all related.

We started shooting after shaking hands with Crocodile and introduced ourselves – Darius taught us how to say “I am ….” In their language and Marius told us the proper way to shake hands with them. I brought my 15-35mm and 70-200mm lenses and frantically shooting following Marius instructions. He was also shooting very enthusiastically! I was totally amazed by the way the Himba people still lived, different from any notions I had about the “native” people.

By around 11am, we left. Marius left $N, and I bought a necklace from their hand-made stuff – Marius told us it would be proper for both Bob and me to spend about $N100, and that necklace was right $N100 (about less than $10USD).

We came back to the camp around 11am. I started downloading my photos soon afterwards. I took a look at some of the photos – there seemed to be a few that were okay. Bob and I had lunch at noon, then came back to the room. I started looking at my photos and attempted to post-process some. Then I took a nap for half an hour – badly needed one. At 3pm, I went to the main lodge and met with Marius. He helped me to post process some photos. He was able to make a lot of them really “pop”. He praised me for what I accomplished – well I followed his instructions and learned quite a bit, and he was being nice!! I was pleased with some of the photos!

Bob decided to stay in for the afternoon activity – we were going back to the Himba village for more shootings and he did not have much interest in going again. Undertandably! Marius and Darius and I left at 4pm. I had no idea what we were going to do. Marius said whatever I wanted to shoot, but he actually had specific things in mind. I just followed him. Mainly he staged for 3 Himba women to walk along one of the low sand dune line and we shot under different lightings. I really loved one of the Himba girls. I was told she was only 11! She was beautiful and had an interesting attitude, but very sweet! If I had the $ and was allowed I would have LOVEd to adopt her!! Even though the Himba people were proud and did not seem to have any desire to “get out”, I somehow feel bad for them, for living so primitively at this day and age! ….

Oh, among other things, I learned/saw a new plant – the “Narra” plant/fruit!

We came back to the camp around 6pm. Had an early dinner at 7. Tomorrow is our last full day of this safari! We are to meet at 4:30am and start for the sand dunes (at least Marius told me so) and shoot. Then we would do the 4-wheel sand dunes ride in the afternoon, and star/milkyway shooting after dark).

Must go to bed early!

Last Day of Safari, Saturday, August 19, 2017

The alarm woke me up at 3:30am but I lingered in the warm bed till 3:45 after turning the alarm off. The room was not as cold as the day before, but was still very chilly and uncomfortable. We were up nonetheless. It was quite windy last night but the wind died down after we came back to our room. Hard to imagine the weather could become like this a few days ago when it was hot as hell!

We met in the main lodge. Bob and Marius had a cup of coffee as usual, then we took off in total darkness. Darius said the place was about an hour’s drive away. And it was. We arrived what they referred to as the sand dunes belt. By the time we got there, we could already see some shapes. We waited for about 15 minutes for the sun rise to start. It was absolutely beautiful!!! The layers of mountains, the ripples of sand dunes with fascinating patterns, the magical lights …. We shot and shot and shot! Marius said it would ideal if an oryx appeared in the sand dunes. I did not dare to hope. But guess what? An oryx really came into the sand dunes!!!!! How lucky were we!!!! We shot and shot and shot. I did not dare to look at my photos much, but I hoped to have gotten a few decent shots.

I had to go to the bathroom at the back of the hill we were on – the African massage shook everything out of me! By around 7:45, we were done shooting and started towards our camp. The hour long drive felt a lot shorter and we were back shortly after 9. Bob and I had a full breakfast before coming back to the room.

I downloaded all the photos and was rather pleased with some of my shots. Then I took a nap – the continuous early mornings were taken a toll on me and I was very tired. It was very very windy outside. With the sun out, it was not very cold, but not that warm – I kept my wind breaker on the whole day.

Shortly after noon time, we went to the main lodge to have lunch. The nice service girl said they were not ready, and I told them no rush. We stayed at the lounge and relaxed. In a few minutes, she came over and asked us to take a short walk with her. Not knowing what she meant (her English was not too fluent), we followed her. She took us along the wooden walkway all the way down, past #7, to a little tent that had a table set for two. Now she told us they wanted to give us a surprise! How sweet!!! She said the weather was not cooperative and if the wind was too big for us, we can go back to the lounge. I really did not have the heart to say no, even though I really did not like to eat in the wind. But the tent blocked out a lot of the wind, so I said we would eat there. It was a long walk for them to come serving us lunch and we really appreciated their kindness!!

We had our lunch and came back to the room. Eating in the wind did take its toll on me and I started feeling not that great. Quickly took a zantag. It was 2pm already. I was to meet Marius at 3 to go over my photos.

We met at 3. He showed me how he edited some of my photos and they immediately looked much better! So now he picked out more than 100 photos and he said we needed to meet and pick out 20 best. I was pleased with I was able to accomplish, thanks to Marius!!! This was an expensive trip for us, very, because we were paying for three people, plus service fees. ! But it has been our best Africa experience!! Marius took good care of us in every way. If we could afford it, I really want to do the Kenya and Rwanda trip next year with him!

Our plan was to ride the quad bikes at 4pm today. Darius got everything prepared for us – helmets, gloves, goggles, bike, etc. We walked to the bikes and he gave us instructions. We got on the bikes. I started to practice and felt I really could not handle it. I was very nervous and did not enjoy it. So I told Darius that I would not do it, and I would ride in the jeep following them. Then Bob said he did not feel comfortable riding it either so he would not do it. Marius said he would do it purely for us, so he would not do it either. So we abandoned the idea and decided to go to the Schoemann viewpoint for sunset and that’s what we did. It was definitely the right decision!! There was no way Bob and I could have handled riding on those quad bike on the very rocky and bumpy path! And the sunset was absolutely gorgeous!!

Originally Marius was taking us to the Schoemann point tonight to do star photography. It was so windy today. He said we could do it at the end of the wooden path in the camp and we all welcomed that idea!!

Tonight is our last night of this safari. Tomorrow we will leave at 9am for the airstrip and start our long journey home. I would have loved to get everything packed now, but since we will do the start photography and I must pack the tripod in the luggage, I really could not pack until we’re done. That’s ok – we do not have to get up until 6am tomorrow. We will do breakfast at 7:30; luggage pickup is at 8:30, then we leave. All good!

Long Journey Home, Sunday & Monday, August 20-21, 2017

Now I am sitting at home, after 36+ hours of travel, writing the final chapter of this trip diary. It is now 10pm EDT – would be 3am in Namibia. It is good to be home, but I REALLY miss Namibia!!

We got up yesterday before 6am and left the lodge at 9am. Two other couples were also leaving – one headed to Hoanib, the other to some other camps. We were not in the same jeep riding to the air strip (still the three of us in the same jeep), but we shared the same plane to Dorra Nawas.

Then we boarded the same plane, just the three of us, after a short break, and the plane took off towards Windhoek. We got there around noon time. Our flight on Namibian airline was at 2pm. Marius helped us get things sorted out at the airport, then we parted – he was on South African airline to Cape Town. I really hope we will see him next year – if the price is not too outrageous, we would definitely go with him! Marius bought a pack of biltong for me – it was so delicious!

The flight to Johannesburg was on schedule at 4pm and we got to Joburg in about 1.5 hours. It was local time around 7pm which had a one hour time difference (would be 6pm Windhoek time). In Joburg, we had about 3-4 hours time before boarding our next leg to Amsterdam. Oryx arranged the VIP service at Joburg airport for us again, which was trememdously helpful! We went through everything very quickly and the guy took us all the way to the business lounge.

We rested for a few hours at the lounge which was very very nice! I went out and checked out the airport stored, especially for bilton, as Marius told me. Bought a bag. Unfortunately they seemed to have all other types of meat (beef, ostrich, kudu, etc.) except oryx which I really would like to have. I bought a bag of beef biltong which turned out to be far from as delicious as the ones Marius bought me. It was very salty. I must consume all of it before going into the US, or wasted it. I ended up eating half of it before we entered the US – had to throw away the half bag on the plane.

The flight from Joburg to Amsterdam was the longest, almost 11 hours. I slept for as long as I could, but it was never the same as sleeping in a bed. I felt quite tired after we completed the flight. The Amsterdam airport was a bit strange for international transfer – there was no sign on where to go and we almost walked out of the doors with the other passengers. It turned out a security guard had to escort us (there were 5 of us) to the departing section and we had to go through security again.

Another few hours in the lounge – this one was far from the one in Joburg and it was quite crowded. I expected we would need to go through some strict examination before we boarded the flight (as we were told), but it turned out to be very simple and smooth. At local time 2:00pm, we were on the plane in our seats. The flight was scheduled to leave at 2:30 and we were on schedule. Flight time was 7+ hours. I did not sleep. Watched a few movies that I had not seen before. Around 4:30pm, we landed in Boston. All was smooth and nice!

After picking up our luggage – this time they did not lose any – we went to the Delta counter to file a complaint about my damaged bag, but were told that since it was beyond 24 hours, we need to do it online. Oh well …. I will try to do it!

The Framingham bus was busy and we missed the one that just took off (and full). The next one was supposed to be an hour later. We decided to do Uber which got us to Framinghame around 6:15. There we got on our own car, and back home right before 7.

Nice to be home! Reunited with our 4-footers who were ecstatic! My sister did a great job taking care of them and our hour. They insisted on leaving right away.

I really miss Namibia – the beautiful big sky, the vast desert with so few people, the sand dunes, and the wild life! Just LOVE it ALL!!