My great Namibian adventure

[The_Norwegian]

Ever had a dream so lifelike that you could swear it was for real, a dream where everything is perfect and great, just plain awesome alltogheter? Then all of a sudden you wake up and realizes that it was in fact a dream? Well, that is sort the feeling I have now.

 

I`m back home everybody, from my first trip to Africa, and what can i say? WOW! What have i just experienced? I have experienced so much, and there is so many impressions i have to let sink in.

 

I am returing home with apprx 27.500 pictures taken.

 

the dunes of Sossusvlei with all its shapes and colors, dead vlei, Erindi game reserve, an awesome awesome place where I had my first encounter with a big and healthy lion-king, the king of beasts himself. That first moment of eye-contact with him when he walked passed our car just pierced right through my very soul. Strenght, power, wisdom, beauti, all in that first moment.

 

4 one year old lion-sisters showed me the tru meaning of girl-power, never have i felt such levels of adrenalin rushing through my body, just writing this now gives me goosebumps. They put on a show!

 

Wilddogs on a kill, a newborn giraffe, It was something to see the pack having a feast, but it was brutal, really brutal, I`m having trouble using the word awesome for that sighting, but it`s the circle of life. I felt really bad for the mother giraffe seeing her newborn getting torn apart though..

 

Etosha, indeed the great white place! We had many great sightings, the park was really genereous on lions. The elephants though, we almost lost hope of seeing them until the second last day in okaukuejo and the trip, a decent large herd came walking in and saved the trip elephant-wise.

 

So you understand that i had a great time. I have to sort some pictures and let it sink in some days before i getting started with a more detailed report, hope you keep checking in on my thread! :-) Here is on of many pictures taken, some of etoshas many inhabitants.

 

_ASW0531 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

 

More to come!

Edited November 22, 2016 by The_Norwegian

[xelas]

Yes, I did. It was May 17th, 2014. And yes, it was after our first Africa trip. To Namibia. The story continues.

 

But 27500 photos?! Oh boy, those will be some long long hours in front of a computer, to browse from them all, to pick up the candidates, but let me tell you, each photo seen and each word written will bring you back into the Dreamland again and again!

 

Your first one is telling me we are in for a real treat of a trip report and photo essay. Don't let us be waiting for too long, @@The_Norwegian !

[Caracal]

I'll keep checking in @@The_Norwegian - looking forward to hearing more, much more!

[Dave Williams]

Me too!

With my first trip to Namibia in February I'm wondering if the season and sightings will be very similar to your visit so I'll be reading with great interest.

27,500 photos! That's a lot of storage space too. I'm wondering how much I'll need. I don't want to run out of camera card space and I don't care if I'm months sorting through them either!

[Atravelynn]

I know that dream. I always want to go back to sleep.

 

That's an impressive list of highlights!

[The_Norwegian]

Hi everyone! It has taken me some days both to start working with all the pictures, and also just to adjust being home, my body is back, but my brain and soul was left behind... But i will get started on this trip report during the start of this week! So just stay tuned :-)

[Atravelynn]

Never an easy transition.

[xelas]

Best remedy ... book your next flight to WDH !

[pault]

27, 500 pictures is definitely "enthusiastic". Surely not for two weeks?

Edited November 28, 2016 by pault

[Hads]

@@The_Norwegian - thanks for a great intro.

I am ready for the next update

[Game Warden]

@@The_Norwegian Welcome back! Whilst sorting through the photos, you can start planning your next safari

[Kitsafari]

Gorgeous shot of the zebras in B&W! Cant wait to see and hear the entire trip!

[The_Norwegian]

Ok everybody, here goes, the first installment. Let`s just start at the beginning, and for those of you who haven`t read my other threads, here are the trip with the dates and places we stayed :

 

9-10nov: Oslo, Norway-WIndhoek-Sossuslvei, arrive in Sossusvlei the 10th obviously, with time to photograph rest of the day the 10th.

11&12nov, sossusvlei, including helicoptertrip

13nov, leaving for Erindi in the morning, making the most of the rest of the day when we get there.

14nov, Erindi.

15nov, leaving for Etosha in the morning.

16, 17, 18, 19nov, etosha, different camps.

20nov leaving for Windhoek.

21nov Flying home to Norway.

As you can see, a pretty full trip for the amount of days the trip lasted. I think, without having prior trips to compare this one with, it was well thought out. A whole lot of experiences!

We left oslo early afternoon for Frankfurt, where we had a apprx 5 hours to kill before out flight with air Namibia to Windhoek. Had some good food and a couple of beers while waiting. The flight was pretty straight forward, not any different than any other long haul flights.

Descending through the clouds, and the biggest smile on my face as I first could see this vast continent out through my window. One year of waiting, finally i could see what i had been waiting and longing for all this time!

07.17 i stepped onto african ground for the very first time in my life! A nice, sunny morning, the sun already well underway of heating up the air.

Through immigration went pretty quick, baggage claim, i have experienced faster on bigger airports :-) But who cares, as long as i get my luggage, it doesn`t matter.

Through x-ray an into the arrival-hall, where me met up with our driver and pro-guide Walter.

Exchanging money, and buy the biggest bottle of water i could find, i was getting very thirsty at this time, traveling is exhausting, and the first meeting with the african climate sure made me longing for some cold water!

So, all these things taken care of, we ventured out. I stopped just before exiting the airport doors, just looking outside, and taking in the first view of Namibia. Hauling our luggage and ourselfes to our vehicle for the next almost two weeks, and also my first experience with a land rover.

IMG_20161110_084916 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

So, loading up the trailer, get ourselves installed in our seats with camera-backpacks an computerbags in the aile, we had a pretty long drive ahead down to Sossusvlei.

Surprised by the roads the first miles, but as you all know, and i didn`t, gravel roads are the surface of choice in many places in Namibia once you get out of the more central areas. As it turned out, I took a picture right before the road turned gravel, not knowing at that time :-)

IMG_20161110_095729 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

After this, prepare to be shaken and stirred for the next 11 days :-D

I suspect that the drive is pretty boring and long when all is said and done, but for a first timer, just realxing and looking outside as we passing the landscape and some baboons along the way, thinking about what layes ahead, the drive was a experience by itself.

A stop along the way to stretch our feet, and now I`m really stepping foot on real namibian soil!

DSCF1576 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

Driving further, we were told to close our eyes and not open them until we were told to do so, and when we did, the view was mesmerizing, breathtaking and almost to much to take in in one view, the landscape really opened up!

DSCF1586 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

This is Africa!

Some steep slopes, turns and bends and more gravel roads, we arrived at our destination some time later, the sossus dune lodge, where we would spend the nest days. I was happy with this lodge at the bottom of a small mountain/hill, with a view i have a hard time describing.

Sossus dune lodge by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

A nice place, with a wooden boardwalk to the chalets from the bar/resturant/dining-area. Changing into some clothing more suited for the temperature, it was not very long before the first GT was on the table, and my oh my, that GT is the best i ever had. If it in fact was that good or if the circumstances had anything to do with it, I will leave that up to you to decide ;-) Good dinner, and just socialising the rest of the evening, before bedtime and sleep.

Early start on the first day, naturally, noone travels to Africa on a photo-trip to sleep the whole morning :-) Grabbed our lunch-bags, who btw was not very impressive, and were in the car before 6, drove to the gate and dropped of the ones who had opted for the helicopter ride over the dunes. Originally. I had signed up for the heli-trip, but had to cancel my flight some days before depature.

Dropping them off, we drove off into the dunes, just in time for the sunset, and what a view! One can look at pictures and watch youtube as much as you want, but beeing there in person and seeing it, smelling it, feeling it, is something completely different. The vastness of this landscape makes you feel pretty insignificant. A new experience for me also just focusing on landscape-photo, and sunrise and sunsets are an art-form by itself, but I gave it a go at least..

_D3A3289 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

With the sun starting to climb over the horizon and into the skies, the dunes really came alive, and the amount of photogenic shapes and forms in this landscape is endless, Anywhere you turn your head, and for every minute the sun climbs and changes position in the sky, the scenery changes.

_D3A3382 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

_D3A3540 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

_D3A3621 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

And of course, dune 45 is a popular dune, I however, did not walk across it :-D

_D3A3631 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

_D3A3646 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

The road to nowhere it seems..

_ASW9280 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

_ASW9252 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

Spent a few hours just photographing the dunes before heading back to meet up with the others and eat lunch. Along the way we stopped for some oryx-photography, and my first meeting with african wildlife!

_D3A4036 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

Met up with the others at the Sossusvlei lodge where the helicopter-rides start, and had a good lunch and a cold beer. Very nice! After lunch we headed to solitaire as some small purchases was needed for some of us! And of course, one can not visit this place without taking a few pictures of the old cars, a special scene indeed.

_D3A3260 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

Yep, pretty heavy editing on this picture, but i feel like it needed something extra, if you like the result or not, I don`t know :-)

Then we headed back to our lodge to rest or socialise or whatever people wanted to before we headed out again for the evening.

The evenings destination was dead vlei where we would try to capture this one of a kind place in the afternoon sun and the changing shadows and shades. It`s exhausting walking in this sand! Not a very long walk from the parking space into dead vlei, but it sure got me sweaty and thirsty!

_D3A4197 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

But it was worth the walk!

_D3A4193 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

Anyone who has been there knows the share size of it all, but i took this picture to try to show people how huge everything is. It`s not easy getting the grips on its vastness without any known object to compare it to

_D3A4175 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

Looong shadows :-)

_ASW9484 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

But times go fast when you`re having fun, and the strict time-rules said that we had to leave a little before we wanted to, but i guess its always like that ;-) But we headed back for dinner and a drink, and although it wasn`t many options on the menu, only two plus soup appetizer, the food was indeed very good, and good food after a whole day out and about is very nice!

The next morning we went out about 5.45 after a quick coffee, and headed out. This morning we had decided to park and walk into the landscape and to a area we had seen from the car the day before, that looked very photogenic and nice. A 30 minutes walk from where we parked, and we arrived at a very nice place, with both nice dune-formations and trees and brushes. The place was teeming with birds, and was incredibly nice! The dunes have a lot of life after all!

_ASW9686 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

This dune we "conquered" ;-) We named it "dune 47" after the area code for Norway ;-)

_ASW9740 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

some details:

_D3A4280 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

We spent a few hours here before walking back to the car, it was just apprx 30 minutes, but the car seems far far away when photographed from the starting point. This is from top of the dune with all i had to zoom with :-)

_D3A4275 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

Then we headed for lunch at the Sossusvlei lodge again, really nice place, and good food!

The afternoon and evening we spent photographing a specific dune that looked nice, and as we had some wind, we got som lively pictures with the sand blowing on top of the surface. And to use your camera in these conditions, right? The pictures out of my D3 needs a whole lot of dust removal tool, my D4s somehow got out of it much better.

_D3A4375 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

Spent the evening here, then headed back, to pack and get our gear togheter for the next morning, as we wanted to get an early start for the drive to Erindi.

Not so much to pack, so that went pretty quick, again time for dinner and a drink and just having a good time! An easy task when on a trip like this with nice people with the same interest and goal as you :-)

Next up : Erindi private game reserve.

Edited November 30, 2016 by The_Norwegian

[Dave Williams]

Stunning photography, now wondering what I'll miss on our trip but too late to change it now!

[xelas]

Indeed, stunning landscape photography. Was curious but one look at Flickr site tells me all I wanted to know ... another Nikon guy ... yet with pro equipment! This TR will be even better than expected !

But the Landy eluded me. What type of body it has? Was it a group tour, a small private overlander trip?

Edited November 30, 2016 by xelas

[Caracal]

What a great first instalment - wonderful photography and I'm finding the road to nowhere and the lone oryx quite haunting.

[pault]

Oh you did good! Excellent photos of the dunes and surroundings. Nice report too.

 

Don't rush. It's good. Off to Erindi by the second post seems so fast! We know you have more photos.

[optig]

I can remember the incredible dunes,and the Skeleton Coast very well. They were just awesome. Namibia is another place that I'd love to take my niece and nephew to. They would love it.I'd also love to see the North of the country myself.

[The_Norwegian]

Thank you everybody, i`m glad you liked the first installment. My first time writing a trip-report like this, as you probably can tell :-) My first time for almost everything it seems.. The Erindi-part i have to plan in my head a little bit, i think and hope you will enjoy that bit as well! But i can say already now, Erindi rocks! my oh my, i get goosebumps just thinking of several of the happenings ;-) I have plenty more photos from the dunes if you like more before we venture off to Erindi..? Just say the word :-)

 

@@Game Warden, luckily i leave to others to plan the trip, i just pay and come along for the ride :-) But things are already set in motion for november 2017, there will probably be two options. More on that later :-) I`m hooked, Africa got me good.

Edited December 1, 2016 by The_Norwegian

[LarsS]

Great pictures @@The_Norwegian! They take me right back to Namibia

 

You're pics of Sossusvlei are amazing. It's difficult indeed to capture the size of it's place, but you have done a good job providing some perspective.

 

Btw, I like the way you have photoshopped the picture of the car. It looks like an ancient post card. The landscape in the picture matches the state of the car in a nice way.

 

Looking forward to read more of your TR (meanwhile feeling quilty I haven't started myself yet, but it will come probably second half of december when I have the time)

[Tdgraves]

27,500 photos in <11 full days, that is going some. Did you ever put down the camera and just take it all in?

[The_Norwegian]

Indeed, i did that quite often ☺️ 11fps and using xqd card the picture count climbs fast when something exciting happens. So i was in no way glued to my camera ☺️

[The_Norwegian]

@@Game Warden i see my last post has somehow been posted three times, can you delete two of them? can`t find if i can do it myself.

 

 

@@The_Norwegian Duplicate posts removed as requested

Edited December 2, 2016 by wilddog

[The_Norwegian]

I hope you are ready for some more pictures from the dunes, i thought it was a little hasty to already take the trip to Erindi. and of course, to keep you in suspense a little bit more for whats to come :-) Anyway, more from the dunes!

 

The windy dune..

 

_D3A4939 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

 

_D3A4793 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

 

Here are some of my co-travelers in action.

 

_D3A4756 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

 

And here.. Just one of them though, don`t know who the other person is.. It was nobody at this dune when we arrived there, but suddenly everyone stopped there.. If we hadn`t stopped there i`m betting noone else had stopped either :-)

 

_D3A4732 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

 

"our" dune, dune 47. We conquered it :-D

 

_ASW9765 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

 

Dead vlei. As I mentioned, we went there in the evening, an had the place to ourselves, apparently a smart move as "everyone" goes there in the morning, making photography very difficult, unless photographing lots of people in the desert is your cup of tea :-)

 

_D3A4215 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

 

_ASW9605 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

 

This oryx was standing pretty in front of some very picturesqe formations as we drove to dead vlei.

 

_D3A4151 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

 

Game-viewing, also on the way to dead vlei.

 

_ASW9470 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

 

And somehow i forgot to include that we also visited the sesriem canyon, can`t believe i forgot to mention that.. A special place indeed!

 

_ASW9434 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

 

_ASW9338 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

 

One of the many many dunes and formations, you can spend a week in sossusvlei and not take the same picture twice..

 

_D3A3699 by asgeir westgård, on Flickr

 

Well ok, that was what i had edited so far! I`m still planning and making ready for the Erindi-part, so have a little patience ;-)

Edited December 2, 2016 by The_Norwegian

[Atravelynn]

"Dead vlei. As I mentioned, we went there in the evening, an had the place to ourselves, apparently a smart move as "everyone" goes there in the morning, making photography very difficult, unless photographing lots of people in the desert is your cup of tea"

 

Good hint. The dead vlei photos you posted were excellent. How did you find the evening light.