Continuing on from my previous post, the afternoon at the coast was spent enjoying a sand dunes experience in a couple of 4x4s. This started with a drive along the lagoon with flamingos not too far out, so of course we stopped to photograph them.
Pink water! At the coast there is a 3500-hectare salt-pan complex, which currently supplies over 90% of South Africa’s salt. The water is pink as it’s inhabited by microorganisms that release red or pink coloured secretions.It’s spectacular higher up on the sand dunes.Going up and down the dunes is thrilling, but you definitely need a driver who knows how to handle them without rolling the car over! Photo credit to Lesley, who was sitting in the front seat of the car – I’m rather glad I was in the back !It was such a windy day that it was hard to stand up on top of the dunes, and you can see the sand whipping off the top here. Not the best of conditions for cameras and they were all given a thorough clean that evening! We stopped many times on our journeys – if one of my guests saw something along the way that they wanted to photograph, we simply pulled over and grabbed our cameras.When you go on a trip with photographers, you stand a chance of being in some photographs yourself 🙂 I had no idea that I was being photographed here. Thanks for the photo Doug. 6.15 a.m, and a 20 minute trek to get to Deadvlei – one of my favourite places.I always find another scene to photograph here, it’s just a question of looking.Two of my group photographing different trees. Shortly after we left Deadvlei we stopped to photograph this scene, and it’s one of my favourite images from the trip.This is the fantastic rock arch at Spitzkoppe. You need to have a bit of head for heights to be comfortable up here. None of us dared attempt a jump, unlike our guide below. It’s a long way down if you fall !Sunrise in Etosha National Park.Wildebeest just after sunrise. It’s not called The Golden Hour for nothing…This Black Backed Jackal settled down for a snooze. The light of the golden hour is what makes this photo come alive. The light has now gone flat, but further on the drive, we saw this couple whispering sweet nothings. They look cute here, but read on……… It doesn’t take long before the sun rises high in the sky and the light becomes harsh.There is a lot of open space in Etosha, but I loved these two trees either side of our track.
We were watching a lioness drinking at a waterhole when she started padding away. As we followed her we saw a pack of jackals in the distance, and they were working together surrounding and attacking an unfortunate springbok. Suddenly they didn’t look so cute, but of course they have to eat. Then quick as a flash, the lioness ran and pounced on the springbok, and it didn’t stand a chance. The jackals weren’t too happy about it either, as they’d lost their breakfast.
Yellow Billed hornbill. They have such great eyelashes!I waited for what felt like hours for the Lilac Breasted Roller to take flight. My arm was aching so much from holding my long lens up, but the pain was worth it when I finally captured its beautiful wings!Many of the animals wade right into the waterhole to cool off as they drink. The oryx has magnificent horns.Black rhino at the waterhole at night. Difficult to photograph, as the floodlight there is bright enough to see the animals, but too dim for photography if the animal is moving unless you have a very expensive camera and lens. Luckily rhinos do a lot of standing still !At our penultimate night’s stop however, there was a hide dug into the ground, which made for some great low angle photography across a waterhole.Photobombing oryx !Helmeted Guinea Fowl – ugly faces but I love their colours and their feathers. Afternoon cuppa and cooling our legs at the same time. Photo credit Richard Hall.
My most thrilling moment was this close encounter with a giraffe. It was orphaned and hand raised, but has now been released onto a 24,000 hectare private reserve. However, it’s so used to human company that it often comes back and wanders around the lodge. Photo credit Kim Glazebrook with huge thanks 🙂
I encountered some very cute banded mongoose on a pathway. They were chilled out enough for me to put my camera on the ground to get some eye level photographs.One of my guests having a chat with a mongoose 🙂
After breakfast we started the journey back to Windhoek to drop off our hire cars, and spend our final night together at a beautiful lodge on the outskirts of the city. And that was it! Two weeks full of stunning scenery, amazing places, beautiful lodges, great company, laughter, sunshine, blue skies, puffy white clouds, dust, (lots of dust!) sand, starry skies, and African wildlife. I want to do it all again! So……………
I’m currently trying to secure accommodation for another photography tour in 2020. It’s not an easy task as I need to reserve 8 rooms at 10 different places on consecutive nights, so it’s a long process involving dozens of emails! If one place doesn’t have availability then I have to start from scratch again with new dates. However, if you’d like me to let you know when I have something firmed up, please drop me a message.
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