Southern Namibia – A Great Trip – But We Miss the Elephants

[Peter Connan]

Thank you for a marvelous trip report with magnificent photography throughout!

 

I really enjoyed the ride.

[xelas]

11 hours ago, Jaycees2012 said:

I am sure that we will head back to Namibia in the future, it is a great country, very easy to self- drive and very safe, but for us we will probably head more to the North and the Etosha area.

I cannot agree more with what you say! And "You will be back!" to paraphrase our neighbour Arnie . 

[Jaycees2012]

@Peter Connan @xelas

 

Thank-you both for your kind comments. J and myself are already looking forward to creating at least one new TR early in 2018. So watch this space .... 

Edited December 22, 2017 by Jaycees2012

[Jaycees2012]

[PeterHG]

Thanks for the report and the great photos you shared with us, @Jaycees2012. And the same good wishes for you, of course!

[colbol]

@Jaycees2012 thanks for the excellent trip report. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

The sunset flights photo's are beautiful. 

You captured some great scenery and animal pictures along the way and it is nice to see and read about the accomodation you experienced.

Hope you both have a great festive season .

Cheers Colbol

[Dave Williams]

Finally caught up with your report, particularly interested in the section about the Kgalagadi as we have 3 nights camping there in July.

Stunning photography and excellent background info thanks for sharing, what camera gear did you take and mostly use?

[Atravelynn]

p1 All that other stuff  you saw makes up for the lack of eles, especially the mother fox and kits.  I did not know ostriches could be trained to herd sheep.  You didn't try a kudu pie?  Love the feeding interaction with my fav bird, the Africa Hoopoe.  You made up for your previous lack of sightings.  Crow-snake tussle was quite amazing! 

 

Exciting trip!

[Atravelynn]

I did see the klipspringer.  So many wows on the ground from the air.  Wow.  Did you have Dead Vlei all to yourselves?  How many meerkats at Rostock Ritz if you recall?  What a beautiful trip!

[Jaycees2012]

4 hours ago, Atravelynn said:

I did see the klipspringer.  So many wows on the ground from the air.  Wow.  Did you have Dead Vlei all to yourselves?  How many meerkats at Rostock Ritz if you recall?  What a beautiful trip!

 

Thank you for your comments - yes despite a more limited  number of animals we did see plenty.  The klipspringers were an unexpected bonus, and the little cape fox with her family was an absolute joy, and we were surprised that absolutely no-one else stopped to enjoy it. The scenic flight was a bit pricey, but....you only live once, and the sunset over the dunes was spectacular, particularly at the coast. 

No we did not have Dead Vlei to ourselves - there were lots of people there. we did had Sossusvlei to ourselves because we went there first. by the time we got back to Dead Vlei there were lots of people, however a lot of them were only going to the edge nearest the walk in, and we managed to hit a bit of a lull with those who wanted to go deeper in. Other than that it was a matter of waiting until the people who might appear in the photos were conveniently behind one of the dead trees. I am sure it would be amazing with no one else there but considering how many vehicles were parked even when we drove through to get up to Sossusvlei i suspect that would be a very rare occurrence these days.

Rostock Ritz - i think they had four meerkats in residence at the time. It changes depending on how many are in the rehabilitation process at the time

 

 

[Jaycees2012]

On 4/4/2018 at 4:05 PM, Dave Williams said:

Finally caught up with your report, particularly interested in the section about the Kgalagadi as we have 3 nights camping there in July.

Stunning photography and excellent background info thanks for sharing, what camera gear did you take and mostly use?

 

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you.

 

We generally have 2 camera bodies in action - both Sony DSLR's. One of these (A77M2) has a crop sensor and for wildlife typically uses a 70-300 zoom. The other camera has a full frame sensor (A99) and again for wildlife typically uses a 70-400 zoom. In addition to these, we frequently take a couple of extra lens to suit the trip - which I think for this trip was a wide angle zoom (for scenic shots) and a fast primary (smaller) telephoto lens to be used when the light levels drop too much.