Winding Road, Namibia

 Africa, Namibia, Travel  1 Response »
Apr 192013
 

It was a fairly treacherous drive up this hill as we made our way back to Windhoek to depart for Capetown. We’d completed a long flat drive across desert spying ostriches and jackles along the roadside when all of sudden the land turned vertical. A huge overland truck bore down on us as our little 4×4 trudged up the switchbacks. The road switched, unpredictably, from dirt, to brick, to tarmac over and over again. It was quite a challenge for my travel buddy who was driving. The heights of the cliff edges we were hugging did not help either.

When I asked if we could stop so I could run back down a bit and take this picture, I was met with a shaky, incredulous, “What!?”

After returning to continue on, we asked if she’d like to switch drivers, but no, she said she preferred being in control. If we were going to go over the cliff she wanted to be at the wheel…

The desert of Namibia taken from atop a hill with winding dirt roads in the foreground.

Follow the Leader, Hippos in Botswana

 Africa, Animals, Botswana, Travel  2 Responses »
Apr 102013
 

As we waited to go on our boat safari in Botswana, the waiting area of our safari operators filled with Japanese tourists. When we were told to head to the boat we managed to take off in front of the crowd. When we saw the boat we noticed it was a double decker and decided we definitely wanted to secure a spot up top. Unfortunately, they’d reserved the upper deck for the tour group so that they could all hear the translator. As a result, we were stuck with the bottom. As it turned out, we were the only three on the bottom. Apart from getting hit in the head by a lens cap dropped from the upper deck, it was actually great. It was like we had our own private boat and guide for a few hours.

I snapped this shot from the lower deck, of a mama hippo and her baby.

A baby hippo following it's mother as they swim in a river in botswana's chobe national park.

 

Moonscape on Earth, Namibia

 Africa, Namibia, Travel  1 Response »
Apr 092013
 

I set out on a gloomy day, from Swakopmund, Namibia, to check out the Welwitschia Drive. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do the whole drive in the time I had but I figured I’d get to see some interesting landscapes. Everything was bleak, barren and nondescript until I passed a sign stating I was nearing the Lunar Landscape. Then, I saw this stretching out in front of me. It was an amazing shock. I’d love to go back and spend some time wandering around in this area.

Luna Landscape on the Welwitschia Drive in Namibia.

 

Onward and Upward, Dune 7 Namibia

 Africa, Namibia, Travel  No Responses »
Apr 082013
 

Today’s photo is much simpler than my usual, but I think there’s something interesting about it. I wrote about how difficult it was to climb these dunes in this post: The Climb Dune 7 Namibia. Here, another of my travel buddies has selected a route that she decided was easier. At this point you can tell she’s starting to get a bit tired, atop that giant wave of sand.

A girl walking near the top of a giant sand dune at dune 7 in Namibia

Giraffes Have Long Necks

 Africa, Animals, Botswana, Travel  3 Responses »
Apr 012013
 

I’m Time-lapsing

I’m writing this from an interesting location tonight, perched on top of a rock at the far end of Horseshoe Bay, Bermuda. I’m making use of the Digicel Hotspot here while shooting a timelapse. I took the photo to the right on my Blackberry, a few hours ago.

I decided to timelapse Horseshoe as the time moves from early evening to night. It was a beautiful sunset tonight. Unfortunately, I think I overexposed the whole thing. Not too bad though, I can come back here again. Assuming I find a way down off this rock.

Today’s Photo: Giraffes Have Long Necks

Well… they do!!

There’s no trickery involved in today’s shot like the one from a few days ago of two giraffes grazing in Botswana.

Close-up of giraffe face and neck with small bird resting on the mane in Botswana.

 

 

 

View of Simonstown South Africa at Sunset

 Africa, South Africa, Travel  2 Responses »
Mar 292013
 

We came around a bend and the sun was lighting the old naval port of Simonstown perfectly. Finding somewhere to stop on this windy mountain road was not easy. We tried a couple of lay-byes but they didn’t offer up a very good view. I’d just about given up when we came to one last opportunity to stop and I was able to get this photo. Let me know what you think of it in the comments section!

Following this we drove down into Simonstown and had a very nice meal at a little Italian place. Great pizza!

View of old naval port of Simonstown, South Africa at sunset with mountain in background.

Two Giraffe in Botswana

 Africa, Animals, Botswana, Travel  5 Responses »
Mar 252013
 

We’d come through rain, a lot of rain, to get to this spot. Soaking wet, pools of water collected in my guide-provided poncho. We came round a corner to discover about twenty giraffe, spread across a broad flat landscape. I carefully pulled my camera from beneath he puddle-filled poncho, spilling water all over my travel buddies in  the process, and began to fire away.

When I saw these two giraffe, I knew exactly what I wanted. Both of them with their heads up, pointing towards the center of the photo. I didn’t actually manage to get this in the same photo. So when it came to producing this image, I wound up using two sets of bracketed photos. So I had two with regular exposure, two at -2 and two at +2.

I used Photomatix’s ghosting removal tool to pick the images of each giraffe I wanted and voila, the image I had in my head in Africa was now on my screen in Bermuda.

Two giraffe eating leaves in Chobe, Botswana

Elephant in Botswana

 Africa, Animals, Botswana, Travel  2 Responses »
Mar 182013
 

We spotted this guy on our way to safari in Botswana’s Chobe National Park. We were driving along a paved road prior to turning off onto the dirt tracks we’d spend the next few hours exploring. All of a sudden, the paved road became lined by elephants, munching away, not the least bit bothered by all the cars driving past.

Elephant with white tusks eating in botswana

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