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Travel through Namibia
Posted By: FantasticMrFox, 08-07-2015, 08:40 AM

I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to travel through Namibia with my family in June/July 2015. In this thread I'd like to share some of the pictures I took, a couple at a time over the next two or so weeks, and maybe write a word or two about them. All pictures were taken with a K3 and a couple of lenses, the HD DA 55-300 WR, DA L 18-55 WR, DA 35 f/2.4 and SMC-A 50 f/1.7 (in order of use they got).

Our journey started in Windhoek where we only spent one night after we arrived late in the evening, then we went northwards the next day and spent three days in a lodge in a private game reserve. There, among other activities, we did our first game drive and went clay pigeon shooting (first time holding a proper firearm for me).

So here's the first couple of pictures.

#1 - A shotgun shell



#2 - A giraffe in Kambaku Game Reserve



#3 Staff in a 4WD in Kambaku Game Reserve



Last edited by FantasticMrFox; 08-07-2015 at 01:10 PM.
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08-10-2015, 08:37 AM   #16
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QuoteOriginally posted by FantasticMrFox Quote
Thanks all! You know you must be doing something right when you get savoche to stick his head out of that other thread.


I can't resist pictures from one of my favourite countries to visit

Bring'em on, please!

08-20-2015, 08:08 AM - 1 Like   #17
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I'm sorry I've been neglecting this thread the past two weeks. Here are some new images.

#16 - Springbok in Etosha NP. These are by far the most common antelopes in Etosha, if not Namibia. Slightly smaller and lighter than impala, they are just the right size and thus the favourite prey for cheetah. They are extremely fast at 88 km/h and got their name from the hilarious way they are sometimes bouncing around. You should check it out on Youtube, reminded me of a kangaroo.



#17 - Cheetah in Etosha NP. This might well be my favourite wildlife shot from our travels. We were on our way back to the gates which were about to close soon. Zooming along the side of the Etosha pan, my mother spotted a massive lone elephant bull wandering across the pan. I thought it might make for a good picture, so we stopped. Suddenly my brother cried out "There's a cheetah under that tree!". And indeed, less than 20 m away there was a beautiful cheetah sitting under a tree. We waited and spotted two more - considering that due to strong competition from lions there are only about 85 of them in the whole park of 22,000 sq km, we were extremely lucky to spot them. We realised they were slowly stalking up onto a herd of springbok, so we reversed until we were right next to the herd in anticipation of a great chase scene. Unfortunately they took their time and as the gate closing time was nearing we realised that it would not be worth an extremely hefty fine, so we left.



#18 - Lion cub. We arrived at one waterhole to see a couple of cars parked there, everyone observing something in awe. We stared at the waterhole but were unable to spot anything. After a couple of minutes a very kind lady in another car held a piece of A4 paper out of her window that she had scribbled 'lion' on in large letter. We were extremely excited as we had not seen any before, but it still took us another 10 or so minutes to spot them. There were in fact six lion cubs hidden in the tall reed along the waterhole. One came out to drink and I managed to snap this shot.

08-20-2015, 09:42 AM   #18
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Thank you, you certainly took your time

Ain't it typical, all the exciting things happening just around curfew time. But yeah, you definitely don't want to get back late...

We're just about done organising a trip to the Kalahari in November, so this is a nice warmup

TFS, and keep'em coming!
08-23-2015, 02:53 PM   #19
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It's late, so this time I will lay it off with the descriptions.

#19 - Gnu herd, Etosha NP



#20 - African elephant, Etosha NP



#21 - Elephant youngsters, Etosha NP




Last edited by FantasticMrFox; 08-24-2015 at 03:24 AM.
08-24-2015, 06:29 AM   #20
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Gotta love the dust bathing youngsters
08-24-2015, 06:32 PM   #21
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Wonderful shots and excellent series. Someday I hope to be able to travel like that.

Michael
08-31-2015, 07:26 AM - 1 Like   #22
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Thanks all! I have also started to write down our experiences more extensively and show pictures in a series of articles on my website (see signature), including advise on preparation, gear etc.

#22 - Elephant bar. It's always quite a sight when a whole herd of these giants comes to a waterhole, shoos everyone else away, then lines up for a drink.



#23 - Morning dust. From Etosha we went to the newly opened Hobatere Lodge. Located in a private conservancy on the Western edge of the park, the lodge had just re-opened three weeks before (another lodge that used to be there burnt down years ago), and we were the only guests for the night. Hobatere combines the advantages of Etosha (special wildlife like lions and elephants which are not present on most private game reserves) and a private game reserve (game drives before sunrise and after sunset) and we took advantage of that by booking a very early morning game drive. Our two guides (one of them being new, so the other one joined us to advise him) were very knowledgable and did a great job at finding loads of wildlife.



#24 - Lion. Lions are most active at dawn and dusk, which is also the time they hunt. Because we got up so early we managed to catch a whole pride with a fresh zebra kill. Because of the early hour there wasn't enough light to take decent pictures, so we first explored another part of the conservancy, then returned about an our later. Unfortunately the pride had retreated up a rocky outcrop and dragged the zebra with them, but we still managed a couple of glimpses at them, like this one:



08-31-2015, 08:36 AM   #23
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Wow, thanks for sharing these wonderful images!
08-31-2015, 08:41 AM   #24
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Great photos, looks like a trip of a lifetime. Thanks for sharing!
08-31-2015, 04:19 PM   #25
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Awe inspiring! You can't beat the natural world.
09-01-2015, 12:41 AM   #26
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Beautiful images, TFS.
09-01-2015, 06:33 AM   #27
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QuoteOriginally posted by FantasticMrFox Quote
#22 - Elephant bar
That's a cracking image, well done indeed.
09-01-2015, 06:54 AM - 1 Like   #28
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Wow, loads of feedback on here. Alright, let's carry on.

#25 - The kill. On our game drive we suddenly spotted a curious tail dangling from a tree. Could that finally be ... "Leopard!" our guide exclaimed, just to back-pedal a second later. What we were dealing with was actually an even rarer side than the elusive leopard: an African eagle owl, one of the largest owl species in the world, had caught a genet (a carnivorous, cat-like mammal) and air-lifted it up a tree.



#26 - African landscape. After we had left Hobatere we drove through Damaraland to Palmwag, a small hamlet in the Etendeka Mountains. There we and a German couple on their honeymoon were picked up in a Landrover and driven for about two hours to an isolated tented camp (Etendeka Mountain Camp) in the middle of the mountains. On the way we had to cross a ford that was blocked by a herd of grazing elephant, so we had to wait for about an hour for them to make way.



#27 - My brother's and my tent at Etendeka.

09-02-2015, 06:37 AM   #29
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Ah, #26 - Damaraland is beautiful. I have been to Palmwag twice

Great work!
09-20-2015, 08:44 AM   #30
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And we continue.

#28 - Milky way over the Etendeka Mountains. This was my first serious try at taking a picture of the milky way. I illuminated the tent with a torch. This is a one-shot image - I wanted to do stacking and everything, but after perspective correction each file was 150 MB in size and my computer refused to stack 50 of these for lack of memory. So this image has little artistic merit and is simply documentary in nature. The location was so dark we were able to see little specks of light crossing the milky way - they turned out to be satellites!



#29 - Shower in Etendeka. This is a more sophisticated version of the bucket shower which I grew accustomed to when living in Ghana. You fill a bucket with tab water, empty it into this metal bucket, pull it up, then open the shower head and don't waste any time.



#30 - View from the shower. Probably the best view I've ever had while showering.

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