Swakopmund August 31

Hello all:

We have traversed the vast Namib Desert in our very bumpy and very, very, dusty bus.  Wow, this dust permeates everything, just as bad as in the Sahara.  Night termperatures get down to near freezing, and days climb up to near 30 degrees.  I had heard about this, but it is quite an experience to be actually here, peeling off layers and layers of clothing, then gradually adding them all back on again.  Thank heavens for my sturdy "Mom" jeans.  I can roll up the legs for day and roll them back down again as we "dress" for dinner.  Heavy duty clothing and shoes is the order of the day as we try to stay clean-ish, for dinner and all.  The 'ish' is the operative part, as photography in the desert is no place for neat, clean, or even remotely fancy clothes. 

Anyway, there are interesting things going on every day.  The ghost mining town was fascinating, with the sand blown into all corners of the abandoned houses, some of which were quite gorgeous back in the heyday of the 1920's.  The fabled Namibian sand dunes lived up to expectations, and now we are in the charming seaside town of Swakopmund, having seen all sorts of animals and interesting sights along the way.  Malaria pills need to be started tomorrow as we make our way steadily Northwards towards elephant and lion country.

Here are a few photos, quickly culled from the several thousand I already have.  I wish I could share more with you.

Kolmanskop ghost town, with houses abandoned nearly 100 years ago

Inside one of the once lovely houses

Namib family on the way to town, forty miles away.  We gave them money and oranges

A huge secretary bird, showing off its wonderful desert camouflage

Typical savannah landscape with tough grass, steeply rising rocks and mountains, and lonely trees

  

More desert camouflage

A young springbok.  Herds of them are common grazing on the dry savannah grasslands

Just one view of the amazing sand dunes of Sossusvlei

This is the type of grass the springboks and other animals eat

This strange 1,600 year old fossilzed plant is carefully fenced, but in the middle of the desert

 

Mother flamingo and her two chicks

Sally the pelican, a rescue bird, comes in to land and collect her fishy reward

This rescued seal (injured by a fish hook) just jumps aboard to pose and collect his reward too

I made friends with Sally, who was injured by a fall off a high ledge before she could fly.