Archive for August, 2008
Cats and Caves
Sunday, August 31st, 2008
I feel caged in big cities sometimes, so I was more than happy to get back to Nature, even though it meant climbing down into the musty and stinky Arnhem Cave in search of bats. Ankle-deep in guano, we searched in the darkness for flying creatures with big teeth or funny horseshoe-shaped noses, disturbing their sleep. As long as we used red light, the bats were not bothered much. Only on dead mummified “vampires” could I use the full force of my flash. Hanging just as they died – still upside down, clutching to the ragged ceiling with sharp claws, they looked like perfect Halloween decorations.
Back at the farm on whose property the caves were located, a year-old cheetah was closely guarding a chewed-up yellow tennis-ball. It wouldn’t let me get too close, but to the farm owner it was just like a house cat.
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back on the road
Saturday, August 30th, 2008
Ministry of Environment and Tourism permits in our hands and new gear box in our Columbus (paid for by the buy-back company), we couldn’t wait to get out of Windhoek. Big cities always tense me up. I’m paranoid about my camera and computer and for a good reason. One of our new biker buddies kept leaving his state-of-the-art super-portable laptop all over the hostel. I warned him, but he was certain no one would even think about touching his stuff, and was genuinely surprised when on the morning of our departure the laptop was not on the little table in the pool-room, where he had left it the night before. The man was painful to look at – two months of his unprecedented motorcycle journey from Saint Petersburg all the way around Africa were gone. Desperate, he spoke to the guests, most of whom refused to let him search through their backpacks. Speaking to the hostel manager did not help at first, either – he was too busy dealing with an English couple who were missing three hundred euros they’d placed in the hostel safe a few days before. The manager was just explaining to the couple how he couldn’t refund every penny that gets lost, and how he didn’t even know if the money had been there to begin with. I decided to introduce myself making sure he knows I was there collecting information for a guidebook. After that the laptop did not magically reappear, but the missing money policy was immediately changed to the joy and thanks of the English. My friend was provided a car to the homes of the night-shift workers.
UPD
Found: one state-of-the-art super-portable laptop, all contents intact. During a surprise visit to his home, the barman confessed he has put it away in the closet to make sure nobody takes it.
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Godsend
Monday, August 25th, 2008
It’s official – we’ve got ourselves a lemon. On a dirt road on our way to Sossusvlei the car popped out of gear and got stuck in neutral. It would have been a long and sad adventure if only not for people from a nearby Christian retreat lodge, who had a planned shopping trip to the capital. They lifted our Columbus, as the buy-back company christened it, onto their big truck, and in short four hours we were in Windhoek.
The gear box was a goner, but once again things weren’t as bad. It only took one angry/disappointed email to the company who sold us the car, and we were dealing with the managing director, who finally agreed to cover a very expensive repair. On one hand, we are stuck again because of the mechanical trouble, which is really nothing new to us if you remember the Central American chapter. But on the other hand, we got to sit down to deal with the thousands (not exaggerating) of pictures I was even yet to look at, and to visit the Ministry of Environment and Tourism where the deputy minister himself made sure we had a free pass to every national park in Namibia. Undoubtedly, the car breaking down turned out to be a good thing, especially since we met two former Soviet “countrymen” in the hostel who have just torn through the checkpoints of Sossusvlei on their motorcycles without paying the upsettingly large entrance fee. I don’t think we would’ve gotten a warm reception after their visit.
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What Silence Looks Like
Saturday, August 23rd, 2008
I was unimpressed with the Fish River Canyon, but maybe it was just meant to be seen in better light at a different time of day. I’ve seen bigger and more beautiful canyons before, but as I sat at its edge it came to me that it was exactly what silence must look like.
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Good Morning Namibia
Friday, August 22nd, 2008
No sooner then we packed up our roadside campsite and drove off we encountered a photogenic cheetah that came out on its morning stroll. My first morning in Namibia can’t be beat.
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Camping
Thursday, August 21st, 2008
It’s unlikely, we’d be up this early or going to bed as late as we do, if Vova wasn’t with us. His undying hunger to see every single living thing around has us searching for bat eared foxes with a spotlight at night and ready to photograph any early birds even before the first sunrays break the horizon.
our little roadside campsite at the crack of dawn
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The Great Kalahari Desert
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008
I’d walk the Kalahari Desert if they’d let me. Herds of springbok would race by, stotting in the insane and magnificent way they do, showing me how strong and healthy they are so I wouldn’t even attempt to catch and eat them. Oryx would watch me carefully, then run off, and turn back to see what I’m up to again and again. Hartebeest and wildebeest would lie on the blond grass in the shade of trees, not too far from an ostrich taking a dust bath, and run away only if I got too close. My only problem would be the lions and the cheetahs.
Kgalagadi (local spelling of Kalahari) park rules are very strict, and I have managed to break some. It was particularly embarrassing when the park manager, with whom I had a very pleasant talk that very morning, had caught me sitting on the roof of our car photographing a cheetah with her cubs dining on a freshly killed springbok. He didn’t fine me, though. If you ask me, I’d leave the getting-eaten-or-not decision to the park visitors. According to the rules, you are not even allowed to open a door, let along get out of the car. This posed a problem at one point when our car wouldn’t start after a long photo shoot of a lion pride.
( At dusk )
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The Amber Eyed Prince
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008
Our eyes met and I melted. My knees would buckle if I wasn’t already sitting. For a second there, I thought he was about to jump into the car and tear me apart, but I didn’t care – he was just that beautiful. Young, three-four month, maybe less, but by his amber eyes you could clearly see why he is up for the throne of the king in this desert.
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Kalahari on the Go
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
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springbok
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secretarybird
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