Travel – Brave New World of Blogging

A Desert

The oldest desert in the world, so the scientists say, more than 500 million years old in fact. The Namib (open space) is just that – so open it forces your heart to expand and your soul to lift and time to stand still. So at times as we sat and absorbed the expanse, the silence, the colour, the feel, the vastness it felt as though time too, had stopped.

Was this where time began?

Or is these where time has ended?

20180110 - WALVISBAY SANDWICH HARBOUR_002 — Sandwich Harbour

20180110 - WALVISBAY SANDWICH HARBOUR_014 — This was once, a home

20180110 - WALVISBAY SANDWICH HARBOUR_017 — Just because…..

20180110 - WALVISBAY SANDWICH HARBOUR_020 — We were not alone – Springbok looking at us looking at him

20180110 - WALVISBAY SANDWICH HARBOUR_024 — Space

20180110 - WALVISBAY SANDWICH HARBOUR_025 — wherever we looked

20180110 - WALVISBAY SANDWICH HARBOUR_026 — time to recapture

20180110 - WALVISBAY SANDWICH HARBOUR_027 — or capture

20180110 - WALVISBAY SANDWICH HARBOUR_028 — ever changing and always staying the same

20180110 - WALVISBAY SANDWICH HARBOUR_030 — a moment in time

20180110 - WALVISBAY SANDWICH HARBOUR_032 — so fortunate to see

20180110 - WALVISBAY SANDWICH HARBOUR_033 — and he showed off happily

20180110 - WALVISBAY SANDWICH HARBOUR_048 — There was huge

20180110 - WALVISBAY SANDWICH HARBOUR_049 — effort involved

20180110 - WALVISBAY SANDWICH HARBOUR_050 — in climbing

20180110 - WALVISBAY SANDWICH HARBOUR_038 — the dunes

20180110 - WALVISBAY SANDWICH HARBOUR_052 — whether old

20180110 - WALVISBAY SANDWICH HARBOUR_051 — or young

20180110 - WALVISBAY SANDWICH HARBOUR_039 — but the views rewarded us

20180110 - WALVISBAY SANDWICH HARBOUR_042 — and of course we had to go down too….

20180110 - WALVISBAY SANDWICH HARBOUR_043 — but who is complaining

20180110 - WALVISBAY SANDWICH HARBOUR_059 — The never ending beauty of the dunes

20180110 - WALVISBAY SANDWICH HARBOUR_060 — Difficult to assess the steepness of the dune as we drop down – with the engine switched off you hear the roar of the sand – as if from the bowels of the earth – AMAZING

These rather ordinary videos will give you an idea of the scale of the place

20180110 - WALVISBAY SANDWICH HARBOUR_087 — some welcome sustenance after the walks

and this is what happens when you don’t time the tide correctly !!!!!

photos courtesy of the Powrie girls and Erika de Jäger

A Country…..

…in the south west corner of Africa. Namibia gained independence only in 1990 South Africans have always felt a close affinity to what was previously called South West Africa with many of our young men spending time in the military in this part of the world.

For much of my youth large parts of the country were ‘out of bounds’ because of the fighting ‘up north’ as we used to say.

Happily now, we are free to explore – and that is precisely what we did recently.

Well actually we only explored a little of the country – 10 days is not enough to do it justice. Almost the size of South Africa, with a population of 2.5mill (S African has approx 60mill) it is a deliciously sparsely populated so that it is possible to ‘escape the madding crowd’ and absorb the light and air unhindered.

We began in Walvis Bay, with time spent on the water sharing our boat with friends

The light and mood in the bay is extraordinary – enjoy

The Salt Pans are also amazing – this salt pan currently supplies South Africa with 90% of it’s salt; concentrated salt from seawater with the aid of evaporation. This salt pan also forms part of Southern Africa’s single most important coastal wetland for migratory birds.

and when we thought we had seen such beauty nothing could compare, we visited Sandwich Harbour…… which deserves it’s own page.

(photos courtesy of the ‘Powrie girls’ and Erika De Jager)

There’s more to The Bush

There’s more to The Bush than the bush.

There’s more to The Bush than the big five, or even the little five, or the birds, or the snakes.

The Bush is about the smell, the sound,the Feel.

In this instance, the wind, the rain.

First fierce and dominating so that speech is pointless as words are carried away with the hustle of the storm. Water cascading down, flooding every corner of the land and disappearing quickly into ground parched and thirsty to drink.

And then, spent, the heavens seem to rest and the rain falls gently, so gently my clothes don’t get wet yet I can see the drops still falling on the water hole.

On this day, most holy day of Good Friday it seems appropriate that the sky is black and angry and the storm rages down on us.

And it seems also appropriate that as I turn to look to my right, I see the light through the clouds, not yet shining, but with the look of a promise of what is to come; sun and renewed growth.

And the rainbow to remind me, on this holy day, most holy day of Good Friday; not of our covenant with Him, but His with us.

“When I bring clouds over the earth, and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and every living creature—every mortal being—so that the waters will never again become a flood to destroy every mortal being.” (Gen 9)

There is more to The Bush than the bush

Share this: Brave New World of Blogging

Like this:

Share this: Brave New World of Blogging

Like this:

Share this: Brave New World of Blogging

Like this: