There’s not many places on earth where those weird quiver trees are growing so dense to each other. Near Keetmanshoop is a farm which offers a campsite just next to a quiver tree forest. A perfect spot for viewing the sunset in amazing landscape.
Before that, or next morning, it’s a good advice to stroll trough „Giant’s Playground“. Big rocks laying around as merely thrown by playing giant’s.
Words hardly can describe the atmosphere, but photos can maybe give some impressions.
Guiding my mom and her husband trough Namibia, i didn’t only want show the touristic spots of the country, but also bring them closer to real life. A soup kitchen project in Katatura/Windhoek supported by my friend Barbara, was a good start.
In the „Home Of Good Hope“ approx. 600 children daily get food, explains Monica, the founder of project. When we arrived groups of children, some in school uniforms, waited in front of the house from corrugated iron sheets. Under the eyes of helpers the kids washed their hands in bucket filled with soapy water before entering the big gloomy room. Inside wooden banks were provided, sorted in rows like in a church. Monica and her few helpers clapped in their hands and started to sind church songs with the kids, doing little daces with them, cheering them up to praise the lord, although there is no differences made by religions of the kids coming in. The only difference is made by school kids, who gets served first because the have to be in school on time. Four Swedish girls came in to help serving the simple, but nourishing meal. They’re in Windhoek as exchange from nursing school and volunteering the soup kitchen today. In front of the building was a table with watery juice and apples cut in small pieces.
We brought from children clothes from home. Immediately they were sorted and given to kids attending this morning the soup kitchen. Some wear it with proud when the left the building. Amongst other things i discovered boxes for first aids, and indeed, a boy came with a wound on his leg. One of the helper cleaned the wound, put desinfection fluid on it and covered it. All in completely routine. Still all the laughter in our ears we left that place with good impressions.
Despite the high costs, visiting the Serengeti plains and the Ngorogoro crater was considered as a Must. Travel with my Landrover wasn’t affordable, so i booked a tour by group. With bad maintenanced cars we drove the long was from Arusha into Serengeti area. First rule; never trust the words of a tour agencies. I’m not gonna start a list of all false promises and failures this overpriced tour brought me, but just tell you, that there was no tour group at all, which get what they told them.
The wildlife, landscape and experience of „real Africa“ was given. The following pics was chosen in a hurry. Sorry for not editing (at all), but just put it on my blog. I hope you still enjoy and get an idea about Serengeti and Ngorogoro Crater
Marangu. There’s not much to say, but only to enjoy that calm, tranquil village on foot of Mt.Kilimanjaro. For a long weekend i could enjoy the hospitality of these friendly people and had a little inside of their daily village life.
Early morning. Cool, pure air surrounds the highest mountain of Africa. With the first sun rays, light clouds start to gather around the peak. In the next hours the clouds get thicker and hiding Kilimanjaro behind it. The climate here is just perfect for coffee plantages. We learned the process after harvest coffee beans, peel the skin off the beans, roast it over fire and grind it to fine powder. Much fun, but also hard work and very interesting to see.
A weekend out of town with two nice German guys. Nora, a friend of a friend, want show us her village in a more remote area. Just to travel to the foot of Kilimanjaro from Arusha is an experience itself. No, not an expedition, as many western visitors call any step they do in Africa, but daily life experience in a normal-crazy-traffic-way.
Lucky to find the express-bus almost empty, we got a seat at the back. All seats were occupied pretty quick and a western guy considered it „full“. But not the Tanzanian bus driver. As he drove off, every few meters he stopped again to take more passengers till they stand tightly packed in front of my camera lens. Surprisingly quite in the bus, but then my neighbors start to talk and laugh with me. Humor and patience also needed if a passenger from the back has to crawl all the way trough the crowd to get to the front door.
Dala-dala, are the mini bus version for shorter distances. Short in terms of just a few hours. Squeezed like fishes in a tin, i start to sweat and smell like a fish too. The sound of the engine, that thin, rattling ironskin of the vehicle and the bumping movements on uneven roads makes me smile. Not because it’s funny, but out of upcoming fear and images of accidents i saw on the road. And indeed, a sudden shot, a blast let the dala-dala slinger. Lucky the driver could stop at the side of the road without anybody get harmed. A tyre puncture is very common, and having a look on the tires, no one wonders why.
Where the data-dala stops, are only taxis or moto-taxis, so called „toyos“, which brings one further. Our taxi driver couldn’t afford the latest model of a car, nor a proper repair or replacement of broken parts. Anyway, the look trough the spiderweb-like windscreen has its own character.
Arrived on foot of Kilimanjaro, the only way to go further is by foot itself …until the highest point of Africa, for people who want give themselves the challenge and are willing to pay a big amount of money for the fees and tour agencies. For those who decid to climb the mountain very spontaneous can hire the gears just at start point. The three of us are just happy to get a coffee at Nora’s place and have a rest.
A small crappy vid made by my cellphone from the flight from Schiphol/Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro airport/Tanzania
The view over mountains, sea and deserts with all its colors and formations was just stunning.
for a portfolio i collected my recently „best-of“ wildlife pictures
On early morning we spotted a zebra with a big, fresh wound. Certainly from a recently predators attack. It looks still strong and wanders with the herd. A young elephant had less luck. Five lions killed it and have a big feast when we arrived at that spot. We weren’t there alone for long as more and more safari vehicle found out about. Lucky we had a fine view from our place.
Frühmorgens entdeckten wir ein humpelndes Zebra in einer Herde. Auf der hinteren Flanke klaffte eine grosse, frische Wunde. Offensichtlich entging es diesen Morgen einem Angriff nur knapp. Weniger Glück hatte das Elephantenkalb, das bereits von fünf Löwen ausgeweidet wurde. Nach dem Festmahl, umstellt von mehreren „Safari“-Fahrzeugen, legten sie sich satt und schwer in die Büsche.
The man stands in middle of the path, only with shorts and a towel over his shoulder. “I supposed to take a shower”, he explains, “but now the elephants turned up around the shower hut. Better I wait till they’re gone.” It’s the small group of elephants I followed trough the camp to the backyard, where the employees of the lodge lives. When the group spread around, I keep myself closer to the houses. Just as I warned another man for an approaching elephant he points a spot behind me. A young bull watched us rather aggressively. Suddenly we’re surrounded by two groups of elephants, withdrawn us back to the wall or hiding in the house, until all disappeared in the forest. It was not the last time we’ve seen these giant mammals. In the same night a big bull crossed the electric fence to have a dinner under the trees of the camp.
Wildlife is all around us, but one feel safer to watch them from the car when roaming trough the national park. Despite of not seeing any lions or leopards, we enjoy the landscape and wildlife of South Luangwa National Park. There are quite a few safari cars crossing the way of animals, but mostly we had a great time to observe the antelopes grazing, giraffes resting on the ground, birds chasing insects or sea eagle hunting fish.
The hilly landscape, covered with forest, interrupted by rivers, gives our brand new tyres good terrain to proof his ability for offroading. Patches with deep sand, short river crossing and long, very steep and sharp rocky uphill sections are first tests for them. At the end of the day we watch satisfied the red moon in nighty sky.
Mitten auf dem Pfad steht ein Mann nur in Shorts gekleidet und einem Badetuch über der Schulter. Er wolle rüber zu den Duschhütten, aber die Elefanten halten ihn davon ab, erklärt er mir. Besser ist es zu warten und den riesigen Tieren Vortritt zu lassen, pflichte ich ihm bei. Es ist die kleine Elefantenherde, die ich vom Camp aus folgte und die hier Baumfrüchte fressen. Ein zweiter Mann zeigt mir die nahen Hütten der Lodge-Angestellten. Darin befinden sich weder Essen noch Wasser, um die täglich vorbeiziehenden Elefanten nicht hinein zu locken. Manche gebärden sich doch eher aggressiv, erzählt er. Gerade als ich ihn auf einen sich näherndes Tier aufmerksam machen wollte, zeigt er hinter mich und hiess mich vorm jungen Bullen in Acht nehmen. Unter einem Baum wackeln zwei grosse Ohren warnend. Plötzlich waren wir von zwei Herden umgeben und zogen uns näher an die Häuserwand zurück bis sie sich wieder entfernt haben. Es war nicht die letzte, (fast) hautnahe Begegnung mit diesen riesigen Säugetieren. In derselben Nacht durchbricht ein grosser Bulle die elektrische Abzäunung des Camps auf der Suche nach Fressen.
Die Tierwelt lässt sich etwas sicherer vom Auto aus beobachten während man gemütlich durch den Nationalpark rollt. Zwar sehen wir in diesen zwei Tagen weder Löwen oder Leoparden, dennoch sind wir fasziniert von der Landschaft und Tierwelt. Ab und zu kreuzen uns Safariwagen mit Touristen, doch oft haben wir viel Zeit die Tierwelt ungestört zu beobachten. Das lange warten auf einen jagenden Seeadler hat sich gelohnt, als sich dieser auf den Teich hinabstürzt und sich einen Fisch greift.
Durch die hügelige Landschaft mit viel Wald und Busch, durchbrochen von Flüssen, gibt unseren neuen Reifen die erste Gelegenheit ihre Offroadtauglichkeit zu beweisen. Tiefsandige Passagen, kurze, aber schlammige Flussdurchfahrten und vor allem der steile und mit scharfkantigen Felsen versehene Aufstieg am nördlichen Ende des Parks meistern sie ohne Tadel. Zufrieden beschliessen wir den Tag bei einem Glas Rotwein unterm roten Mond .
rene bauer photography 