Namibia 2014

Friday10October

Another day. Another destination. We stay in Damaraland, but continue our journey north. Here too, the landscape has its share of chacma baboons (Papio ursinus).

Panoramic view of the Damaraland landscapes and its C39 track...

And one.

And 2.

And 3 giraffes.

Here we are, arrived at the Palmwag Lodge campsite where we drop off our luggage.

We will share our spot with the red-shouldered glossy-starling (Lamprotornis nitens)...

If the glossy-starling is shiny, the flat-headed agama is colorful...

The female is spotted with yellow. The male, on the other hand, has an orange head and tail.

The campsite's swimming pool.

The campsite organizes small 4x4 excursions to approach animals with a guide.

The landscape is superb and the animals fully and peacefully enjoy a paradisiacal environment.

The giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis). "Formerly called cameleopard, from the Latin camelopardus, a contraction of camelus (camel) due to its long neck and pardus (leopard) due to the spots covering its body." © Wikipedia

A bottle tree (Pachypodium lealii Welw).

Our inseparable springboks (Antidorcas marsupialis).

We hardly encounter anyone on the tracks, but that doesn't prevent accidents... Especially for this poor snake (a Psammophis?) that couldn't avoid our wheels...

Here is a raphicere (Raphicerus), also called steenbok, in front of an Euphorbia damarana.

After a lot of searching, we finally find them, the savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana). The pachyderm is an endangered species.

Our herd numbers barely ten individuals, including a calf.

We keep our distance and avoid making noise so as not to scare them.

We resume exploring the surroundings and find some zebras. Hartmann's zebras (Equus zebra hartmannae) to be more precise.

We gain some height on a hill and can once again observe the elephants that have moved.

The low sun in the sky takes us from the warm afternoon to the chilly twilight...

The low light of the setting sun lengthens the shadows of the acacias and covers the savanna with its orange color.

We then find the zebras reflecting each other...

As the sun sets, we find the elephants gathered in a small grove.

Night has fallen and we are still out and about. We return to the campsite in the cold in the back of the truck!  

As usual, the sky is superb. Here, to the right of the photo, is Scorpio with Antares and Mars. We can even make out the open cluster M7-NGC6475 next to the tail of Scorpio...

It's up to you to find the constellation...