GOT International

Unforgettable Encounters

GOT member ROGER SANMARTÍ, ornithologist, intrepid birder and adventurer, who led a  small group on a memorable 7,000-kilometre, 28-day photo-shoot  in Namibia, gave an account of his experiences at a gathering at the  library of the small Catalan town of Santa Eulalia de Ronçana  two weeks ago.  Roger  and partner Anna Dalmau, every bit as ardent an ornithologist as he is, took  between them more than 10,000 photographs of birds, wildlife and landscape using  a Nikon D200, a D300, and Nikkor 200-400f4 and 18-200 telephoto lenses. Roger sets his camera on autofocus: “I normally decide on the aperture (f-number) and let the camera decide the speed.”

5.30p.m. break for the travellers and their Mercedes Benz Vito, near the Sossusvlei  dry lake in the Namib Desert .

 GETTING THERE

The distance as the crow flies from Namibian capital Windhoek’s only airport is some 7200km (4400 miles) south of Barcelona’s main airport. But the complexities of modern-day air travel saw our team flying first north to London,  then  south to Johannesburg, and finally north again to Windhoek – a gruelling 11200km (6000m) taking over 24 hours. Round trip airline ticket: €1300 (US$1700). Awaiting them at Windheok airport was the rented Mercedes Benz Vito that was to take them around.

Criss-crossing the vast expanse of Namibia – the route taken by Roger & Group in their Vito.

The 28-day itinerary was decided upon in Barcelona. From the airport in  Namibia’s capital,  Windhoek -- number 1  in the satellite picture above -- the Vito headed south for Sossuslvei, a salt and clay pan (which means a dried-up lake) surrounded by high red dunes in the desert of the Namib-Naukluft National Park. Subsequent destinations were the  Hardap Dam 2 , the Namib-Naukluft National Park in Sossusvlei 3 , Otjiwarongo, (location of the  Hoba Meteorite) 4 , the Caprivi Strip  5, the Etosha National Park 6 , Damaraland in Twyfelfontein 7 , Wallvis Bay in Swakopmund 8 , and, finally, the Fur Seal colony in Cape Cross 9  .

For Roger and his companions, Namibia had been a hauntingly beautiful safari destination – a land of unique landscapes, breathtakingly surreal sunsets, and unforgettable wildlife within and outside the  country’s searing pans. The pictures below provide little more than a glimpse of the photographer’s paradise that is Namibia.

The iconic African gemsbok

6.55 a.m. An early encounter with  the local fauna grazing nonchalantly  in Sossulvlei – a gemsbok (Oryx gazella),  a large antelope in the Oryx genus.  In the background, a towering sand dune.

 Dune 45, Sossusvlei

8.30 a.m. awe-inspirer – long shot of the Namib Desert’s most popular feature, the wind-sculptured Dune 45, reaching a height of than 170 meters and apparently named after the distance in kilometers from the Sesriem Canyon, a tourist attraction lying on Namibia’s southern tourist trail.  The Sossuslvei is dune country, with the highest sand dunes in Africa, some of which above 200 metres high, with the highest reaching a height of 380 metres. The oldest dunes are intensely reddish in colour, a consequence of the high percentage of iron in the sand and the resulting  oxidation process. Others vary in colour from pinkish to orange. Visitors are allowed to climb up some designated  dunes in the region, but not Dune 45, a prohibition designed to prevent destruction of the delicate desert environment. Visitors are restricted to taking long shot photographs from the roadside.

Dead Vlei, Sossusvlei

10 a.m.  A surrealistic landscape of dead acacia trees (Acacia erioloba)  in Deadvlei, a pan near Sossusvlei. Deadvlei (vlei is Afrikaans for a lake or marsh in a valley flanked by sand dunes) was once upon a time a rich oasis surrounded by Thorn acacia trees. When the river that watered the oasis changed its course, the oasis dried up, the acacia trees withered and died but continue to stand in vivid contrast to the glaring white of the salt-covered bed of the pan. Forming an  orange backdrop is a petrified dune – an ancient red sand dune that has solidified to rock.

Desert  photo-shoot

What the eye spotted:  Roger’s group scrambles for a clear shot of an infrequent avian visitor perched on the branch of a Thorn acacia (Acacia erioloba)  or  Camel  Thorn tree, a feature of the sparse savannah vegetation.

Cape Sparrow, Sossusvlei

What the lenses captured:  a male Cape Sparrow (Passer melanurus) oblivious both  to the excitement  it was generating and the needle-like thorns  of the  Acacia erioloba. Brightly coloured and distinctive, Cape Sparrow chirps sound like those of the House Sparrow, but much more musical and mellow, said Roger.

 The Violet-eared waxbill

From the South to Otjiwarongo in the North, where this Violet-eared waxbill (Granatina granatina) was photographed in the afternoon at a stone birdbath near the Hoba Meteorite. Also known as a Common Granadie, it is one of the most colourful and beautiful of the waxbills, with  violet cheeks, red bill, rump and forehead of blue, and deep chestnut body. It is also highly-prized as a cage bird in many parts of the world. 

Sable antelope under a baobab tree in the Mahango Game Park in Caprivi

The stuff of myths and legends, the iconic baobab is leafless for most of the year, and, from a distance,  looks very much like it has its roots sticking up in the air. To the locals, it’s  the tree of life  providing  shade, shelter, food and water for both humans and animals in the African savannah. They are probably the oldest life forms on the African continent - some trees still standing are estimated to be more than a thousand years old. The sable antelope (Hippotragus niger) can hit speeds of  57 kph (35 mph) when pursued by predators, but when wounded or cornered, they will viciously defend themselves with their saber-like horns.   Many  big cats, including lions,  have died during such battles.

Hippo and companion

Piggybacking Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis)  picks a safe spot to take in the early afternoon  sun while the wild hippopotamus cools down  in a waterhole in the Mahango reserve.

Bradfield’s Hornbill

Spotted in Caprivi was this  Bradfield’s Hornbill (Tockus bradfieldi), an uncommon broad-leaved woodland resident of north eastern Namibia. This African hornbill nests in natural tree hollows, and feeds on fruits, large insects, nuts and small reptiles.

The Etosha Secretary

The Fisher’s Pan, a private game reserve in Etosha, was the location of much of the birdlife that Roger and his companions encountered, like this Secretary bird (Sagittarius serpentarius). The bird’s popular name is derived from a French corruption of the Arabic saqr-et-tair or “hunter bird”, according to Wikipedia. Its eagle-like head with a hooked and  eagle-like body on crane-like legs makes it instantly recognisable and its height, which can reach 1.3m (4 ft) makes it easily spotted. 

Kori Bustard

Another large bird found striding in the Fisher’s Pan grassland is this Kori Bustard (Ardeotis kori). With a weight ranging between 12 and 16 kg (26 to 35 lbs), the bustard  is perhaps the heaviest bird capable of flight. Like the Secretary bird, the Kori bustard also stands tall in the grass – the male measures between 120 and 150 cm (3.9 and 4.9 ft) in height and has a wingspan averaging 250 cm  (8.2 ft).

Lilac-breasted Roller

Looking familiar is this Lilac-breasted Roller (Coracias caudatus) which inhabits the open woodland and savannah of  the Etosha.  Like it’s northern kin, the European Roller (Coracias garrulus), the Lilac-breasted Roller perches conspicuously on tree-tops scouring the ground for  insects, lizards, scorpions, snails, rodents and even small birds.

 Lappet-faced vulture

Another excellent shot in Etosha – the elusive Lappet-faced vulture (Aegypius tracheliotos). With a wingspan of almost  3m (10 ft), it is an awesome sight in flight. The largest, most powerful and intensely aggressive of African vultures, the Lappet-faced vulture is easily recognised by its conspicuous size, bald, pink-skinned head and distinctive fleshy folds of skin, known as lappets, on the sides of its neck, from which it gets its common name.  (Vultures are bald, because a feathered head would become spattered with blood and other fluids, and thus be difficult to keep clean). Unlike other vulture species, the Lappet-faced  will in times of  need  use it’s powerful beak to catch live prey -- especially the young and the weak --and even raid the nests of small birds.

Black-backed Puffback

One of the more distinctive of bird calls heard when visiting northern Namibia is the one made  by this Black-backed Puffback (Dryoscopus cubla), photographed near the luxurious  Kempinski Mokuti Lodge in Etosha where the group was staying. Members of the shrike family, the puffbacks have black upper parts, white under parts, red eyes and black bills, legs and feet- When displaying, the males erect the feathers on their backs to create the magnificent “powder-puff” effect that gives them their name. The Black-backed is monogamous and builds a tidy cup-shaped nest from roots, bark and other plant material that is bound together with spider webs and  camouflaged by having bits of lichen stuck onto it.

Queuing up for a drink

Game viewing at the Okaukeujo waterhole in Etosha: In the water are gemsbok (Oryx gazella), and close to them, four  Burchell's Zebras (Equus quagga burchellii). Awaiting their turn is a herd of springbok  (Antidorcas marsupialis). The waterhole is the main attraction of the Okaukuejo tourist camp close by, and is floodlit at night to enable visitors to watch in relative comfort  and  safety the nocturnal comings and goings at the  waterhole.  The drama begins to unfold at dawn and continues throughout the day and deep into the night. Often in the early evenings, black rhinoceros, elephants and lions are seen,  all drinking at the same time.

 Great  White  Pelican

From the desert sands to the coastal habitat of the Great White Pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus) in Wallvis Bay. Probably the largest of the pelican species, the Great White is distinguished by its pure white plumage. Males like the one in the picture have a long beak that grows in a downwards arc, compared to the shorter, straighter beak of the female.

 The colony 

And finally, a stopover at a Cape Fur Seal (Arctocephalus pusillus) colony in Cape Cross. Cape Fur seals, also known as Brown Fur Seals, are found in South Africa and Australia too, where they are protected species. In Namibia however, they are allowed to be harvested by the Government, and around 85,000 pups a year are clubbed to death and their fur sold to the fashion industry.

According to Roger, the entire expedition cost a little over €1000 a week per person all-in (air fare excluded): A total of about  €5,300 for a 28-day safari that has left a deep impression on all members of the team. The group never ventured out after dark, returning to one of the many lodges before sunset, not just to sleep but also to re-charge camera batteries, download memory cards on to their laptops, and editing and cataloguing the hundreds of photos taken each and every day. And the van? “Never gave any trouble," declared Roger. "No breakdowns and no punctures over the 7000km expedition.”

PICTURES BY ROGER SANMARTÍ  &  ANNA DALMAU