Arrived in Deadvlei to retrieve the gear and I was over the moon to discover that yes I got the traverse of the milky way. Finally. I didn’t bother trying to do star trails last night - it’s a bit tricky trying to do starscapes and star trails with only 1 tripod.
We've been having a picnic breakfast at the dunes (under a tree) and usually get back to the camp around 11.30/12. But today we blew a tyre approx 45 min from the lodge. The driver was amazing, no skidding, he wrangled that truck beautifully. But that’s where the drama began. The truck had just come back from being serviced and some of the tools were missing. Long story short, the jack wouldn’t work initially (dust/sand gets into everything) so it needed to be oiled and wrestled with, the truck fell off the jack while someone was underneath and it was all looking quite dire until a former employee of the lodge went past with a truck load of guests & came to help. He had it all sorted out very quickly and we were underway again in an hour (from when he arrived). Typically these things happen right where there is no cell coverage.
I was quite concerned; had it happened last night; there was no vehicle traffic because the park gates were closed, no radio, one of the spare tyres had an ominous looking bulge in it (they used the other one), and no way of summoning help. Hopefully someone at the lodge would have realised we were missing. Welcome to Africa.
I was having a shower and washing my hair - I can look out across my veranda to the view and saw an Oryx wandering past 20 metres away, the things you see!
Decided not to attend this afternoons programme of a walk in the dunes for the sunset. It's considerably hotter than yesterday so I'm picking probably 38 degrees - we had to stand in the heat for 90 minutes while the truck being sorted and I've had enough for today. Each chalet has a solar water heater and my water tank is boiling over. The shower grate allows grey water to be collected - every drop of water is recycled in Namibia. My feet are so fat I cannot get my sneakers on. Although tramping boots are way better in the sand anyway, even if you do bring a bootful home with you.
Some useless info for you:
Namibia has the highest dunes in the world and the biggest is Big Daddy standing at 345metres. Egypt's dunes are around the 200m level. The dunes are growing, some quite rapidly. It was incredible the number of people who were climbing Big Daddy this morning, especially as they will be up there in the heat of the day coz they don't reach the dune & start climbing until approx 8am.
Going to sleep tonight listening to the jackals howling… how cool is that !
We've been having a picnic breakfast at the dunes (under a tree) and usually get back to the camp around 11.30/12. But today we blew a tyre approx 45 min from the lodge. The driver was amazing, no skidding, he wrangled that truck beautifully. But that’s where the drama began. The truck had just come back from being serviced and some of the tools were missing. Long story short, the jack wouldn’t work initially (dust/sand gets into everything) so it needed to be oiled and wrestled with, the truck fell off the jack while someone was underneath and it was all looking quite dire until a former employee of the lodge went past with a truck load of guests & came to help. He had it all sorted out very quickly and we were underway again in an hour (from when he arrived). Typically these things happen right where there is no cell coverage.
I was quite concerned; had it happened last night; there was no vehicle traffic because the park gates were closed, no radio, one of the spare tyres had an ominous looking bulge in it (they used the other one), and no way of summoning help. Hopefully someone at the lodge would have realised we were missing. Welcome to Africa.
I was having a shower and washing my hair - I can look out across my veranda to the view and saw an Oryx wandering past 20 metres away, the things you see!
Decided not to attend this afternoons programme of a walk in the dunes for the sunset. It's considerably hotter than yesterday so I'm picking probably 38 degrees - we had to stand in the heat for 90 minutes while the truck being sorted and I've had enough for today. Each chalet has a solar water heater and my water tank is boiling over. The shower grate allows grey water to be collected - every drop of water is recycled in Namibia. My feet are so fat I cannot get my sneakers on. Although tramping boots are way better in the sand anyway, even if you do bring a bootful home with you.
Some useless info for you:
Namibia has the highest dunes in the world and the biggest is Big Daddy standing at 345metres. Egypt's dunes are around the 200m level. The dunes are growing, some quite rapidly. It was incredible the number of people who were climbing Big Daddy this morning, especially as they will be up there in the heat of the day coz they don't reach the dune & start climbing until approx 8am.
Going to sleep tonight listening to the jackals howling… how cool is that !
The Oryx I was watching from the shower
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