Sunday, March 1, 2009
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
The Text for the Pictures below
Sorry about the pictures being on a different post, I ran out of time at the internet cafe
Well this is going to be another, and unfortunately probably one of the last updates from me on this blog. I will be writting this entry as I travel in the evenings, so if it seems a little scattered I appologize. Thank you all for the comments on the last one, the pictures were right out of camera and I have not edited them at all so some might be a bit wonky in the last update.
After uploadingthe last entry in the coastal town of Swakopmund (those of you who have been followingthe blog know that I seem to frequent that town), my party decided to head up to Cape Cross. It was nice to finally get here as this is attempt number two after nearly 3000km of travel around northern Namibia. There are alot of seals... Like over 200,000. I was fortunate to get here a month after the pups were born. The entire coast was littered with these little furry guys. Not too many pictures of the pups as most of the mwere playing in the ocean. The first thing you notice when you get there is the sound... hundreds of thousands of seals barking. Then unfortunately you notice the smell of Dead Fish, Excriment and rotting flesh. The first to are self explanitory, the last is something un-expected. There were thousands of dead decaying corpes of seal pups everywhere. I won't post any pictures of them but they were not plesant at all. The pictures are of a small portion of the colony and them two of the females arguing over who gets to dry off on the big rock.
After Cape Cross we returned to Swakopmund for one more night. From here I said good by to Ian (the brit who I travelled over to Namibia with) and headed off through the desert. Our first stop on our way to Sossu Vlei was Welwitchia. This is the name of Namibias national plant. This one here is over 1500 years old. The old ones are massive, under 400 years old they are still relatively small, but this one... well let Leslie (who is in the background) give you a sense of scale. They can live up to 2000 years old and this one is the oldest known one in Namibia.
We made it to Sossu Vlei by sunset and managed to hike up one of the dunes to watch it set. The colors here were incredible. The dunes all run north to west so you get really interesting shadows with the setting sun. These dunes are not quite all the way to Sossuvlei.
The Sossuvlei trip really began the next day. In the morning we drove back into the park and all the way down the valley. We decided to hike one of the dunes (a little one that was about 100m vertical or 330ft for you imperialists). The hike was fine, but we didnt antisipate the heat of the sand... it was around 60 degrees celius and burned the skin. We were all in sandals and I thought my feet were on fire when sand poured in. I have not felt that much pain in a long time. After the painfully journey back down the dune we had a quick lunch then headed for Dead Vlei.
I was the only one ambitious enough for the hike, so I set off alone. After about 2km in the desert I arrived at Dead Vlei (Dead Valley). There are a bunch of dead trees in this place and it it is very eary. Not five minutes after I had arrived I noticed some sand being kicked up at the far end, and within about 2 minutes I was in a sandstorm... I had to turn around, I couldn't open my eyes, and the sand burned agains my legs and arms... I was litterally being sand blasted. The winds must have been about 80kmph. The visibilty dropped to less then 100m. Fortunately the sand storm only lasted about 10 minutes, Unfortunately it stopped due to a much bigger storm.
This valley sees rain once every couple years, and sure enough I was there for a massive thunder storm. I ended up curling up under a tree stump, huddled around my camera trying to protected it from the rain. By the end of the hour long thunderstorm, I was drenched, my camera was soaked, and I was freezing. I can't beleive that my camera still works after that soaking... Once the rain had stopped the valley was un real. It was a lake about 6inches deep. The light was amazing and the pictures do not do the area justice.
After about an hour of wondering through the dead trees I saw the biggest dune I have ever seen in my life. Later my GPS would tell me that it was over 340 meters high (over 1100ft). I started to climb this dune thinking that it would take about 30 minutes... an hour and a half later I reached the summit exhausted. By the end I was having to take a break every 40 steps or so. The vue was worth it though. It was amazing. The walk down took less then 5 minutes thanks the the steepness. Every step I took I could get almost 2 meters. I ended up running down the dune.
From here it was back to Dune 45 for another sunset, then off to bed. You Can see my
foot steps on the dune, and a Dune in the background.
From Sossu Vlei we headed down south, almost as far as the South African border. On our way we managed to spot the wild horses of Aus. Population of about 150 horses, there are several theories on how the horses got to the desert, to name a few: Shipwreck, A german Baron, Lost. They have already changed in that they are smaller then standard horses and consume far less water, also they pee less.
This is the Ghost town of Kolemanskopp, a large (relatively) town completely abbandoned, located in the forbiden diamond area.
Having tea at the local gas station is Aus, the owner was very talkative and it wasnt long before the Fish he caught the previous day came out.
The road to the Fish River Canyon, we only made it around the corner before the road was closed due to flooding.
After a 500km detour, another road closed on the way to the Canyon... as you can see, not really passible, i'm only about 20ft off shore and again standing in the middle of the road.
Fish River Canyon at last for sunset, after multiple detours totaling over 800km, two flooded roads, and one swim in the middle of the road.
The stars in the southern hemisphere... You can see the Milky Way (the colored portion) and the souther cross (the southern equivalent to the north star Polaris).
Anyways that's all for me, i'll see about updating again in a week before I leave Namibia. I'm back in Canada the week of the 7th of march, can't wait to see you all...
PS: Carla, Gerald, Jack, Sam: I'm really debating getting off my plane in Philly and coming for a visit... i'll looking at my financial situation when I leave the continent and will keep you posted.
Maybe a last update
Ghost town Window
Dead trees at Death Valley
Sunset at Dune 45
Sky and southern cross at fish river canyon
Seal Colony at cape cross
Fighting seals
Start of sand storm
Road to Fish river
1000 year old plant
1500 year old plant
My path over the dune
Mountains in the Desert
The lake where there should be no lake
Horses of Aus
Ghost Town
Fish river Canyon
Man with Fish
Me in the middle of the road
Me on a 1000ft dune
Dune
Dune soon to be
Dune
Sesserim Canyon
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
This one is for Catherine
No I'm not dead, I have merely been out in the country unable to access email for the last week. On the plus side Catherine that means that there will be alot of pictures in this update. I'll throw pictures up and then give a brief discription of what you are looking at, hopefully this will not be too boring and will also give you an Idea of what I have been up to in the last week. Since renting the car I have travelled over 2500km, through some of the most amazing landscapes I have ever seen. Namibia is an amazing country and I could spend years Photographing the country side.
A week and a half ago (actually before the last update), I was in the coastal town of Swakopmund. Having been there for a couple days, I decided to try and make it up the Skeleton Coast. The name ckeleton Coast came from the fact that anyone who's ship ran aground here would die. The coast is littered with shipwrecks, and is one of the most inhospitable places I have ever been. Here you you can see what the southern region of the coast looks like, and what I had to hitch on. It was a long a brutally hot day in the sun and I think I may have ended up with a minor case of heat stroke by the end. I only made it about 100km up the coast before deciding to head back due to lack of traffic and a fear of getting stuck in the desert. The picture was taken from the back of a pick-up truck which thankfully gave me a ride back into town.
The next set is of the first day with the car and the journey to Etosha National Park. I managed to find a British couple and a German man willing to share the cost of renting a vehicle. We pay around 20 USD a day for the truck. We managed to get a Nissan 4x4 truck, with full gear load... pictures to follow in the next update. I digress... Here we have a sunset on the way to the town of Grootfontein, home of the worlds largest meteorite. The square thing in the picture is the meteor, massive is all I can say. We stayed at a camp ground run by a very german fellow, who spoke very little english. In the morning he pointed out that he had meat for sale from the locals so naturally I went to see what was to be had. I ended up purchasing two Zebra streaks, and two Giraffe steaks... I'll let you know how they tasted a little further dow.
This Set is from Etosha Natiional Park. This place is awesome. The amount of wildlife is astonishing, I will let the pictures do the talking but in order here they are: Wildabeast (spelling?) and calf, Giraffe (duh!), Dic Dic, Black Rhino, “Spot the Kitty”, Tree, Oryx. Amazing two days. Day one we had the Zebra steaks: Very Very Very tough meat... rough and smokey taste... maybe due to the fact that they were grilled over wood embers. On a side note BBQ down here is called a Braai (Br-eye), there are no real bbq's instead people just buy wood and light fires and cook on the embers. On day two we ate the Giraffe steaks, much tastier and less tough then the Zebra but still no replacement for cow or lamb. I know you said you would kill me for eating Zebra... but try to forgive me... i'll make it up to you.
This picture is to contrast new and old. We have a flower growing out of a Petrified tree. The flower is about 2 months old, the tree is 260 million years old. We had anwonderful guide for the walk, and he pointed out Namibias national plant. I forget the name... but it can live for over 2000 years... The one in the Picture is about 500 years old.... Crazy
These catepillars are a local delacasy, I tried one in Botswana. Fried they are quite tasty if you can get over what you are eating. The other way to eat them is to put a live one in your mouth and press your tongue up squishing the inards out and down your throat... I couldnt stomach this mehtod. This one is a young one. The more mature ones turn completely green and the spikes develop more, on this one the spikes are almost like fur.
The Namibia badlands, pictures do not do it justice. We went for a brief walk up the highest hill we could find. The bouldering was quitre difficult as the rocks were like glass... super sharp. I fell once and sliced open my hand pretty bad. I've added to my don't touch plants rule to include rocks.
The Organ Pipes. Rockes that are like vertical shale. Really cool. They are in a Canyon just outside Twylfontaine. A nice but brief stop before makign the climb up one of the smaller mountains in the area.
Sunil, Myself, and Torsten (One of the Brits, Myself, and the German respectively), after climing one of the mountains in the badlands, this was about a 20km drive off the road followed by a very vertical climb up a mountain. We did not quite summit this peak due to daylight... or lack there of. Amazing colors, and a stunning vue into the vast uninhabbit badlands of western Namibia. I have several Panoramics of the area but it will take a while to stick them together.
A rock carving in Twylfontaine. It's between 4000 and 6000 years old. There are over 2000 or these carvings in the area. This one depicts a Giraffe (obviously), there were ones of every animal and plant. The locals also made stone carved maps or where all the water holes are located in the valley, really cool but somewhat nerdy stuff.
A lizard I found on a hike up another mountain. I probably ran into about a dozen of these little guys on my short hike up the ”mountain”.
Torsten and I decided to hike this mountain. It took about two hours to get up and I thought I was going to die a couple of time, for scale he is 6 foot 7. It was only about 500m vertical... but it was very vertical.
A table mountain on the way back to the skeleton coast, this time from the north. I wish I had another word to use other then amazing, as I seem to repeat this alot... Stunning.
Getting more and more desolate the closer to the cost we get. For over 300km we did not see a single vehicle. If you were to break down here it would be a very very long wait for help.
The northern part of the skeleton coast, looking from the sea to the land. It was in fog and very eary just seeing the dunes off in the distances.
The road we took. Yes that is the road. It was bumpy but well signed. Later this area would be flooded out and cause a three hour delay in our travels.
And here is the road washed out... I am standing in the middle of the road in this picture. These rivers come and go. It takes about two hours for the road to turn to river, and about 8 hours for it to fully revert. This process happens about 4 times a week during the rainy season.
This is an abandoned Oil rig, which has collapsed. Not much more to say about it.
Me again this time in one of the rare desert snow fields... na, just kidding, it's salt, but I'm sure I had you going for at least a few seconds.
A pair of desert foxes... how these guys find enough food out here I will never know.
The next two were taken within minutes of each other. The first is the sunset over the skeleton Coast, the second is one of the many ship wrecks to be found along the coast. I am fortunate to be travelling with a shipping captain. He told me that this wreck looks to be between 2 weeks and 4 months old. It's very strange seeing all these wrecks along the coast, which will never be salvaged due to location and difficulty.
I am back in Swakopmund at the moment and will be here for two days to do laundry and get rested in a bed (instead of tent). After this the crew and I will be heading down to Sossuvlei (where the real dunes are), Ludritz (a really cool ghost town), and Fish river Canyon (the second largest canyon in the world, yes you guessed it... second to the grand canyon).
I'm going to be out of internet again for the next week, and will provide you all with another lengthy update after that. For those of you that do not know yet, I have booked my flight home to Canada for mid march. I would love to travel more, but it is not practical to do so at this time. I'm not to sure where I'm heading once I land in V ancouver. Most likely I will be going back up to Whitehorse, but I'll be playing that by ere. Looking forward to hearing from all my friends and family and please comment on here or facebook or write me an email, It's great hearing from all of you.
Cheers.
Eli
Personal Notes (Because I don't have enough time to write emails... and i'm lazy)
Mum: I'm going to try and call in the next day or so... If not I will call in a week when I am back in the Capital. I hope you enjoyed the pictures, and thank you so much for your never ending support.
Dad: Might be swinging through your area on the way home... want to buy me a ticket from vancouver to calgary :-D... pretty please... Who am I kidding i'll settle for a bus ticket. Thank you for the car rental money, I was getting really tight on money and this part of my journey would not have been a success without your help.
Morgan: I will do my best to head over to the island when I am in Vancouver. Hope all is well with law school, I want you to know that your jealousy of my trip keeps me going :-D... and godzilla would kick jaw's ass any day of the week
Catherine, Thank you for the praise on previous photographs, It really helps to motivate me to take more pictures with comments from you. You get a print when I get back to Canada :-P. Actually two prints, I owe you one for letting me crash at your place on my way out of the country. Oh and sorry again for eating a Zebra.
Conny: Thank you for the email, I'm sorry I couldn't write you a lenghty one back, I have not had the time but I will when I get the chance. I was thinking of swinging through Austria again on my way back, but unfortunately I didn't think of this until after I had arranged my ticket. I will still give you that flight at some point, I promise.
Alison: Not sure when I'm going to see you next, or if I'm going to get the chance to see a Hippo anymore... i'm sorry... I did try, but there were none in the park cause of the season... But I have a surprise for you when I see you next. Also... where is my email you promised almost a month ago!!!!!
Calvin: Beer on me when/if I get back to Whitehorse...
Carla, Gerald, Jack, Sam: Unfortunately I do not think it is possible for me to swing through newyork on my way home... Really wish I could. I will in the not to distant future I promise. Carla When I get the chance I will send you an email with a bunch of pictures for you to pick from.
Nona: I have so many stories to tell you next time I call... I will try to do that in the Capital in about a week.
Rob: I've been training more and more, and Have actually arranged my flights to get more Karate in, Can't wait to be back at Kita Kaze. Say hello to the gang for me.
Kendra: I just got your email the other day, thank you for taking the time to write me, I'm sorry I could not send a proper response at this stage. I'm writting most of this from my Hostel room where I do not have internet, and then only have internet for enough time to upload the pictures and this update, Will talk to you more when I get the chance.
Akira: Sorry for eating a giraffe...
Sarah: not too sure about winnipeg now, but we shall see. Thank you for the emails, they are great to read after a long day of trekking through deserts, mountains and swamps.
Everybody else: thank you for the great comments, emails, and facebook messages, Here from you guys keeps me going. Alright, that's really it for now, I will upload this tomorrow and then continue on my journey!
A week and a half ago (actually before the last update), I was in the coastal town of Swakopmund. Having been there for a couple days, I decided to try and make it up the Skeleton Coast. The name ckeleton Coast came from the fact that anyone who's ship ran aground here would die. The coast is littered with shipwrecks, and is one of the most inhospitable places I have ever been. Here you you can see what the southern region of the coast looks like, and what I had to hitch on. It was a long a brutally hot day in the sun and I think I may have ended up with a minor case of heat stroke by the end. I only made it about 100km up the coast before deciding to head back due to lack of traffic and a fear of getting stuck in the desert. The picture was taken from the back of a pick-up truck which thankfully gave me a ride back into town.
The next set is of the first day with the car and the journey to Etosha National Park. I managed to find a British couple and a German man willing to share the cost of renting a vehicle. We pay around 20 USD a day for the truck. We managed to get a Nissan 4x4 truck, with full gear load... pictures to follow in the next update. I digress... Here we have a sunset on the way to the town of Grootfontein, home of the worlds largest meteorite. The square thing in the picture is the meteor, massive is all I can say. We stayed at a camp ground run by a very german fellow, who spoke very little english. In the morning he pointed out that he had meat for sale from the locals so naturally I went to see what was to be had. I ended up purchasing two Zebra streaks, and two Giraffe steaks... I'll let you know how they tasted a little further dow.
This Set is from Etosha Natiional Park. This place is awesome. The amount of wildlife is astonishing, I will let the pictures do the talking but in order here they are: Wildabeast (spelling?) and calf, Giraffe (duh!), Dic Dic, Black Rhino, “Spot the Kitty”, Tree, Oryx. Amazing two days. Day one we had the Zebra steaks: Very Very Very tough meat... rough and smokey taste... maybe due to the fact that they were grilled over wood embers. On a side note BBQ down here is called a Braai (Br-eye), there are no real bbq's instead people just buy wood and light fires and cook on the embers. On day two we ate the Giraffe steaks, much tastier and less tough then the Zebra but still no replacement for cow or lamb. I know you said you would kill me for eating Zebra... but try to forgive me... i'll make it up to you.
This picture is to contrast new and old. We have a flower growing out of a Petrified tree. The flower is about 2 months old, the tree is 260 million years old. We had anwonderful guide for the walk, and he pointed out Namibias national plant. I forget the name... but it can live for over 2000 years... The one in the Picture is about 500 years old.... Crazy
These catepillars are a local delacasy, I tried one in Botswana. Fried they are quite tasty if you can get over what you are eating. The other way to eat them is to put a live one in your mouth and press your tongue up squishing the inards out and down your throat... I couldnt stomach this mehtod. This one is a young one. The more mature ones turn completely green and the spikes develop more, on this one the spikes are almost like fur.
The Namibia badlands, pictures do not do it justice. We went for a brief walk up the highest hill we could find. The bouldering was quitre difficult as the rocks were like glass... super sharp. I fell once and sliced open my hand pretty bad. I've added to my don't touch plants rule to include rocks.
The Organ Pipes. Rockes that are like vertical shale. Really cool. They are in a Canyon just outside Twylfontaine. A nice but brief stop before makign the climb up one of the smaller mountains in the area.
Sunil, Myself, and Torsten (One of the Brits, Myself, and the German respectively), after climing one of the mountains in the badlands, this was about a 20km drive off the road followed by a very vertical climb up a mountain. We did not quite summit this peak due to daylight... or lack there of. Amazing colors, and a stunning vue into the vast uninhabbit badlands of western Namibia. I have several Panoramics of the area but it will take a while to stick them together.
A rock carving in Twylfontaine. It's between 4000 and 6000 years old. There are over 2000 or these carvings in the area. This one depicts a Giraffe (obviously), there were ones of every animal and plant. The locals also made stone carved maps or where all the water holes are located in the valley, really cool but somewhat nerdy stuff.
A lizard I found on a hike up another mountain. I probably ran into about a dozen of these little guys on my short hike up the ”mountain”.
Torsten and I decided to hike this mountain. It took about two hours to get up and I thought I was going to die a couple of time, for scale he is 6 foot 7. It was only about 500m vertical... but it was very vertical.
A table mountain on the way back to the skeleton coast, this time from the north. I wish I had another word to use other then amazing, as I seem to repeat this alot... Stunning.
Getting more and more desolate the closer to the cost we get. For over 300km we did not see a single vehicle. If you were to break down here it would be a very very long wait for help.
The northern part of the skeleton coast, looking from the sea to the land. It was in fog and very eary just seeing the dunes off in the distances.
The road we took. Yes that is the road. It was bumpy but well signed. Later this area would be flooded out and cause a three hour delay in our travels.
And here is the road washed out... I am standing in the middle of the road in this picture. These rivers come and go. It takes about two hours for the road to turn to river, and about 8 hours for it to fully revert. This process happens about 4 times a week during the rainy season.
This is an abandoned Oil rig, which has collapsed. Not much more to say about it.
Me again this time in one of the rare desert snow fields... na, just kidding, it's salt, but I'm sure I had you going for at least a few seconds.
A pair of desert foxes... how these guys find enough food out here I will never know.
The next two were taken within minutes of each other. The first is the sunset over the skeleton Coast, the second is one of the many ship wrecks to be found along the coast. I am fortunate to be travelling with a shipping captain. He told me that this wreck looks to be between 2 weeks and 4 months old. It's very strange seeing all these wrecks along the coast, which will never be salvaged due to location and difficulty.
I am back in Swakopmund at the moment and will be here for two days to do laundry and get rested in a bed (instead of tent). After this the crew and I will be heading down to Sossuvlei (where the real dunes are), Ludritz (a really cool ghost town), and Fish river Canyon (the second largest canyon in the world, yes you guessed it... second to the grand canyon).
I'm going to be out of internet again for the next week, and will provide you all with another lengthy update after that. For those of you that do not know yet, I have booked my flight home to Canada for mid march. I would love to travel more, but it is not practical to do so at this time. I'm not to sure where I'm heading once I land in V ancouver. Most likely I will be going back up to Whitehorse, but I'll be playing that by ere. Looking forward to hearing from all my friends and family and please comment on here or facebook or write me an email, It's great hearing from all of you.
Cheers.
Eli
Personal Notes (Because I don't have enough time to write emails... and i'm lazy)
Mum: I'm going to try and call in the next day or so... If not I will call in a week when I am back in the Capital. I hope you enjoyed the pictures, and thank you so much for your never ending support.
Dad: Might be swinging through your area on the way home... want to buy me a ticket from vancouver to calgary :-D... pretty please... Who am I kidding i'll settle for a bus ticket. Thank you for the car rental money, I was getting really tight on money and this part of my journey would not have been a success without your help.
Morgan: I will do my best to head over to the island when I am in Vancouver. Hope all is well with law school, I want you to know that your jealousy of my trip keeps me going :-D... and godzilla would kick jaw's ass any day of the week
Catherine, Thank you for the praise on previous photographs, It really helps to motivate me to take more pictures with comments from you. You get a print when I get back to Canada :-P. Actually two prints, I owe you one for letting me crash at your place on my way out of the country. Oh and sorry again for eating a Zebra.
Conny: Thank you for the email, I'm sorry I couldn't write you a lenghty one back, I have not had the time but I will when I get the chance. I was thinking of swinging through Austria again on my way back, but unfortunately I didn't think of this until after I had arranged my ticket. I will still give you that flight at some point, I promise.
Alison: Not sure when I'm going to see you next, or if I'm going to get the chance to see a Hippo anymore... i'm sorry... I did try, but there were none in the park cause of the season... But I have a surprise for you when I see you next. Also... where is my email you promised almost a month ago!!!!!
Calvin: Beer on me when/if I get back to Whitehorse...
Carla, Gerald, Jack, Sam: Unfortunately I do not think it is possible for me to swing through newyork on my way home... Really wish I could. I will in the not to distant future I promise. Carla When I get the chance I will send you an email with a bunch of pictures for you to pick from.
Nona: I have so many stories to tell you next time I call... I will try to do that in the Capital in about a week.
Rob: I've been training more and more, and Have actually arranged my flights to get more Karate in, Can't wait to be back at Kita Kaze. Say hello to the gang for me.
Kendra: I just got your email the other day, thank you for taking the time to write me, I'm sorry I could not send a proper response at this stage. I'm writting most of this from my Hostel room where I do not have internet, and then only have internet for enough time to upload the pictures and this update, Will talk to you more when I get the chance.
Akira: Sorry for eating a giraffe...
Sarah: not too sure about winnipeg now, but we shall see. Thank you for the emails, they are great to read after a long day of trekking through deserts, mountains and swamps.
Everybody else: thank you for the great comments, emails, and facebook messages, Here from you guys keeps me going. Alright, that's really it for now, I will upload this tomorrow and then continue on my journey!
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