Thursday 21 July 2011

The Namibrand Family Hideout



Sitting on the sun baked wall of the wide patio of the Namibrand Family Hideout, I took a sip of chilled Chardonnay, gazed out over the timeless landscape and thanked the heavens above for Albi Bruckner. 



Who is Albi Bruckner you ask? Well for me he is the hero of the Namib, in fact I am so enamoured with Albi that I think I may just start selling “I love Albi” bumper stickers or wearing “Albi rules” t-shirts. You will too when you start to have an inkling of what this incredible and visionary man has achieved and the legacy he has left us all.


About thirty years ago, Albi stood at the edge of a vast and indescribable landscape and envisioned a different future for the endless grasslands, ochre dunes and jagged peaks that he saw in front of him. Albi had decided to do the impossible; buy up scores of overgrazed and under-productive livestock farms and rehabilitate them into a single continuous natural habitat essential for protecting the biodiversity of a unique and fragile ecosystem. 
 





Lucky for us, Albi’s prayers and perseverance paid off and he succeeded in creating one of the largest private nature reserves in southern Africa; the NamibRand Nature Reserve and probably my favourite place on earth.


The moment you step into the NamibRand Family Hideout it feels like coming home. The rustic and historic farmhouse used to be inhabited by a family of Karakul sheep farmers and lay deserted for many years till it was converted into a self-catering getaway for desert lovers. It is a comfortable yet basic place with a gas stove and fridge, solar geyser and lights. During the day the old stone floors are cool under your feet and at night the wide walls that have been baked by the desert sun for close on a hundred years keep you warm.





There is a profusion of life at Namibrand; in the house and out on the dunes. A fat and self-satisfied  gecko lives under the kitchen cupboard, a cheeky bat eared fox may chance its luck and raid the dustbin, a rock kestrel hunts the Namaqua Sandgrouse at the waterhole and the comical wing flicks of the Familiar Chat never cease to amuse.  



Herds of Oryx and Springbok come down each day to drink at the waterhole outside the farmhouse and when one walks the dunes they are covered in spoor of insects, reptiles and mammals. I always wish I knew more about spoor when on the dunes – like a blind person trying to learn braille, I find myself touching the tracks hoping to make more sense of what creature could have possibly made them.





Every morning we wake early and walk to the dunes in the dark with our torches and wait for the sun to bath the landscape in colour. We do the same each evening with the moon. There is something profoundly special about having the desert all to yourself.
 


 This is a place where the silence is so deep you can hear your own heartbeat…….
  
Adopt a Fairy Circle

Mysterious bare circles in the sand dot the landscape along the edge of the Namib Desert. These bare patches have been named “fairy circles.” 







While numerous scientists have researched these circles, no one has yet been able to ultimately determine their cause or purpose. Various theories of their origin have been suggested, including euphorbia poisoning, animal dust baths, meteor showers, termites and underground gas vents. In the modern world of advanced research, innovative technology and information networks, it is refreshing to know that Nature can still keep some of her secrets. 


You can add to your experience on NamibRand by adopting a fairy circle. All funds raised through this program go directly to the NamibRand Conservation Foundation. For a donation of R500 you can adopt a circle for yourself or someone else. A numbered disk will be placed in your specially chosen circle and you will receive a certificate acknowledging your donation and recording the exact GPS-coordinates of your fairy circle.


For more information contact:






Monday 4 July 2011

Skyhawk Makgadikgadi Expedition

Living in the busy city of Johannesburg one could almost find it impossible to imagine a place so vast it seems to exist more of sky than of land. The huge, endless, uninhabited spaces of the Makgadikgadi Pans are a mere three and a half hours flight from Johannesburg in a light aircraft and are so surreal when viewed from above that one feels transported into a parallel universe not just over a national border. The pans are one of the few places in the world where one can view an unbroken horizon for 360°.



The Makgadikgadi consists of numerous pans, but the three major one are: Ntwetwe Pan, Sowa Pan and Nxai Pan. Collectively the Makgadikgadi is said to be the largest salt pan in the world covering over 12 500km², an area almost the same size as Portugal. The silvery expanse bears testimony to a super-lake that once covered most of northern Botswana more than five million years ago.

In the dry season hot winds and salt water make it very difficult for the great herds to survive here but following the rainy season the pans become an oasis and essential habitat for wildebeest and zebra populations and the large predators that prey on them.
  
  

The pans were brimming over when we visited; huge mirrors that reflected the sky so totally we found it difficult to see where the land ends and the sky begins.



Flying over Sowa pan, , and seeing the enormous flocks of Flamingo is truly a scene out of the movie “Out of Africa” where Denys Finch Hatton takes Karen Blixen flying over the great lakes of Kenya. To watch this great flying sequence please follow this link: http://youtu.be/VV5JL89CQl8

Flamingo and Whiskered tern mingle into huge shoals turning and twisting simultaneously, silently communicating to each other with wing beats. As they leave the water’s surface their running feet leave thousands of perfect round ripples like throwing skipping stones on a perfect flat lake.





The Nata River empties into Sowa pan in spectacular fashion; emerald green fingers stretch out organically into the milky blue of the pan. Right on the tip of the estuary a colony of breeding Great white pelican adorn the water like lotus flowers; floating in utter tranquillity.



Viewing the great herds from above is absolutely phenomenal; to see the Wildebeest galloping across the plains in ecstatic joy, solitary bulls standing proud, zebras calves drinking from their mothers and all of them accompanied by razor sharp shadows that almost seem to have more substance than its creator.




Visiting the Makgadikgadi is not something that can be described it is something that needs to be experienced. It is probably as close as one can come to experiencing Africa as it was hundreds of years ago. The deep stillness whispers softly, changing you forever….

Conservation:
The Makgadikgadi Pans attract large numbers of migratory waterbirds, many of which are protected and/or threatened such as; Wattled Crane, Crowned Crane, lesser Flamingo, Black Winged Pratincole and Great White Pelican.

In addition, Sua pan, part of the Makgadikgadi complex, comprises the most important breeding site in southern Africa for Greater and Lesser Flamingos, two high profile species in decline in the region.

The mineral and nutrient rich grasslands surrounding Makgadikgadi also support an abundance of wildlife, which includes many desert-adapted species, some threatened and protected (e.g. Brown Hyaena) and one of Botswanas largest Zebra and Wilderbeest migrations.

To find out more about MakgadiKgadi conservation efforts and to see how you can get involved please visit the Mkagadikgadi Wetlands Working Group which has been set up to promote the sustainable development and long-term conservation of the Makgadikgadi palustrine wetlands and its associated biodiversity -  http://www.mwwg.org/index.htm



Visiting the Makgadikgadi:
There are few serviced facilities in the Makgadikgadi so it is more suited to self-sufficient 4WD parties and Fly-in enthusiasts.


For the aviator there are airstrips at Nata, Gweta and Sowa however there is no access to Avgas. 95 unleaded fuel is available at petrol stations for those aircraft that can take Mogas but should be viewed with suspicion.

Lodges close to airfields we can recommend that provide transfers to and from the airfield are:
Nata Lodge: http://www.natalodge.com
Gweta Lodge: http://www.gwetalodge.com
Planet Baobab: http://www.unchartedafrica.com

Please visit www.skyhawkphotography.com for more photos of the Makgadikgadi Pans.
All images are available as fine art prints, please contact us for more information on pricing and print options