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:

http://www.namibrand.com/Foundation.htm

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

African Wings: Part 10: Oranjemund to Parys

AFRICAN WINGS: PART 10: ORANJEMUND TO PARYS

This is the last leg of our journey that takes us home to our hangar in Parys in the Freestate province of South Africa.

“After soaring high above the vast Namibian desert we feel blessed and privileged to be alive. We have seen landscapes that have left us breathless with their beauty, terrified at their expanse and lonely in their isolation.

There is a certain stillness you find deep inside when viewing the wild open places of Africa from above…… herds of buffalo, a lone elephant bull on an endless plain, marching dunes, dancing flamingo, the swirling and meandering Kavango and the icy Atlantic crashing onto inhospitable shores.

 It’s been a journey and an adventure”

We were I suppose in mourning this cold dawn on the Spergebiet. When starting a journey one has space and time stretched out before you; you feel so free.  As it nears an end however, you feel a sense of deep loss for that intangible thing that made you feel so incredibly alive. Thank goodness that the feeling doesn’t last long because you realise that the end of one adventure merely brings the beginning of another.

As we flew home we found ourselves in deep contemplation of what we had just experienced on our journey through the desert kingdom of Namibia. It is with all adventures that the journey happens as much within yourself as it happens outside yourself and that you find yourself irrevocably changed as a person. Albert Schweitzer once said that “as we acquire more knowledge, things do not become more comprehensible but more mysterious” and in this he is completely right. Having flown through Namibia we find her more mysterious and alluring than ever and realise that we have just scratched the surface in discovering her silent depths.

So it was with a paradoxically heavy heart and lightness of spirit that we took off from Oranjemund and headed east for the Freestate over the magestic Richtersveld and Augrabies falls.

Jan and I like to think of ourselves as adventurers and try to live our lives as freely as possible. Sometimes it is difficult to explain in words how utterly an experience has changed you but a movie that we recently watched really comes close. 180 Degrees South: Conquerors of the Useless  is a story about searching for meaning beyond adventure, and about the importance of fighting to protect natural places.

In the movie they talk about adventure a type of mediation where you get to meet aspects of yourself you normally wouldn’t. In other words its not about conquering the summit its about what you find in yourself while attempting it.

At one point, in reference to the wealthy adventurers that pay Sherpas to drag them up Everest and who pay for helicopters to drop them above the treeline, Chouinard says, “when you compromise the process; you’re an asshole when you start out, and you’re an asshole when you finish.”

Visit http://www.180south.com for more on this fantastic movie

Thank you for flying with us across this vast and magical country and we look forward to taking you with us on future adventures into the heart of Africa

Here are some photos of the scenery across the Richtersveld and Augrabies wilderness areas between Oranjemund and Uppington….

African Wings: Part 9: Luderitz to Oranjemund

AFRICAN WINGS: PART 9: ORANJEMUND

Join us on a 6500km flying adventure through Namibia starting at Rundu on the Angolan border and ending at Oranjemund;  the quirky mining town of the Sperrgebiet

We reached the Luderitz airfield to be treated to a 35km wind that was throwing sand at us in dense sheets. This reduced visibility severely and made us quite uneasy about departing Luderitz.

An pilot experienced in local weather conditions at the airport advised us to take off on a secondary airfield facing into the wind. We were airborne in about 10 meters and banked sharply with the wind. There is nothing like a little adrenaline first thing in the morning to get the blood pumping.

The lonesome shores of the Sperrgebiet

A friend of ours had warned us that the Sperrgebiet flight between Luderitz and Oranjemund is one the loneliest you will ever make and he was so right. The Sperrgebiet is a truly inhospitable coastline that openly exudes hostility. Old abandoned mining villages, factories and ship wrecks dot the coast and only serve to enhance a deep feeling of isolation.

While flying along the Sperrgebiet you can’t help but think how obscene it is that so much land can be owned by one company......

The Sperrgebiet (German, meaning "Prohibited Area") is a diamond mining area which spans the Atlantic Ocean-facing coast from Oranjemund on the border with South Africa, to around 72 km north of Lüderitz - its total area is around 26,000 km² and makes up three percent of Namibia's land mass. Members of the public are banned from entering most of the area.

The diamond industry has been a double-edged sword in the history of the Sperrgebiet mainly due to its exclusion policy; it has left the park both scarred but spared of over-use. Inland, the habitat has remained largely untouched and pristine, but the coastal areas, where the diamonds occur, have suffered considerable damage.

Plum Pudding Island

Situated about 600m off the Sperrgebiet coastline, Plumpudding Island is a tiny island of less than 1 ha. Currently all that inhabits the island are African penguins, Bank Cormorants, Crowned Cormorants, Cape Comorants, Kelp Gulls and Swift Terns. Despite the proximity to Sinclair Island, no seals frequent Plumpudding Island.

Sinclaire Island

Sinclair Island is the southernmost important seabird island in Namibia. Sealing was an important activity on Sinclair Island until the early 1980s. A total of 235 000 seal pups were harvested from the island since the beginning of the 20th century, an average of 3 500 pups per year.

Lukas, whom we had shared oysters with the night before had given us the coordinates of a ship he had lost at sea that had washed up on the forbidden shores of the Sperrgebiet. Nothing that touches these shores is allowed to be recovered and has to be left there – we found Lukas’s ship broken in two on an empty beach

Lukas's ship broken in two on the savage shores of the Sperrgebiet

The air temperature was around 10 degrees and the turbulence was decidedly unpleasant. Needless to say we were very glad to get back onto terra firma at Oranjemund.

Where the mighty Orange River meets the Atlantic

We had to apply for a security clearance for Oranjemund a week or so before our arrival which Tom’s guesthouse arranged for us. As there was no hangar available we tied EZP down on a piece of gravel next to the apron and headed off to the guesthouse. We can completely recommend Tom’s guesthouse; their hospitality is enormous and they really went out of their way to accommodate us.

As we drove into Oranjemund we were greeted by a huge sign stating that “diamond theft benefits nobody” and were then treated to some stories about the numerous and inventive ways people have tried to steal diamonds out of the restricted area including cross bow and carrier pigeon. Our favourite story was of a mine worker that was searched each and every day as he left the forbidden area, the officials were so focused on finding diamonds that they didn’t realise he walked out with a wheelbarrow every day for years.

Oranjemund is a town owned and run entirely by De Beers and has a bit of a big brother feel to it.  All 3000 people living in the town are employed by De Beers, there is no crime, there is no poverty, Oryx walk in the streets and everyone seems very proud to be living there. We had an average lunch alone in the enormous dining hall called the Pink Flamingo which I am sure in its heyday must have been very grand but decided to rather eat dinner back at the guesthouse with some food we bought at Woolworths (yes – incredibly there is a Woolworths in Oranjemund) It was a quirky place to spend an evening, but we enjoyed it thoroughly. For more information on Oranjemund please visit: http://www.oranjemundonline.com/

The next morning the aerie was covered in a thin layer of ice. Unbeknownst to us Jabiru batteries don’t do well in the cold and tend to need a jump start to get going again. The airport officials and Jessie from Tom's guesthouse were exceptionally helpful and seemed to enjoy the unusual sight of a Toyota jump starting an aerie!

Getting a jump-start on the Oranjemund airfield

African Wings: Part 8 - Namibrand to Luderitz

AFRICAN WINGS: PART 8: LUDERITZ

Join us on a 6500km flying adventure through Namibia starting at Rundu on the Angolan border and ending at Oranjemund;  the quirky mining town of the Sperrgebiet

Namibrand has a short sand runway which made us a little nervous so we got to the airfield at dawn, packed our gear and took off in the cool morning air before the desert heat started to build.

Landscapes south of Namibrand

Captivating dunefields south of Namibrand in the Naukluft National Park

Our next destination was Luderitz a small mining town on the edge of the desert. Luderitz is famous for the old abandoned mine buildings of Kolmanskop, the herds of wild desert horses between Luderitz and Aus and of course for its oysters.

If truth be told this was the flight we were dreading. We had heard from many other pilots that what with the strong winds, desert storms, extreme temperatures and coastal fog, one really needs to think twice before landing in Luderitz.

However as luck would have it EZP glided across the desert over endless dune fields and through a perfect break in the coastal fog to land in light and variable wind conditions on the Luderitz airfield. The only thing we weren’t banking on was a serious bout of carb ice as we landed; the aircraft felt like it was going to be shaken apart. This happens when you continuously descend from a high altitude to sea level, and ice forms as a result of sea moisture and a drop in temperature (descending requires low power settings which cools down the engine). The experience reminded us of saying from the Neurotic’s Notebook by Mignon McLaughlin “Whenever we safely land in a plane, we promise God a little something”.

The life giving fog that brings moisture to the many creatures of the desert



The bay of Luderitz

 

The Bay of Luderitz

To give you a little more background on Luderitz; the bay of Luderitz was first discovered in 1488 by the Portuguese seafarer Bartholomeu Diaz who named it Angra Pequeña. Centuries later, in 1883, Adolf Luderitz, a merchant, bought the bay from a Nama chieftain at the time of the Diamond rush.

Adolf Luderitz - the only man that has had a bronze done with his glasses on

The bay of Luderitz

Colourful fishing boats and oyster buoys

Luderitz is a quaint harbour town built on a sparkling harbour filled with brightly coloured fishing boats and oyster buoys. The architecture is predominantly German and oozes a quiet charm that contrasts peculiarly with its arid surrounds. Coffee shops, oyster bars, delicatessens, museums and restaurants make the town a fascinating and gastronomically pleasing visit.

The Luderitz skyline

The old Lutheran church Felsenkirche

The hospitality of Namibians never ceases to amaze us and in Luderitz we weren’t disappointed. We met a fantastic couple who gave us a guided tour of Luderitz on a whimsy and took us on an oyster tour. The oyster tour was absolutely fascinating and equally distracting as the host was the spitting image of John Travolta. With each step we thought he might break out into a rendition of Grease Lightening, but no such luck. We had an amazing evening drinking champaign and eating oysters at the Shearwater Oyster Company and getting to know each other.

We had booked into the quaint little guest house of Kratzplats that was exactly as advertised - quiet, comfortable and centrally located. We can definitely recommend the restaurant which has a fantastic atmosphere in the evenings and gives one an opportunity to meet the locals. http://www.kratzplatz.com/

The quaint guesthouse of Ktratzplats - love the bike on the roof!

We only spent one night in Luderitz but wished we had stayed longer as it truly is a unique little town filled some really fantastic people……