Capture Namibia: Photography Tips

The Namibian Tourism Board just interviewed us for their blog which features top photographers photographic and travel tips on how best to capture and experience Namibia. Here is what we had to say about one of our most favorite places on earth ....... 

 http://stories.namibiatourism.com.na/blog/bid/299882/Capture-Namibia-Photography-Tips-from-Jan-Jay-Roode

Wishing you blue skies and open roads

Jay and Jan Roode

Nxai Pan National Park, Botswana

Our latest double-page feature in the Getaway Magazine, July edition

Nxai Pan, Khama Khama Pan and Kudikam Pan are all ancient salt lakes that make up the great Makgadikgadi complex. The pans are now semi-grassed, and scattered with islands of acacia trees and smaller pans that fill with water during the rainy season.The park is a seasonal home to large herds of plains game and the predators that depend on them.

A highlight is the famous Baine's Baobabs, seven huge, gnarled baobab trees named after the 19th century explorer Thomas Baines.

Flying over the pans is like entering a parallel universe of 360-degree horizons and endless space. The best time to visit is December through to April, or whenever wanderlust makes an appearance.


Wishing you blue skies and open roads

Jay and Jan Roode

Mystery solved

Nama Starburst - Namibia's own alien landing pad ......

A few years ago on our first photographic expedition through Namibia, we came across this unique starburst pattern south of Henties Bay etched into the desert floor. It is one of our more fascinating prints and has been printed in countless publications.

When asked what it is, we have never been able to truthfully answer and have always hazarded guesses such as an alien landing pad, a type of sundial, a giant artwork created by a highly motivated and obviously eccentric German artist or perhaps the lines have something to do with the saltworks that are so prevalent along the Skeleton coast. We were never quite sure.

Last week after posting the image on our facebook page we were contacted by Bertie and Willie Kotze who had seen the image and decided to research it further.


It turns out that these are the remains of a discontinued Decca navigation system or radar station. The grid pattern is a system of underground cables which were part of the operational system. The cables have been laid at 6 degrees apart except for one skew one that had to go around a rock.

The Decca navigation system was used for many years on the South African and Namibian coastlines primarily for ship navigation and abandoned at Namibian independence.

It seems that we are the first people to have spotted this unique place from above in over 40 years.

Although grateful to have found out exactly what the origins are of Nama Starburst, we are however a little sad to have to finally give up our more whimsical fantasies of what created it!

Thanks to Bertie and Willie Kotze for solving the mystery