Gaurdian of the Dawn

Gaurdian of the Dawn

Flying in the desert at dawn has a special stillness. It feels to me like the doors to the most ancient and sacred cathedral have just been opened. As first light washes the landscape all that are touched; animal, man, rock and grass stem stand in reverence and awe of the enormity of life.

It is that time when the desert world is illuminated with that indescribable quality; that transient brilliance that makes your heart trip over itself with its depth and vivid beauty.

This is an ode to the little photographed and seldom admired Red Hartebeest, on this morning no mere beast but instead a Gaurdian of the Dawn

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Wishing you blue skies and open roads

Jan and Jay Roode

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

National Geographic Traveller UK

This month one of our Mozambique aerial images entitled "the Nets of Banque" was featured in the National Geographic Traveller. 

This is one of my favorite images from the Bazaruto Archipelago and one of the more surreal of the collection. 

For me the mind blowing beauty of the Bazaruto Archipelago can only truly be experienced while staring open mouthed out of the window of a cockpit. 

Here a fishing net lies suspended like seaweed in the turquoise shallows as the local fishermen haul in their catch near Banque Island; the smallest and least developed island of the five in the Archipelago. 

The lives of the fishermen of the Bazaruto move in tandem with the tides of the Indian Ocean. They leave at dawn in their traditional wooden dhows to do what their ancestors have done for centuries; sail the azure blues in search of fish for themselves and their families. Today’s glistening catch gets pulled in, quicksilver in the nets.

Namtastic

Namtastic! Go Magazines Namib feature on one of my favorite images of all time "River of Life" taken above the Namib Naukluft National Park

Msafiri Kenyan Airways - Window Seat Feature

 

 

Skyhawk is proud to be providing images to Msafiri for the Window Seat for the duration of 2013.