While in Namibia recently, I spent three days in Etosha National Park. Etosha is considered one of the best places in Southern Africa for game-viewing. (Although if you are really into seeing animals, December is not the best time to go to Etosha. There’s a lot of water in the park at this time of year so the animals aren’t forced to come into the open and drink at the waterholes, as they are during the dry season. In December you have to look a bit harder.)
Anyway, we did see lots of amazing animals and I will show you my best animal shots in the next post. For me though, the best thing about Etosha is not the animals, but the sky.
We didn’t see many animals at the Etosha waterholes, but damn, did we see some waterhole sunsets. This is an Instagram of the sunset over the Halali waterhole.
I used to think that South Africa had the most beautiful skies in the world. I must amend that now, and bequeath the 2Summers Most Beautiful Skies Award to Namibia. Particularly Etosha National Park in December. See for yourself.
One our second morning in Etosha, we got up at 4:30 a.m. to catch the morning game drive. It was painful but worth it. There was a full moon the night before so we saw the sun rising on one horizon and the moon setting on the other.
The view on the other horizon.
Pink sky behind a pair of tawny eagles, just after sunrise.
One more look at the morning moon.
Afternoon storm clouds over a flat plain.
Storm clouds over the Etosha salt pan, a 120-kilometre-long geological wonder that covers most of the surface area of Etosha National Park.
Instagram of morning clouds and water on the pan. Water only collects on the pan during the wettest part of the year, so it was cool to see that.
A slightly different take on the same sunset shown in the first photo.
The greatest sunset I saw, also at the Halali waterhole. I shot this frame with my iPad and did not alter the image in any way. This is exactly how it looked.
Coming up: Graceful giraffes, hilarious hyenas, and a few words on where to stay when visiting Etosha.
How have I never blogged about 44 Stanley Avenue, the coolest shopping and dining complex in Joburg, which is only five minutes from my house?
I guess it’s wrong to say I’ve never blogged about 44 Stanley; I’ve mentioned it countless times over the years (see here and here) when writing about specific restaurants or shops that are there. But I’ve never written a dedicated post about 44 Stanley as a destination and it’s about time I did – especially now, with the holidays upon us.
I’ve been dreadfully uninspired lately, struggling to think of anything I want to blog about despite having a long list of great ideas (many of which you, my readers, provided in September). I’m finding it hard to feel positive about life at the moment. But on Saturday Thorsten and I got the chance to visit Indwe Park, an indigenous garden and sculpture park in Braamfontein, and I knew I had my topic for today.
Given this week’s political nuclear bomb blast, it feels like a weird time to publish a light-hearted post about my recent (pre-election) jaunt through the United States. But I’m hoping you’ve have had enough of the U.S. election horror show – I know I have – and are ready (at least temporarily) for some wholesome American travel adventures. If so, please read on about my four-day visit to Maine, the northeastern-most state in the lower 48, with my sister, Susanna.
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It makes me smile, when I see it.