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  • This was our first sight of the dust roads of Namibia, shortly after the border control. There is a township just to the left of this image, and many of the inhabitants seem to be working in the agricultural industries based along the lush banks of the Orange River. After this sudden appearance of sand dunes pushing up mountain sides, the dust road disappeared into vast uninhabited volcanic plains, and we hardly saw a car or person throughout several hours of desert driving.
    GD002251.jpg
  • Never seen anything like it. We were on the road to wind blown Atlantic coastal town of Luderitz and a few miles before we arrived the effects of the wind could already be seen. At some points you could hardly see in front of the car and at other sand drifts had built across the road. I stepped out of the car on this near deserted road and was instantly sand-blasted by stinging grains of fast-blown crystals. I was amazed that there was even a road as the sand blew so constantly across the landscape.
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  • It may sound daft, but I was as fascinated by the unending miles of open dust road as I was with the incredible volcanic desert landscape. <br />
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I’ve never been anywhere else in the world (yet) where I can drive for hundreds of kilometres on dust roads without seeing a car for hours. In one way it was a little freaky, for if you break down it could well be a LONG wait in 45º of sweltering heat before anyone might come by and help you, but equally, that same sense of isolation and vulnerability is what made the journey so adventurous and awesome.
    GD002279.jpg
  • I don’t even know how it got there but a way off the dirt track had slumped this old truck, its faded layers of eroded paintwork peppered with shot-gun holes. <br />
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Abandoned and left to nature and the elements, this vehicle jolted within me the recognition that nothing lasts forever, that eventually everything becomes dust, but in the meantime is a marker for own place along that road, literally.
    GD002255.jpg
  • I’ve seen elephants in zoos of course, restricted, moving around in circles, stared at by the thousands of noisy visitors - such a desperate form of existence. In the 22,270 km² Etosha National Park in NW Namibia however, I was for the first time able to see these truly magnificent creatures in their natural habitat. Watching David Attenborough programs on TV is always a delight, but nothing prepares you for the sheer awe of seeing these animals in real life in their own world.<br />
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From the heavily corrugated dust track we were on, the first thing I saw was what looked like a huge rounded granite boulder over the top of a hillock, but as we drove to the crest of the mound we realised it was in fact the head of a huge African elephant standing at a waterhole! This was real and I’ve never felt so small or humbled by natural wildlife. There are strict instructions never to leave your vehicle whilst in the park, so I had to accept that looking out of the window of our 4x4 was the best I was going to get.<br />
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All around us herds of Zebra were also drinking, running & frolicking with each other. Springbok daintily skipped past & Oryx & Giraffes were all there too. Hundreds of birds flitted about and falcons and other birds of prey circled overhead. It was a visual tapestry of wildlife with so many species all measuring each other up and acknowledging the hierarchies at the hole. What struck me most was the grace of motion of the elephants. Every movement of foot or trunk was slow, fluid & purposeful. At times they were just like living statues, almost motionless, just studying the world about them & at other times when walking, able to cover big distances so quickly but so gently. I was aware that they were aware of us, large eyeballs measuring us up but not seeming irritated or intimidated.<br />
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It was hard (especially looking from the car window) to take in the reality of it all rather than still imagining it was a TV program. I also felt deeply sad that it’s only a mat
    GD002258.jpg
  • One of the most perfect stretches of road that we found in Namibia. Miles of perfect black tarmac with distinctive white markers created such geometry amongst thousands of acres of desert sand. As with most man-made things that I observed in Namibia, they all seemed slightly incongruous within such vast wilderness landscape.
    GD002285.jpg
  • The landscape altered, subtly at first, but shrubs and small trees started to grip the pure rock and dirt of the previous day. <br />
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Two minutes after this image was taken, a motionless small tree ran across the road in front of us - our first wild ostrich! Nature was quietly making an appearance the further North we drove.
    GD002256.jpg
  • After wild and exposed stretches of the Skeleton Coast, we drove past the very busy port of Walvis Bay. The differences were huge, the narrow but endless roads were suddenly busy with heavy trucks and traffic leaving and entering the port. As we drove further south however the traffic eased once again, but signs of man, settlement and ‘civilisation’ were present for many miles further before gradually evaporating once again. These man-made structures appeared incongruous in the blowing desert sands, creating a surreal landscape of man and nature, but more than that – it was the tenacity of man and invention that enables society to survive in otherwise barren terrain.
    GD002274.jpg
  • This is one of the main roads into Southern Namibia, shortly after leaving the border control on the Orange River. We had passed an isolated garage and a few kms later an agriculturally based township, but then we went around a bend of an escarpment and over a hill, and were faced with this arid but incredible desert landscape. We drove for over an hour on this harsh dirt track, without seeing another car. There were no towns, no hamlets, no roadside stores, not even telegraph or electricity lines. It was barren. No animals to be seen, no birds of any sort and no signs of snakes or scorpions or in fact anything. Stepping outside the car I entered an oven of heat, into the 40ºs and surprising silence. The landscape was vast and I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such a huge, empty, lonely space - but I loved it, I enjoyed the vulnerability it created and the recognition that I was really, truly alive - as little else at that moment at least, seemed to be. <br />
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I knew I was going to enjoy this country.
    GD002252.jpg
  • The huge open desert becomes a blank canvas for Daliesque surrealism when incongrous objects suddenly appear out of nowhere. There was noyhing behind me and nothing beyond except for distant hills. <br />
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To come across this derelict house, alongside a railway that stretches as far as the eye can see and on which we never saw a train, really did make us question ‘why’ and ‘who would have lived there’. Genuinely surreal and a taste of things to come in the deserted mining town miles ahead.
    GD002284.jpg
  • A hundred million years ago this huge basin in the Etosha National Park was a lake, fed by the Kunene River in Angola, but 16,000 years ago, due to tectonic plate movement the river was diverted West to the Atlantic and gradually the lake dried up leaving this vast lake bed. At 4800 km² this saltpan, the largest in Africa, can be seen from space.<br />
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I’d wanted to see this surreal landscape for a long time, and surprising though it may seem to others, this appealed to me even more than seeing the wildlife in the park! There is this deep need within me to experience vast empty spaces; it’s all part of that humbling vulnerability that I seek. I wanted to feel minute, isolated and insignificant in every possible term. It was difficult of course with anyone else around but fortunately I had a sense of it with just Jani and her two cousins around. We drove out onto the lake (on an ‘official’ stick marked track) and stepped into the baking heat. There was simply nothing ahead of us, almost 50kms to the far side and almost 60 kms to the left and right – it was vast indeed.<br />
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The earth was soft and crumbly rather than rock hard. I can imagine in rain it would get very soft indeed. I’ve read that in prolonged heavy rain the whole lake bed floods up to 10cm deep creating an incredible mirror –like surface which attracts thousands of migrating flamingos.
    GD002260.jpg
  • A hundred million years ago this huge basin in the Etosha National Park was a lake, fed by the Kunene River in Angola, but 16,000 years ago, due to tectonic plate movement the river was diverted West to the Atlantic and gradually the lake dried up leaving this vast lake bed. At 4800 km² this saltpan, the largest in Africa, can be seen from space.<br />
<br />
I’d wanted to see this surreal landscape for a long time, and surprising though it may seem to others, this appealed to me even more than seeing the wildlife in the park! There is this deep need within me to experience vast empty spaces; it’s all part of that humbling vulnerability that I seek. I wanted to feel minute, isolated and insignificant in every possible term. It was difficult of course with anyone else around but fortunately I had a sense of it with just Jani and her two cousins around. We drove out onto the lake (on an ‘official’ stick marked track) and stepped into the baking heat. There was simply nothing ahead of us, almost 50kms to the far side and almost 60 kms to the left and right – it was vast indeed.<br />
<br />
The earth was soft and crumbly rather than rock hard. I can imagine in rain it would get very soft indeed. I’ve read that in prolonged heavy rain the whole lake bed floods up to 10cm deep creating an incredible mirror –like surface which attracts thousands of migrating flamingos.
    GD002259.jpg
  • Still hundreds of kilometres from the coast but I still felt a sense that I was nearing the ocean, I’m not even sure why; perhaps the subtly changing light or wind direction or perhaps just that intuition you have when you’ve been raised near the sea. <br />
<br />
The earth was rich and warm-toned here, lots of red and yellow soils and an increase in vegetation growing on it. There was a gentle breeze but the air was still in the mid 40°s. <br />
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One of the downsides to distance travelling, is that there is years’ worth of exploration to do even within a small area but we were eating up 500kms or more each day - so much space, so little time.
    GD002283.jpg
  • A brilliant white dust road leads out of the Tsitsikamma National Park forest and heads towards peak after knife edge peak of the mountain range beyond.<br />
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I can’t get over how high, serrated and steep these mountain pinnacles actually are.
    GD002351.jpg
  • Under intense sunshine, surrounded by arid plains and distant mountains, we blasted along deserted dust roads in this vast empty space. It was quite a surprise on reaching the brow of an infinite hill, to suddenly see isolated trees dotted around. They were more like surreal incongruous sculptures than any object of normality. <br />
This is what we found about Namibia, that the landscapes although huge, do vary. It almost imperceptible at first but you come to realise that you are indeed no longer in the same place you were!
    GD002276.jpg
  • Under intense sunshine, surrounded by arid plains and distant mountains, we blasted along deserted dust roads in this vast empty space. It was quite a surprise on reaching the brow of an infinite hill, to suddenly see isolated trees dotted around. They were more like surreal incongruous sculptures than any object of normality.  <br />
<br />
This is what we found about Namibia, that the landscapes although huge, do vary. It almost imperceptible at first but you come to realise that you are indeed no longer in the same place you were!
    GD002275.jpg
  • Under intense sunshine, surrounded by arid plains and distant mountains, we blasted along deserted dust roads in this vast empty space. It was quite a surprise on reaching the brow of an infinite hill, to suddenly see isolated trees dotted around. They were more like surreal incongruous sculptures than any object of normality. <br />
This is what we found about Namibia, that the landscapes although huge, do vary. It almost imperceptible at first but you come to realise that you are indeed no longer in the same place you were!
    GD002277.jpg
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Glyn Davies, Professional Photographer and Gallery

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