A remarkable title for a remarkable trip.
John Laing and I, took Charlie, a repeat client of Chimhavira Overland Safaris through most of Southern Africa's deserts. The itinerary was to visit the Kalahari, Namib and Skeleton Coast. These would include places like, Etosha, Spitzkop, the Damaraland and the Central Kalahari National Park. This region is renowned for being dry, with a average rain fall of about 300mm per year, and in places like the Skeleton Coast and Damaraland in Namibia even less.
The names of these places reflect the harsh environment that they are; Kgalagadi (Kalahari) is derived from the Tswana word Kgala meaning the " the great thirst" and Etosha meaning "Great White Place".
What we found in all these dry area's of Southern Africa were cloud formations of epic proportions, most of which resulted in a thunderstorm. The Central Kalahari is a vast wilderness, it was on new year's eve in the Central Kalahari we first encountered the immense thunder showers that a desert can produce.
Another moment in life where all your personal problems and worlds issues just disappear happened to the three of us in the Damaraland. The heavens produced a light show that would have made angels weep. As the sun set over the vast rocky waste land a rainbow appeared on the eastern horizon that started in the south and stretched over our heads and ended in the north. The back drop to this was clouds that changed through the colours of pink, peach and burnt butternut. There is no image that I can show you that would capture this moment, but I'll try…
I did managed to get in some wildlife photography done as well. These areas during the wet season dose make game viewing particularly difficult as there is puddles of water everywhere. The Central Kalahari was particularly good, this trip has just stirred the photographer in me to visit these places in the dry season.
Hopefully I will convince a few of you to join me in getting wet in Southern Africa's dry places…
