More pics Zambia and Namibia

We had a bit of a long lay-over in Lilongwe, Malawi.  Lilongwe is not a major airline hub, to say the least, so it was a nice peaceful time of playing "Exploding Kittens", a card game recommended by Evan.

A grain elevator in rural Zambia - felt like I was back at home in Kansas.  We stopped on the way from Lusaka to Livingstone (Victoria Falls) for lunch at this chips place.

The MCC guesthouse in Lusaka comes with a large but friendly dog.  We're always excited about new dogs.

Vic falls, one of many views

As usual at major tourist places, the baboons are prepared to take advantage of any tourist food.  Here a male yawning, as a threat display, on our path.

No idea what this sign really means - but whatever it is sounds really cool!

I (Doug) usually take the pictures, here's one that I'm actually in.

At the Zambia/Zimbabwe border, lots of trucks taking copper slabs out from the copper belt of Zambia and the DRC.

Mongooses are always fun to watch

On the 21 hour bus ride from Livingstone to Windhoek (Namibia), traditional thatch homes and fences that are considerably different from what we see in Kenya.

Stopping just inside Namibia for a police check.  They were friendly, but took some explaining on what the white powder was in my bag (laundry detergent).

Watching elephants from the bus window while driving through the Caprivi strip of Namibia.

First night with the camping gear, figuring out how to set the tents up correctly.

Catching some morning warmth in the Naukluft mountains near our campsite.  It was winter in Namibia, so chilly at night (but nice and warm in the day)

Quiver tree

Striking the usual pose, bird book and binoculars in hand.

Along our 19 km hiking loop through the Naukluft mountains

The Naukluft have Mountain Zebra (a different species from what we usually see).  At first we only saw dead ones, but later saw a few live ones.

Lost for a while on a zebra game trail, we finally made it back to the main trail as indicated by the yellow foot mark.

Gnarled trees on the mountain slopes; we never figured out the names on many of the interesting desert trees we saw.

Driving in Namibia was a different experience from Kenya - fast, smooth, no traffic.  And signs for potholes (although we never ran across one on this road!)

Sesriem canyon

Lots of oryx, these were some of our favorite mammals on the trip.

Starting out on the morning hike up big daddy, sand dune near deadvlei

Running down the slip face of big daddy, a 1000 ft vertical drop.

Deadvlei

Solitaire, an outpost on the drive to Swakopmund, well known for its good bakery items (verified).

On our dunes tour near Swakop, designed to find all sorts of life in the Namib desert.  Here the guide shows where a small viper lays in wait for its prey.

Horned viper

Silverfish, the protein base for animals in the Namib desert.

The cold ocean current reliably produces a fog which goes far inland.  This allows the growth of lichens..

and cynanobacteria.

Namaqua chameleon

Palmatto Gecko, lives in burrows on the face of the dunes.  Like most life, it comes out at night.

The dunes have well defined layers

Plant (name forgotten!) that produces a melon that the native people relied on while wandering up and down the coast.  All the plants now legally belong to them.

On the tour, dune buggy took us to the top of the dunes.

And we had a roller-coaster tour driving up and down dunes

Can't be in southern Africa without having a braai.  Campsites, no matter how remote or empty, seemed to always have a kiosk selling braai packets.

Morning light at Spitzkoppe

Hyraxes, called dassies in southern Africa

Salt road along the skeleton coast.  It took a while to figure out these were not pavement roads, at places where there is the right amount of moisture they can combine salt, gypsum, gravel, etc., and make a pretty nice surface.  

Along the skeleton coast, lichen growing from the daily fog.

Cape Cross seal colony

We were somewhat unprepared for the shear number of seals, everywhere you look

Diogo Cao first stopped at Cape Cross way back in 1485; the original cross erected is gone, and replace by a replica.  

No other options for camping along this stretch except the promisingly-named "St Nowhere" campground

The only campers at St Nowhere.  A good wind blew day and night making the evening quite chilly.

Hundreds of kilometers of beach without another soul in sight along the skeleton coast.

Welwitschia, female cone

Thousands of years old, a conifer growing out on the gravel with no other plants around

As we head inland, grass starts to appear

We had a quick by fascinating stop at Twfylfontein, site of some of the oldest rock art (some 6000 yrs old) in Africa.  Our guide of the Damara spent some time teaching us some of their "click-language" words.

Stretched for special treats on Evan's birthday, we settled for a sugarpuffs substitute.

The campgrounds were all great, this like many with plenty of good rock scrambling to be had.

Camelthorn Cafe in Otjiwarongo was a find, serving the "largest burgers in Namibia".  This was easy to believe, Cristina's schnitzel burger fed her plus polished off the hunger of two teenage boys.

Waterburg plateau from our campsite

Boys eating 1 kg of yoghurt to try and stave off their hunger for an hour before supper is ready.

Cemetery of German soldiers from 1904 "battle" of Waterberg.  The Herero have a somewhat different interpretation of the event, by the guidebook's account they had actually come expecting a peace treaty.  Aside from the amazing natural sights of Namibia, the culture and history were also fascinating.