Thanks Anthony and Graham
23 April:
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The destination for this day was a very selfish choice. I wanted to shoot a Quiver tree against the night sky. Fortunately, it turned out to be one of the most beautiful places we visited, and I wish I could have spent another couple of days there.
First, however, we took a detour via Dune 7
- Coming back down
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- Hoog
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Now Blutkuppe is in the Dorob national park. Bit of a strange one this, there are no fences or gates. If you have a permit, you can camp (there are very basic campsites at a couple of places), and drive on the roads. Permits must be bought at MET offices in Windhoek or Swakopmund.
At Blukuppe, there are five or six stands, each 50-100m apart, consisting of a nominally flat piece of ground, a fire-place and a concrete table and bench setup, similar to what you might find at a roadside picnic-spot, and three rubbish bins (recycling). There is also a long-drop between every two stands, biut this was in high demand when we pitched, so I walked up into the rocks, and found this guy on the way back:
- Ge Korsten
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- Bloetkoppie
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- Middagreen
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After setting up camp, I went for a drive to look for the aforementioned kokerboom. I apologise insincerely for what is to follow, but first, I found much more than I bargained for...
- Tussen die koppies in.
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There is a place called Klein Tinkas, where there is supposed to be a waterhole (there's a beautiful picture of it on Google Earth), but I never did find the water-hole. What I did find were the graves of two German soldiers, a almost-not-dry riverbed and some stunning scenery.
- Woestynwater
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And this little stone house:
- Kliphuis
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Coming back, I stopped at my chosen quiver tree (it was about 2km by road and another 500m on foot from the campsite. Having seen nobody, I set up my camera, and set the interval timer to start taking photos, one every two minutes. I then drove back to camp, and got dinner going. After dinner, I went back to my camera and completed the sequence.
- Middag Kokerboom
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- Naand Kokerboom
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- Zebra Kokerboom
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Now i'm sitting there on my little three-legged stool behind the camera, in the pitch darkness (can't use a light, it will ruin the photos), and, as these things go, my mind starts running. I had seen some leopard spoor in the river-bed earlier, and in my mind's eye, I can see that leopard stalking me. Suddenly, I hear a slight noise behind me!
Ek vlieg om, flits aan, te hel met die fotos! Fortunately, it wasn't a leopard after all, but a Cape Fox, which had approached to within 3m of me. He stood around watching me watching him for at least a minute, my best sighting of a fox ever.
- Lekker Slaap Kokerboom
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