Namibia – Desert Landscapes & Wildlife Photo Tour with Dale Morris
My ORYX tours tend to have a wide range of photographic subjects. After all, variety is the spice of life, right?
But this year’s Namibia tour surpassed all my previous ORYX trips in that regard.
My guests and I went from training our camera lenses on dead desert trees and nocturnal desert spiders, to capturing whales, dolphins, and pelicans.
Here’s a list of some of the species and topics we covered on our 12-day journey through this marvelous arid country:
Shifting dunes. Desiccated trees. Desert-adapted oryx (the antelope, not the tour company). Scenic sunsets. Birds of all kinds. Dancing desert spiders. Geckos that fluoresce. Horned vipers. Namaqua chameleons. Bottle-nosed dolphins. Humpback whales. Seals. Pelicans and flamingos. Fire-colored mountains. Strange ancient desert plants. Great flocks of cormorants. Jellyfish. Armoured crickets. Sociable weaver birds in their thatched ‘villages’. A myriad of sand textures and patterns. Tiny beetles, and giant desert-adapted elephants. Black rhinos and vast herds of zebras… I can keep on writing this list… There were so many wonderful and varied things to be in awe of, and to photograph.
So, let me explain…
After arriving in the city of Windhoek, we headed overland through empty and arid scenery to the deserts of Sossusvlei. Here, some of the tallest and most ancient sand dunes in the world form an awe-inspiring backdrop to golden plains of gravel and grass.
Our luxury hotel in the desert was our oasis — a sanctuary from the frigid desert mornings and the dry heat of the midday sun. But who wants a sanctuary when there is an entire desert to explore?
And so, over the next few days, we ventured into these ancient landscapes, scouting for the most photogenic skeletons of long-dead trees that we could find. Each sunrise was full of beauty. Each sunset was a sight to sigh over.
And as for those clear desert nighttime skies? Well, you can imagine the fun we had shooting the crisp Milky Way, with no light pollution no matter which horizon we turned to.
One of our main wildlife targets in the Sossusvlei area was the iconic gemsbok oryx — a hardy antelope that can go its entire life without ever having to drink a mouthful of water. They get all the moisture they need to survive in this harsh environment from eating succulent grass roots or licking at dew.
We had a wonderful and fruitful encounter with two of these magnificent beasts, who allowed us to walk alongside them at close range, whilst they strolled along the base of ochre-red dunes.
Our next stop was to visit the even drier coastal deserts near the old German town of Swakopmund. Here, a regular fog rolls in from the cold sea, bringing with it life-giving moisture. The majority of specialized animals and plants that live here can only do so because of this fog.
In the early morning, we drove through this cold, dense, and eerie haze, peering through the windows of our vehicle at a surreal desert-scape that glowed with the deceptively warm colors of the early morning sun.
Dune beetles scuttled to the tops of sandy crests to catch the mists on their textured shells. Geckos and other lizards licked the moisture from their eyes. Succulent plants glistened with dewdrops.
Rain is as rare as hen’s teeth here on Namibia’s coastal belt, but the fog can almost always be relied on.
We hooked up with a local desert expert who showed us all the strange creatures that reside in this ‘apparently’ barren and empty location.
Giant spiders, as white as the sands they traverse, hunt by night and then conceal themselves in trapdoor tunnels beneath the sand when the harsh sun begins to burn away the fog.
Terrestrial Namaqua chameleons, so well camouflaged that they look invisible among the rocks and tufts of hardy plants, were a real treat to photograph. Their eyes seem to look in all directions at once.
Through the eyes of our expert local guide, we saw (and photographed) a living desert, full of animals and plants — all of them with incredible survival stories. Many are so small, or so well concealed and camouflaged, as to be invisible to the untrained eye.
If the gravel plains and shifting dunes of Namibia’s coastal deserts seem spartan and harsh, it’s because they are. But in glaring contrast, the ocean wildlife is prolific, abundant, and very much in your face.
This is because the cold Benguela Current brings with it a prolific biota of nutrients. And wow — what an amazing diversity and abundance of wildlife that nutrient surge supports.
On a day trip aboard our seafaring vessel, we encountered uncountable flocks of seabirds — literally blizzards of cormorants, gulls, and other feathered photo subjects.
We had seals following us, some of which even jumped up onto our boat and caught a ride with us for a while. Pelicans alighted on the bow and gave us ample opportunity to photograph them up close and personal. One of them even landed on one of my guests.
We saw whales and dolphins as well, while along the dune-dominated beaches, tens of thousands of seals barked and bellowed with calls that sounded like a huge herd of goats.
It was a remarkable excursion.
Back on the plains, a little inland that evening, we ventured by vehicle into the Mountains of the Moon — so called because… well, you can probably imagine.
Namibia sports so many variants on the theme: “barren, stark, and magnificent.”
It was here, upon undulating plains and mountains of giant boulders, that we turned our attention and lenses to the surreal and ancient welwitschia plants. These strange lifeforms resemble contorted desiccated green octopuses, or perhaps piles of twisted, blown-out truck tires. Many of the specimens we saw were more than a thousand years old.
They grow at excruciatingly slow speeds, clinging flat to the ground as if they’re afraid of heights.
Our next stop on the map was a magnificent reserve named Spitzkoppe — a scenic destination of giant domed mountains and red-hued granite formations. There are arches and balancing boulders. There are open plains. And there are rock sculptures that look almost alive and organic in nature.
When the sun begins to set (or rise), these geological formations glow with a radiance that begs to be photographed.
Klipspringers (a diminutive little antelope) dance amongst the rocky outcrops like fleet-footed mountain goats.
After sunset, we once again photographed the stars and marveled at how beautiful the night skies look out here in Namibia’s vast open landscapes.
Our final four days were spent further north, in the world-renowned Etosha National Park. Here, the dunes and barren plains are replaced by mopane woodlands and grassy expanses, alive with the big game wildlife one typically associates with a traditional African safari.
At night, we visited a very productive waterhole and watched as black rhinos, antelope, and a brown hyena came to drink and wallow.
Over the following days, we went on a series of game drives, finding all sorts of marvelous topics to photograph.
From lions hunting in golden grasses to enormous bull elephants socializing around a watering hole, and from huge herds of zebras to flocks of ostriches running through the plains, there was no shortage of animals to keep us and our cameras busy.
Our final excursion took us to a private luxury photo hide, situated at a remote and beautiful waterhole.
Our experience there was arguably one of the best I have ever had on this continent, and was easily the cherry on top of this wonderful tour.
We sat on our comfortable chairs and sipped cocktails whilst hundreds upon hundreds of elephants gathered to drink and to socialize. There were also dozens of giraffes here, as well as warthogs and many different species of birds.
And as the sun began to sink and it was time to finish the tour, a single black rhino sauntered out of the grasslands and gave us one last awesome photographic opportunity.
Namibia is not only a country of wonderful scenery and varied photographic topics — it’s also a place where one can come to appreciate how, even in the most apparently harsh and barren places, life will always find a way to flourish.
I can’t wait to come back here…
Please come join me and ORYX Photo Tours for an amazing photographic holiday like no other.
For information on my scheduled photo tour departures, please email [email protected]
For information on my private photo tour departures, please email [email protected]
