Anilao diving continued

I just have so many neat or beautiful subjects that I want to share with you. Hopefully you won’t be too bored…

I’ll open with a video (my usual instruction - to be able to watch it, be sure and open this post in your browser or click the link at the bottom of the page). We’ve seen many large and colorful scallops during dives, but never an Electric Scallop!

The next one isn’t the greatest picture, but this Banded Sea Snake is a very unusual sighting for us -

A fairly common activity for us to watch on sandy seafloors is the interaction between the Spotted Shrimpgoby and the shrimp that shares its burrow -

We saw tons of eels on this trip, many species for the first time, such as this Snowflake Eel -

Moving from big critters back to the pretty nudibranchs…

… Pikachu may be only an inch long, but he sure gave me big smiles.

We were amazed at how many different nudis were laying eggs…

… and we also got to see a Saddleback Anemonefish tending to its eggs -

Here’s a still where you can see the growing babies attached to the rock -

Oops! I got carried away with eggs, and forgot I was talking about nudis. This beauty made me think of my granddaughters and their love of sparkly things -

And yet another sparkler…

… followed by a massive specimen. This one was as big as my palm!

Most nudis were in the 1-2 inch range (although our guides delighted in pointing out ones as small as 1/4 inch, and I could only see them when I put my photos on my computer and blew them up). I enjoyed getting down on the nudi’s level to take their picture -

I definitely had to lay on the sand to get this Thorny Seahorse -

I’m sorry for the green cast on the next video. I was having issues with my camera that day. I loved watching him trying to land safely -

This was a very unusual nudi, with all sharp corners and straight lines…

… and this Soft Coral Crab playing tough guy made me giggle, because he’s only about an inch wide -

Here’s another tiny beauty - a Spotted Crab on the outside of a barrel sponge:

Alright… enough for today… bye!

The Philippines

We hadn’t yet visited this country, and we were “needing” a dive trip. Nonstop flights from San Francisco made it so much easier to get there, rather than our favorite place to dive (Indonesia). Upon landing in Manila, we were driven about 2 hours south of the capital to an area in the highlands, which was cooler and less congested. Along the way, we kept seeing shiny elongated trucks acting as local buses:

They were quite fancy up front, and had a row of benches facing each other in the back -

Motorcycles often had sidecars that were shiny metal, but I couldn’t ever get a good shot of one of them. Here’s a motorcycle with a sidecar hidden from view, but you can easily see all the passengers -

We were on the island of Luzon, which is the largest and most populous. Our stay was near Tagaytay City, in the municipality of Alfonso, which billed itself as the wedding capital of the Philippines. We certainly could understand the draw of the cooler and drier weather as a getaway from sweltering Manila. A lush, garden filled B&B offered the perfect place to relax for a few days…

… and smell the roses sunflowers -

Our next stop was on the southern tip of Luzon, for our first diving adventure. The area near Anilao is known for weird…

Hairy Frogfish

… wonderful…

Ornate Ghost Pipefish

… and tiny -

look closely in the center to find the Anemone Shrimp

That Hairy Frogfish gave us quite the performance with his lure (video alert: be sure to have this post opened in your browser to see the video, or tap the link at the bottom of the email) -

I did an absolute happy dance underwater when we found the Ornate Ghost Pipefish pair (pictured above)! I never thought I’d see one, and then I (my little old self) found another pair (by accident) as I was filming a Crinoid waving its arms -

Did you see the small male at the top of the picture?

This is what the first pair looked like on video -

Nudibranchs are often referred to a “sea slugs”, but they are some of the most beautiful and varied slugs on earth (or I guess I should say underwater). The name means “naked gills”, and you’ll commonly see their breathing gills fluttering on their backs -

I was completely blown away by their variety in colors…

This one was at least 4-5 inches long and quite thick

… and sizes. Check out Shawn the Sheep, only about 0.5 inches -

This is what we saw on the leaf -

be sure to enlarge it to see the amazing detail

The guides had amazing eagle eyes.

This Robust Ghost Pipefish definitely resembled the plant life near it -

That’s all for now. I’ll be seeing you…

Fangblenny

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

This was an absolute must on our trip through southern Africa. After visiting Niagara Falls earlier this year, we were really looking forward to seeing another of the world’s greatest waterfalls on a third continent (Iguazu Falls in South America being the first).

I like to lead off a post with a great picture, but it throws me ahead of myself in the story. ;)

We arrived in the town of Victoria Falls on a cloudy, potentially rainy afternoon. We decided to visit the falls that day, as it was also predicted to be raining the next. Our first glimpse of Victoria Falls was rather underwhelming -

This first viewpoint was at the end of the canyon that contains the falls, and the overcast and mist created a gloomy atmosphere.

As we walked along the path…

… we reached different views, like the Devil’s Cataract -

… and the main falls -

As we passed further along the canyon, we were able to get away from the mist and see clearer views -

As you can see, there are a lot of rock edges visible, as we were there in early November (the end of dry season). Thus for us, this visit to see “the world’s largest waterfall” (1 mile wide and 350 ft high) was a bit disappointing -

The picture above is showing the Zambia end of the falls. At high flow, that entire wall is covered with falls. The next picture shows where Horseshoe Falls would be (along the right wall where it bows away from the river) -

The timing of our trip was primarily aimed at seeing baby lemurs in Madagascar, so we just had to accept the low flow conditions of the falls. However, this did afford us the opportunity for an adventure! Video ahead (as usual, open this post in a browser by clicking the link at the end, if you can’t see the video already) -

The mist in the distance is the edge of the falls we’re racing to! We went over to Zambia, so we could take a dip in the Devil’s Pool. We walked across those rocks at the right of the next picture to get in the river between that closest waterfall and the bigger one next to it -

Then each of the tour participants had a photo shoot…

What you can’t see is the guide holding our ankles as we posed. :)

As we waited our turn, we sat on a ledge in the river, and were nibbled on by fish! Luckily the guide warned us of this before we got there.

We had a glorious morning for this outing…

… and we had even more fun than we thought we would.

So we added 6 countries - Madagascar, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia - to our total of countries visited list (now at 60) from this trip.

___________________________________________________

And now, for a few parting observations from Steve:

We drove a bit more than 3000 KM (~1850 miles) in Namibia and into Botswana, and found the roads to be excellent. Even the gravel roads were in good shape, albeit with some washboard areas. Apart from Mongolia, Namibia is the least densely populated country in the world, with an average density between that of Montana and North Dakota; thus, traffic was light to very light, even in the cities. Similarly, on the way from Swakopmund to the coastal sand dunes, our guide/driver grandly announced “This is a four-way stop,” which is apparently quite a rare thing!

To rent our car, we had to watch a video warning of the treacherous gravel and dirt roads, the need/requirement to stay below 70 KM per hour on unpaved roads, and the proper etiquette to allow people to pass …. But the speed limit was 100 on those roads…. And we never had anyone pass us…

Wide loads, like here, carry warning signs—albeit differently worded:

As you might infer from the picture, English is the official language of Namibia, even though very few people speak it in their homes. (The same is true of Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe—which has 16 official languages.) Most people can communicate in English, which makes it easy for American visitors.

German is another language that one might run across, especially in Swakopmund, which was established by the Germans during their 30 year colonization of “South West Africa.” That colonization ended in World War I, but the poor Namibians went from the frying pan and into the fire when the League of Nations granted South Africa the mandate to govern Germany’s prior colony… Notwithstanding this ugly history, Swakopmund attracts many German tourists and retains a good deal of German cultural flavor:

We were the only customers not speaking German in the restaurant where we had this beer.

All in all, we really enjoyed this trip and would highly recommend both Namibia and Botswana to anyone seeking a comfortable place to see African wildlife. Madagascar was also a great trip, but it definitely doesn’t have the amenities (and transportation!) available on the second half of our trip. In fact, anyone wanting a luxurious, comfortable trip might find the name of the Nosy Be, Madagascar, port city to be entirely apropos!

Our 2 month African adventure is now in the books (with the next post about 3 months from now).

Okavango Delta continued

It was truly amazing how many different animals we saw every time we left camp. Here’s a Reedbuck…

… in contrast to the Red Lechwe, in coloration and horns -

And practically every waterhole had one or more hippos -

We happened on this pair…

… which were pretty sleepy -

Video ahead (have this post opened in your browser by clicking the link at the bottom) -

Whenever one yawned…

… the other soon followed -

The next morning we headed to where a recent kill had occurred. This turned out to be the highlight of our entire safari trip - AFRICAN WILD DOGS!

These beautiful animals are considered endangered, because they only number about 1,400 individuals throughout southern Africa and the southern part of East Africa.

Their coat coloration is unique to each individual, and they are tracked this way by research groups. It was interesting that this pack was only 4 dogs, while most packs number 10 - 40 individuals.

In the first picture, you can see the Tsessebe watching the dogs. This is because they lost one of their babies to the carnivores. Video:

I didn’t end up taking many pictures of their faces…

… because they were mostly blood-covered -

Moving on to more pleasant subjects… we were lucky to visit a giraffe creche…

This was on our way to a Mokoro ride -

It was a very different viewpoint and pace for a “safari” -

Driving back to camp we saw a Saddle-billed Stork…

… a pair of Side-Striped Jackals…

… a Steenbok out in the open…

… and yes, more hippos -

We took a sundown river cruise to see more of the Delta’s waterways, with an elephant family crossing in front of us…

… and got to spend the golden hour with some papyrus -

Even though we were leaving the next morning, we managed to fit in a fabulously productive game drive on the way to the “airport,” seeing still more species we hadn’t yet found!

Spotted Hyenas

Pygmy Mongoose

This Honey Badger was a real treat, as they are solitary, cover a lot of ground hunting, and are usually only out at night -

I’m going to finally close this post with 2 interesting videos. The first is an ostrich being pestered by flies…

… and I’m letting this fella say goodbye -

Okavango Delta

Ever since I pored over National Geographic magazines as a kid, I’ve thought the Delta was so cool. I never had a specific goal to visit it, but once this safari trip was taking shape, a visit here was a given. We took a small plane in to Splash Camp, where we stayed for 3 days, and the expansive views were gorgeous…

… and green and wet!

Before I continue further into our fantastic time in the Delta, I’d be remiss if I didn’t include this video of our last night in Chobe Elephant Camp. (usual video alert that you should open this post in a browser by clicking the link at the end, so you can see the video) As I had related, there was a pouring rain the first night we were there, and 2 nights later, we saw the fruits of this watering. Termites wait for just such a rain, to develop wings and disperse to start new colonies. This was our open air dining room, which we quickly abandoned as the dive-bombing was becoming unbearable -

The next morning I found the abandoned wings on our front porch -

Okay… back to the Delta… We landed and collected our bags at Baggage Claim…

… and headed off toward camp…

So much water! And so many animals!

Wildebeest, Tsessebe (with babies) and Zebra

Red Lechwe

Waterbuck

And this was all just on the 45 minute drive to our camp from the “airport”. More Lechwe…

A Steenbok was hiding in some bushes -

We finally drove into camp for dinner…

.. before we headed back out on a night drive. There we saw something I never in my life thought I’d see — an Aardwolf!

According to my research, this is “an insectivorous hyena-like mammal”, with its name meaning “earth-wolf” in Afrikaans and Dutch. Steve got a video of it, showing how difficult it is for us to try and photograph animals on a night drive.

A common sighting at night were the Spring Hares -

The next morning we went on a long game drive to try and pick up cheetah tracks, and see if we might be successful in finding him. Well, we found her as she kept wandering and spraying bushes and trees with urine, announcing her presence in the area for any males. She finally rested for a bit…

… so we could admire her beauty…

… and wonder why the top of her head looked dirty. Enlarge that picture above to see that it’s just the spots on top of her head looking more prominent at that angle. I loved being able to see that she has little lighter spots in between the bigger, darker, nearly perfectly circular ones -

She then caught sight or wind of a zebra herd…

… but must not have been very hungry, since she just walked away -

I was thrilled to be able to spend such a length of time this close to such a beautiful creature, as this was one of my strong desires for sightings on this trip.

This was the beginning of baby season…

Tsessebees

Wildebeest

Red Lechwe

Be back soon…

Botswana

I just realized that I never put in a picture of the Namibian flag. Before we transition countries, here’s the flag of Namibia -

I never did see the flag of Botswana, but as we crossed the border, we were met by a gorgeous Baobab, which also gave me a chance to memorialize our trusty truck -

If you remember, when we were in Madagascar, it was dry season and none of the baobabs there had leaves. Well, this one was fully leafed, and with flowers/fruit to boot!

We had an afternoon game drive at Chobe Elephant Camp, and the first beasts we met were a pair of lions…

… that had crippled a cow earlier in the day by severing the tendons in its back legs -

But it wasn’t giving up yet, and a Black-backed Jackal was also circling -

We watched the drama for awhile, but rain was coming in fast, so we hightailed it out of there. Unfortunately we didn’t leave soon enough, and the open-sided truck didn’t give much protection from the pouring rain and hail that pelted us on the 30 minute ride back to camp. Rainy season had arrived with a bang. Our guide/driver did a fantastic job getting us back safely through the deluge, driving on dirt roads that were becoming rivers underneath us, and luckily none of the nearby lightning strikes were ever that close.

The next morning there were a lot more water pockets present than the previous day -

We found a lone male that probably had been feasting on the bull that the females killed the previous night -

We later were alerted to a pride of lions that had been feasting on a young giraffe kill -

Their bellies were so full that they were frequently shifting positions to get more comfortable -

Other than the lions, this game drive found many different birds, including this huge flock of Great White Pelicans -

You can enlarge the next picture to get even more detail and appreciate their colors -

We also saw a majestic African Fish Eagle -

This Southern Carmine Bee-eater is resplendent by itself…

… but also makes a nice pairing with a Southern Red-billed Hornbill -

On this morning, I struck it rich with shots of birds and their prey. First I captured a Lilac-breasted Roller with a mouse…

This is one of my favorite birds, due to its coloration, but I was shocked by its being an omnivore. I recommend enlarging the picture for more detail.

… and then an African Gray Hornbill with a praying mantis -

We also drove by a large herd of Cape Buffalo, that were (nicely) calmly resting. They have a well-deserved reputation for being aggressive and belligerent…

… but this one was preferring to pursue some personal grooming…

Note the bird in the nose

… after which, the Yellow-billed Oxpecker proudly posed -

Seeing the Buffalo completed our Big 5 sightings in Africa - elephant (although none to be seen at Chobe Elephant Camp due to the rains), rhino, leopard, and lion.

That afternoon we went on a ”luxury” river cruise on the Chobe River…

… where we saw hippos…

… and more birds. I know. Enough birds! So I’ll close with these enormous Southern Ground-Hornbills -

Caprivi Strip

This is also referred to as the Zambezi Region. It is a narrow (20 mile), long (280 miles) extension from the NE corner of the main body of Namibia, ending at the point where Zambia, Namibia and Botswana meet.

Courtesy of www.britannica.com/place/Namibia

This was acquired by the Germans in 1890 to connect German South West Africa and German East Africa, as well as give access to the Zambezi River, and hopefully to the east coast of the continent. However, Victoria Falls defeated the latter goal.

We were used to seeing this landscape…

… but as we entered the Strip, we started seeing palm trees…

… and then Flamboyant trees in bloom -

Just the presence of trees, solid buildings and towns was quite new after weeks of sparsely populated desert. The “wildlife” along the road was pretty interesting…

… including that in the road -

Livestock obviously graze freely, and the only fences were around buildings…

… to keep out the local denizens -

(we never did see any elephants along the road or crossing, although there were plenty of signs warning of such)

We were directed on our itinerary to do another self-guided game drive in Mahango Game Reserve, near our lodgings on the Okavango River.

We saw a number of brilliantly colored birds…

Burchell’s Starling

Crimson-breasted Shrike

… and I added several butts to my collection -

Kudu

Common Impala

Warthog

The Warthog obliged by posing for a minute, before running off -

So this next video (as usual, click the link at the bottom of this post to open it in a browser) wasn’t this specific warthog, but this is what they look like when they run - (I had tried for days to capture this on video!)

As we continued driving along the river, we spied hippos and Red Lechwe…

… and cool for me, an African Spoonbill!

I couldn’t decide if this expression was sly, or coy -

(be sure to enlarge this and see what you think)

As we moved away from the river, a pair of ostriches was very close to the road…

… giving us a close up look at the creepy serpentine way their head and neck moves (video) -

The day ended on a high note for me. I had never thought we’d see one of these, but as we rounded a corner near the end of our drive, I spotted this gorgeous Sable Antelope browsing in the bushes. He was only there for less than a minute, but what a fantastic finish to the day!

Etosha National Park

Etosha is one of the largest national parks in all of Africa, encompassing 8,600 sq miles. The Etosha Pan is a large salt pan (75 miles long) where water collects in the rainy season. When we were there in late Oct., it was quite empty…

(we were able to drive out into the middle of the lakebed)

… and dry -

There’s still an amazing amount of wildlife to be found. On our self-drive safari through Namibia, we had been driving ourselves between camps, but then going on game drives at each place, with a guide and spotter. Our instructions here were to “enjoy a self-guided game drive that may take you all day” on our way to the next camp. What??

So, we first focused on birds, like that Kori Bustard above. It’s the largest flying bird in Africa, weighing 25 lbs on average and with a wingspan of 7-9 feet! We never saw one flying, rather they were always strutting around, singly or in mated pairs.

There were a lot of wide open plains…

… and we were wondering where all the purported wildlife was.

Our first stop at a waterhole -

Some Springbok males were tussling -

Then we found a small copse of Mopane trees where a pair of Southern Yellow-billed Hornbills were hanging out…

… and a large Rock Monitor Lizard rustled out of the underbrush -

check out that blue and purple tongue!

As we drove on through the park, we came upon several cars pulled over with their long lenses and binoculars trained deep in the woods —

RHINOS! We think they were probably Black Rhinos (I’m guessing by the shape of their upper lips being pointed, and their location in a brushy area rather than in grasslands).

No better pictures were to be had, as we were forbidden to leave our vehicle, and we weren’t in a game drive truck where the guides go off-roading.

As, promised… more Plains Zebras -

We drove down a very long, very rutted gravel road to a waterhole, only to find -

either a very pregnant or very full Spotted Hyena

There was no other wildlife to be seen.

When we got back out to the main road, this one was just waiting for us to pass -

At the next waterhole, we had a bonanza; Maribou Storks sunning…

(these guys are really ugly) -

… and giraffes drinking. If this doesn’t look awkward and vulnerable, I don’t know what does -

Check out this video ( yes, the usual instructions to click the link at the end of the post to open it in your browser) on what it takes for them to be able to drink -

Well, we reached our next camp on the NE end of Etosha, and then went on a game drive the next morning with a knowledgeable guide. He found a gorgeous Giant Eagle Owl…

… and then a Cape Fox, in rapid succession -

The crowning moment of the morning had to be this Leopard (!)…

… that walked right in front of our truck, and along the pan, probably looking for a quiet place to rest -

Other ho-hum moments included lions…

… Oryx…

… and an Eland (very exciting for us since we had never seen one before!) -

This was an interesting sight, of a mother and cub moving along the edge of the pan -

And the smallest antelope in the world, a Dik-dik (weighing only about 10 lbs and standing about 12 in high) -

This young giraffe was loping (which is actually very difficult to capture on video) and practicing kicking -

As you can see, loping involves both front feet landing ahead of the back feet together, and then when they resume walking, the legs on the same side will move together (very interesting transition).

This sunset shows thunderclouds building up, presaging the pouring rain that soaked us that night, and began the rainy season.

Ongava Camp

I keep labeling these posts with the names of the camps we stayed at because my pictures are in folders corresponding to those locations. The wildlife (and stories) are pretty specific to those destinations. To reach this next camp, we drove several hours inland in a NE direction, ending on the southern border of Etosha National Park. This is a very famous park in Namibia that always has plentiful water, resulting in many animals of a variety of species.

As we drove down the private drive to the camp, we were overwhelmed to see all the animals (in just our first 3 minutes), after the scarcity of the desert we’d just left. Kudus crossed the road first…

… while Black-faced Impalas watched us drive by -

A Springbok decided to saunter by just then -

The next morning we got to check out the lion sleeping by the parking lot (such that we couldn’t park our car there the previous evening) -

About an hour’s slow drive away from camp found us marveling at the placid White Rhinos grazing -

I loved the fact that this handsome male had his horn intact -

Hopefully you can see how wide their mouth is, which is their distinguishing feature from the Blacks -

The name “white rhino” is from a mistranslation of the Afrikaans word “weit” meaning wide, describing the upper lip of this grazer, in contrast to the Black rhino’s hooked lip for browsing. Both species are greyish, as you’ve probably noticed.

Here’s the Plains Zebra I promised, with the stripes going around the belly and “shadow” stripes on the haunch -

The variety of animals in this private reserve (74,000 acres, or 125 square miles) was fantastic. Lions…

… with their 3 month old cubs…

… came alert…

… as they spied a baby springbok…

… that was allowed to live (this time).

There was a waterhole just off the patio and dining area of our camp. It was quite busy when we were there, since it was the end of the dry season and there was little water to be found elsewhere. These kudus and impalas were interrupted…

… by this pair of young males who took it over for themselves, sparring a little first (video alert - open this post in a browser by clicking the link at the end, to aid in watching the video)…

… before a splash bath -

We were thinking this was amazingly close to us…

… but then this guy decided the trees near the building looked tasty -

He didn’t seem fazed by our presence nearby, so of course, Steve moved closer for a selfie -

Remember, this is a wild elephant. When he decided to work more seriously at harvesting, we backed away some -

As he sauntered away, you could see the diversity at the waterhole-

I loved the butt shot of the Waterbuck -

I’ll say goodbye, as this fella plays peek-a-boo -

Desert Rhino Camp

Our next accommodation tells you why we went there. One of my main goals of this safari trip was to see African rhinos - especially after we had seen the Asian rhinos in southern Nepal. We ultimately ended up almost directly north of Swakopmund, and inland of the Skeleton Coast. That designation of the Namibian coast conjured up dreamy images of sand dunes and desert adapted animals, but in actuality, it refers to the myriad rusting skeletons of ships that wrecked along that portion of the coast. We didn’t actually visit that area, but as my last posts showed, huge sand dunes do indeed meet the sea along the west coast of Namibia.

We were very surprised, as we were driven towards the camp in their game-viewing truck, to see zebras…

… and giraffes -

We were informed that the zebras are actually Mountain Zebras, in contrast to the Plains Zebras that we got our fill of in Tanzania on our last safari. Their markings are different, with the Mountain Zebras having their stripes end before the belly -

I’ll have pictures of Plains zebras in later posts, to let you see how that species has the stripes going down and around the belly.

We got to witness an episode of giraffe “necking”, which is their version of fighting. As usual, to watch the next video, open this post in your browser by clicking on the link at the end of the post.

The smaller, lighter-colored one is the younger combatant, trying to push the older one off balance. The blows that they land with their horns (actual bone) can be strong enough to break ribs! That video was “only” a minute long, but our guide said 2 males vying for territory can carry on like this for hours.

I liked this addition to my “butt” collection that I’m amassing.

It was amazing to see them grazing like this, as they are quite vulnerable in this position, as you can easily see. These are Angolan, or Smoky, giraffes -

This is pretty inhospitable territory -

We spent our first full day at camp doing a game drive for hours. We finally met up with the trackers who said they’d found a Black Rhino, but we needed to get out of the truck and get closer on foot. We were to be quiet and walk in a single file line behind the trackers. We were approaching from downwind. Rhinos have very poor eyesight, but an excellent sense of smell. (I was surprised that our crunching and stumbling over rocks wasn’t a noisy problem.)… Finally!

(and this was taken at the full extent of my long lens)

When I enlarged the picture on my computer, I found out just what it thought of us -

Black Rhinos are browsers, eating grasses, leaves and branches, and they sport a hooked upper lip to aid them when feeding on bushes -

The female in the picture above has had her horns removed (it’s painless for them) as protection against poaching. Her “baby” still had hers -

They have a reputation for aggressiveness. However at this private reserve (of over 1 million acres!), we found them very skittish and wary of humans, or anything associated with us. We had an excellent viewing opportunity on the last afternoon we were at this camp -

The wind was in our favor, so we were able to spend 30 minutes or more watching this pair. Video ahead - sorry, but I have tried numerous ways to get rid of the annoying wind sound before posting this, and completely failed (as did Steve), so I’m just asking that you hit mute when it starts playing.

We saw some beautiful sunrises at this camp, as we headed out, hoping for more rhino sightings…

… and we were very lucky in our observations. We watched this male for awhile…

… when suddenly the female and her baby showed up!

Our guides said this was very unusual, but that she was probably going into heat, as her baby was about 3 yrs old.

This was an interesting thing I saw, but our guides didn’t say anything about it. I discovered by research that rhinos smell with a special organ in the roof of their mouth, so they will open their mouth when trying to discern several scents -

quite a lovely pose, don’t you think??

Just to share the sizes of these animals (Steve’s hand as scale against a rhino footprint) -

Enough rhinos! G’night -

More sand

After visiting the red sands of Sossusvlei, we headed to the west coast of the country and the town of Swakopmund…

… which is a beach resort for those in Windhoek to escape the heat. We took a 4WD tour with an excellent guide to Sandwich Harbour, with its hundreds of flamingos -

(the black and white ones are juvenile Greater Flamingos, like the pink ones)

(Video alert - open this post in a browser by clicking the link at the end, so you can view it.) The flamingos stir up the sand and mud to get the crustaceans they feed on -

We then drove on the beach for miles, passing numerous shore birds, including this flock of Cormorants…

… until the dunes met the water -

So we did what any self-respecting 4WD driver would do - we challenged the dunes -

Our guide told us that the maximum slope of a dune is 37%, and a car heading directly down will not flip tail-over-nose until well past that gradient. The first time we crested a dune and headed down, it sure made your heart speed up!

While we were in the dunes, we enjoyed several stops for walks…

… and to enjoy the solitude -

We also saw some wildlife, like this Black-backed Jackal…

… and a Springbok -

Back down on the beach, we enjoyed lunch at the edge of the water, and the guide showed us the actual make-up of the sand. This beautiful pink area…

… is actually made of innumerable tiny gemstones, including garnet (which imparts the color) -

This next shot shows how dunes get started behind a small clump of vegetation -

On our way back to town we drove by the salt processing plant, with its mounds of road salt…

… and the drying pans for pink table salt -

I’ll leave you with this beautiful sand sculpture, to close this post -

Sossusvlei

This word has a mixed origin. Vlei in Afrikaans means marsh, while sossus is Nama for dead-end or “no return”. The sand dunes in the area are various shades of red due to the iron content in the sand that has oxidized or rusted.

The early morning light brought out the various hues, as well as cast beautiful shadows. A Springbok was enjoying the cooler temps…

… while a beautiful Oryx provided a nice scale element -

(they are bigger than a deer, but smaller than an elk)

His close-up:

Our guide stopped in an area to show us the little residents of the dunes…

(I’m sorry about the fuzzy focus, but I wanted to share the colors of the Red-tailed Lizard)

He showed us the trap door of the White Lady Dancing Spider’s den…

The sand is so fine that you can see the spider tracks leading up to it!

This one small area told a story of multiple creatures passing by (lizard, desert rat, and beetles) -

As we drove deeper into the region…

… the dunes grew higher and redder -

The pinnacle (pun intended) of our visit was to see Deadvlei…

… a white clay pan surrounded by the (purported) tallest sand dunes in the world.

Big Daddy dune is 1,000-1,2000 ft high -

We didn’t have time to hike up there, but we did hike up the one alongside Deadvlei…

… enjoying the expanding views…

… and the local residents -

Shovel-snout Dancing Lizard (which is keeping its feet off the hot sand)

It was a bit intimidating when our guide dropped us off at the beginning of the track to Deadvlei, and told us “climb up the dune on your left, and then slide down”, and he drove off to wait for us to return. We followed the tracks of others before us…

… but we didn’t know where to start down, as previous tracks had disappeared. The guide had given us the tip of stepping down with our heels, and just keep sliding. Here’s Steve demonstrating good form (video alert - open this post in your browser by clicking the link at the end) -

He took a video as he slid down, to show the soft sand sluffing away as we went -

Where we came from -

After the water source to the marsh dried up, the clay soil hardened so much that the dead trees were left standing -

It was difficult to get pictures without people in them…

… but I kept trying…

This long day started before sunrise…

… but as the shadows grew long(er), we took one last picture -

Namibia

When we were setting up this trip, mainly for Madagascar and the lemurs, Steve suggested we add a safari in Namibia “since we’re basically already there”. If you don’t have your African geography down, Namibia is actually over across the southern end of the continent on the west coast (while Madagascar is off the east coast). Our first evening we stayed at a lodge with typical housing style…

… that seemed to mirror the Sociable Weaver nests -

We had landed in Windhoek, the capital, and collected our rental truck for a 3 week driving safari. We headed south and then west, and we saw a whole lot of this…

… with rare hills and their passes thrown in -

As we neared the SE coast, we started seeing sand creeping up the rock escarpments -

We drove many, many miles on gravel roads…

… and were always quite happy to reach our lodgings each afternoon. One evening we opted for the “sundowner” activity, which at this location included a nice private set-up…

… and even had a drinking buddy - a Dassie Rat (related to a Rock Hyrax) -

(it looks like a gerbil to me)

The setting was very grand…

… and the sunset had a serene glow -

The Milky Way that night was spectacular -

(You might need to zoom in, depending upon your monitor settings.)

Our early morning wake-up call was aided by these Helmeted Guineafowl -

(as you may have guessed, this picture was taken the afternoon before)

We were heading out on an all day excursion to the sand dunes of Sossusvlai. I’ll share more in the next post -

Summing up Madagascar

Wow, what a trip. Madagascar is the world’s 4th largest island and is about the size of Texas, but we managed to see a fair bit of it. Here is our rough travel route for 5 weeks.  Blue lines show our three air trips, while red indicate SUV and boat journeys:

Our quick overview of the country was consistent with the statistics.  Madagascar is  young (median age 19.2; life expectancy of around 63), poor (median income of about $400 per year), depends upon subsistence farming, is undeveloped (only about 1/3 of the people get electricity, and even in the capital, outages averaging 6 hours per day are normal), and pretty corrupt (frequent road block shakedowns by uniformed personnel, as well as tip seeking by immigration and security personnel at airports).  Thus, it is no surprise that cash is not only king, but is often the only option of payment in most of the country.  We withdrew several million Ariary (each tranche equal to $221) over the course of the trip (basically whenever we happened to be in a town with a functioning ATM), but still found ourselves counting and recounting our currency holdings to determine how quickly we would need to make another withdrawal. 

These issues are said to have been the impetus for the demonstrations and eventual coup that took place during our visit. For your future reference, when you’ve registered for the STEP program and the State Department issues a Level 3 Travel Warning for your destination during your trip, you will receive emails that you are “strongly urged to shelter in place,” should reconsider any travel,  and are urged to “have a plan to leave in an emergency that does not depend on U.S. government help.”

Notwithstanding this kerfuffle, our trip was uneventful, the people were typically friendly and welcoming, and we were able to enjoy the wealth of natural attractions that the country has to offer.

 Lisa mentioned the roads.  They were indeed quite bad in the West, South and even around the Capital.  (The North was smooth sailing though!) One of our first areas to visit was Big Tsingy:

Getting there was . . . interesting.  Day 1, the last 100 KM to our hotel took 4 hours, with one ferry crossing—and, as shown by this video, getting a car loaded onto it was not for the faint of heart (Reminder—to see video, you need to open the blog in your browser, not just your email):

The next day, the drive from our hotel to the Park entrance was a mere 17 KM—but took an hour with two stream fordings. 

Granted, those were not major roads, but the main highways were not much better—and sometimes actually worse.  Highway 7 from the west coast to the Capital was reminiscent of a long-abandoned mall’s parking lot.  Our itinerary stated that it was 870 KM and that, over the course of 7 days, we would spend 28 hours driving it. Unfortunately, the estimated pace of 30KM per hour (~19 MPH) was overly optimistic because of the poor road and the need to share the road with pedestrians and other slow moving vehicles:

Granted, this last type of vehicle wasn’t always slow moving!

The roads were so bad that in some areas people would sweep gravel up to smooth out the bumps, then request tips from drivers. 

Similarly, like in Nepal, people (usually women and children) would be engaged in making small rocks or gravel out of big rocks—with the products being used to smooth the road:

We eventually got somewhat used to the slow pace, and embraced the fact that it was nice for capturing vignettes of village life:

Baby gonna have a sore neck!

A common site—-clothes dryers (and even lines) are not a thing here….

And for getting pictures of road side vendors, such as this young lady in the central highlands who was selling the hats for which her tribe is known, wooden kitchenware, honey, and moonshine (both big bottles and small!):

(Note the reuse of water bottles; I quickly learned not to crumble my empties!)

There also was the occasional stall selling live animals—but we are pretty sure they weren’t pet stores:

We also had many opportunities to observe the brick making “industry” in action. Rice farmers in the capital have a side job of brick making, using mud from the irrigation canals to fill molds, and then firing the brick in grass-fueled kilns. 

This was essentially the same throughout the country, although one area in the highlands seemed to be more focused on production than others:

Unsurprisingly, based on my limited sampling, the bricks were all solid, rather heavy, of non-uniform sizes, and softer than those commonly used in the US.  That, however, did not hinder this lady in her brick-hauling duties:

Only once did I get a clear view of bricklayers in action, and it was pretty much like home, with the use of a standard trowel and a line to ensure the course was level.

Back to the main focus of our trip: Wildlife!  National Parks here are not open after sunset, which posed a problem when looking for nocturnal lemurs and chameleons.  The way around this was to walk along the border roads of the parks with a guide, which sometimes resulted in unusable pictures:

Or, even worse, having to get into the ditch to allow tractor trailers to pass us by on the narrow roads.  We won’t forget one walk when we were being passed by two trucks on the 1.5 lane road, which resulted in one of them pulling off and then slowly backing up as we waited on high alert a couple feet from its back wheels!

Of course, those roads also posed issues to trucks. This truck, which we walked by when looking for chameleons, ended up a few feet from a 100+ ft dropoff, and apparently had been waiting a week for a tow truck (or trucks) sufficient to haul it back out:

(The mud puddle is the road!)

(Note the two cables to keep the truck from going over the cliff…)

I had read some years ago of the funerary customs of the traditional Malagasy religion, in the context of spreading bubonic/pneumonic plague.  That religion, a combination of animism and ancestor worship, continues to be followed by only a small percentage of people, but has influenced the practices of the majority Christian population. Exhumation from temporary graves, redressing, and eventual reburial was a standard practice and still retains a devoted following.  We saw several temporary graves on our travels, but they didn’t stand out like the permanent tombs in the country’s South.  Basically, if there was an impressive masonry structure with a lot of decorations in that part of the country, it was a tomb:

(The juxtaposition of these structures with the houses in nearby villages made me think of ancient Egypt.)

 Despite the poor road conditions, we never had a car break down (just one flat tire).  BUT, we had one boat die on us.  Fortunately, it was at the very end of a two hour commute, and after a little bit of poling…

we were taken in tow for the final quarter mile by one of the more reliable boats in the area:

Finally, going back to the country’s short life expectancy, our 30-something guide told us a story as we passed by a funeral.  He explained that some funerals are sad, while others are happy.  His example of a Happy Funeral involves a 50 year old grandpa who had lived a full life.  Needless to say, we both thought that was a bit young!

And with that, we are finished with Madagascar.  As the day passes and the shadows get longer,

we will be following the sun across the Mozambique channel to our next destination, from where you’ll soon be hearing from your favorite story-telling photographer:

Nosy Komba

In Madagascar, “nosy” (rhymes with mossy) means an island. Komba is a smaller island south of the big island of Be (pronounced bay), which is the top tourist destination for beaches and water activities. These are located off the NW coast of the country. We had to take a small outrigger from the mainland to Nosy Komba -

There are no roads or motorized vehicles (so it was calm and quiet) -

That wasn’t our villa that we rented for 4 days… this was -

… complete with sweet young ladies who cooked all our meals, cleaned, and gamely tried to understand our requests as we used Google Translate to Malagasy. :)

We also had a resident family of Black Lemurs…

… that visited daily. Here comes a video, so open this post in your browser by clicking the link at the bottom.

We went scuba diving one day, using rental equipment (which was a new experience for us), and enjoyed the morning. This is a view from the scuba shop towards the beach…

… and a video from Steve’s GoPro of some Orange-Spotted Filefish:

He was (rightly) proud of this nice still of a Yellowfin Surgeonfish…

… and this Unicornfish -

One day, the manager of the villa directed me to a little beach that he said no one visits. This was the path there…

… and this was my view of my private swimming beach -

It may not look like much, but I had that whole little bay to myself, and some nice rocks to sit on in the shade and read.

So that’s “bye” from me and the lemurs, to end my posting from Madagascar -

Tsingy Rouge and Ankarana National Park

Before heading south and west to Ankarana park, we struck out almost due east from Amber Mountain to make a quick stop at Tsingy Rouge. It lies at the end of a broad valley…

… and is much smaller in scale than Big Tsingy -

I bet you’ll never guess where the name came from. Red (sandstone) anyone?

This type of formation made me smile - it looks like kids under sheets playing “ghosts” -

The requisite shot with Steve for scale -

Just for comparison, this was Big Tsingy -

Tsingy Rouge had me reminiscing about Bryce Canyon in Utah, especially with the gradations of red and pink and the layering -

Moving on down south and west, Ankarana gifted us with some brilliant birds, from the Blue Vanga…

,,, to the Malagasy Paradise-Flycatcher…

Female

Male

We also found Gollum…um, I mean the Ankarana Sportive Lemur…

… and some Crowned Lemurs -

Male

Female

… and baby -

Ankarana has a Gray Tsingy…

… that was pretty impressive in scale, while giving us some tight squeezes as we explored…

As we walked out of the forest, we passed some baobab fruits…

They are softball size and fuzz-covered

… and checked out a sinkhole. In the next picture, I’m standing in a riverbed that is totally full in the rainy season, as is the sinkhole!

Just imagine the whirlpool there!

This Hoopoe was strutting his stuff…

… as he preceded us on the path out of the forest.

Goodbye for now!

French Mountain and Amber Mountain

We flew from Ile Sainte Marie to Diego-Suarez, the largest city in the north, via the capital, but luckily had no issues spending the night in Tana, given the demonstrations and replacement of the government that was occurring. After landing in Diego-Suarez, we drove just 7 km east to hike up French Mountain. It was hot and sunny…

… but we were promised 360-degree views, and they were delivered -

The island in the middle of the bay is called Nosy Lonjo (nosy means island) and is a sacred place for the locals. It is forbidden to land there. From different vantage points, you can appreciate the beautiful blue water of the bay -

Also from the top we could see the northernmost point of Madagascar (Cap d’Ambre) and the Emerald Sea -

The Emerald Sea is just off the coastline to the right.

Along the hike to the top, we found a juvenile Panther chameleon with markings that looked like a tiger -

We also saw two different species of baobab — the Suarez, with its branches straight out at 90 degrees and dark bark:

… and the Madagascar baobab with its crown of curving branches -

We then moved on to the Amber Mountain national park, which is known as the home of the smallest tree and ground chameleons in the world. The first species we found was Brookesia Minima, represented by this nice pair -

The male is the smaller darker one in the foreground

Female

Another tiny species is Brookesia Antakarana -

We also found a somewhat larger chameleon, the Blue-nose (but you can only see the color in the right light and angle) -

Some interesting insects also showed up — Shield Bugs…

… and a Longhorn Beetle -

Check out those mandibles! —

You didn’t think I’d let you get away without more lemur pics, did you? Crowned lemurs (not soaking wet). [Apologies for the inferior quality of the shots - they were at the top of the trees with the sun behind them.]

The male is the brownish one in the center of the picture, while the females and baby are gray-ish.

A Malagasy Kingfisher was a gorgeous gem…

… which we found on our way to this rare waterfall -

From our lodge on the slopes of Amber Mountain… Adieu!

Ile aux Nattes

So, continuing our story — we caught the (3 hour) ferry from the NE coast of the mainland to Isle Sainte Marie -

Upon arrival, we needed to take a Tuk-tuk from the harbor to the south point of the island…

(to see the following video, be sure to click the link at the bottom of the post to open it in your browser) -

… where we hired a small pirogue (boat) to take us across the shallow channel to Ile aux Nattes (island of mats) -

There are no roads here or motor vehicles, only walking paths across and around the island (size: 5 km x 3.5 km). Thus, this was our route to our resort…

… and our beachfront bungalow -

It was blessedly quiet. On our one full day here, Steve and I planned to walk around the island…

… cutting inland at times, and other times sticking to the beach -

However, as rain was threatening…

… we cut across the island (to get back to our bungalow) passing taro and rice fields…

… and a lone zebu -

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset over the mainland, courtesy of those rainclouds -

More Lemurs

I’m sure you’re just shocked to know that I have more pictures of lemurs. We had advanced northward up the east coast to the Canal des Pangalanes. This is a waterway consisting of canals, rivers, and lakes that run parallel to the Indian Ocean, and which are sheltered from the sea…

…creating a means of transportation of goods and people between small fishing villages.

The hotel where we stayed had several species of lemurs in the area that we hadn’t met yet, like the Black-and-white Ruffed Lemur…

(they look like they’re wearing fuzzy gloves)

… the Crowned Lemur…

(looks more like a fox to me)

… a hybrid of a Brown and Crowned Lemur…

… and a Short-tailed Indri (complete with disgruntled baby) -

(check out that stubby tail!)

The morning we were to walk through the forest near the hotel dawned cloudy, then turned drizzly as we started, culminating in a steady rain…

… that had us as wet and unhappy as the lemurs - who basically stayed hidden as we tromped through the forest for 2 hours.

We did see a Golden Orb Weaver…

… and some carnivorous Pitcher Plants -

The highlight of our visit to this area was seeing Aye-Ayes. These are rather not-pretty beasts…

… that have long fingers, with an especially long middle finger, that they use to catch grubs out of tree trunks.

For the upcoming video, please click the link at the bottom of the email to open it in your browser -

The Aye-aye is the world’s largest nocturnal primate (about the size of a housecat), and their incisors never stop growing. The guide told us that local villagers often killed them because they raided their coconuts, as well as looking like demons. About thirty years ago, a man-made island was constructed across a lake from any people and 6 Aye-ayes were relocated there. Their numbers have increased very slowly, as they bear a single offspring only every 2-3 years.

It was pretty contrived in how we saw them. We were boated over to the island at dusk; walked a short way into the forest; and found a clearing where coconuts were fixed to trees and a few lights illuminated their feasting -

After two nights, we headed a little further north to catch a ferry to a small island for some relaxation, but the ferry didn’t run for a day, so we were stuck at a hotel on the beach…

… which was a real hardship (eyeroll). :)

Chameleons!

We headed east out of “Tana”, the capital. After several hours bumping and winding along terrible roads, we arrived at the Peryeras Reptile Reserve. Before seeing the reptiles, we got to say hello to some friendly lemurs - a Brown…

… and (new to us) a Coquerel’s Sifaka -

I just loved their coloration -

We headed to the enclosure with numerous chameleons that this reserve was breeding and releasing into the wild. We started with a female Parson’s chameleon, which is the world’s largest chameleon species …

… and also saw a male Parson’s (complete with horns) -

We didn’t see any other Globifers (Globe-horned chameleon) in the large enclosure bsides this neat one -

Next up was an Elephant-eared chameleon…

… followed by a Green-eared one -

The colors on this one (Parson’s, I think) are incredible…

… and watching it walk on the ground (rather than holding a tree branch) was very interesting.

This pair of Parson’s chameleons posed very nicely together -

the female is in the foreground

Now I know this post is entitled “Chameleons”, but I have so many more pictures of cool animals that I’m going to branch out a bit. One of the coolest (especially at camouflage) is a Leaf-tailed Gecko. Here’s one that’s relatively easy to spot…

The next one is more challenging. Both of these were found in the wild during a forest walk in the Mitsinjo National Park -

Hints - it is in the same orientation as the previous one; the toes on its left front foot are slightly elevated off the trunk

On this same forest walk we saw two more new lemur species. This is a Golden (Diadem) Lemur…

… and the other is an Indri, one of the largest lemurs -

They look like very intense teddy-bears…

… and their vocalizations are spectacular. The next video has a little bit of some Indri jumping around, but the main reason I included this, was so you could hear the “conversation” that the family was having right above us. Two notes - 1) as usual, to help you see the video, click the link on the bottom of the email to open it in your browser; and 2) have your volume turned down on your speakers, or you’ll get blasted.

One last chameleon to close out this post — but first a little story - We walked up and down hills, through a village, and along a river for 45 minutes to get to the one little place where this species is found in all of Madagascar. The guide had been scouring the bushes and trees, without spotting it, and had even turned around to go back towards our car, when he found the little one! A Pinocchio Chameleon. It’s only about 5 inches long, including the tail.

Bye!