African Memories

[PJL]

Amazing landscapes!

Are sand roses edible?

Definitely not edible. They are surprisingly strong - they survived a further 5000km of travels and the flight home

Yes, Flutts, one can fry or bake the sand roses with a bit of salt!

Perhaps that explains a few things

It's a really scenic drive down from Aus to the coast

Was the Garub wild horse area already in place then with waterhole and signpost etc?

No, at this point there wasn't anything set up specifically for the horses... they just happened to be visible from the road

[PJL]

The next day we took a boat trip. I think it went to some island but I can't remember the details...





We had dolphins for company



And then found some penguins





Later in the day we visited the ghost town of Kolmanskop... an old diamond mining town now long deserted. It was amazing to see how the elements are taking over the buildings

[Richprins]

Remarkable preservation of the ghost houses, actually?

Someone was sliding down the sand dune in the bathtub...

Love the boat shots...no seasick, Peej?

Dyer island?

[Klipspringer]

Boat trip with penguins and dolphins

[Lisbeth]

I have seen that town in a documentary, it is not really very old.

Must have been nice on the sea with the dolphins and the penguins

[Pumbaa]

Awesome landscape shots, PJL

Also love the penguins

[PJL]

Remarkable preservation of the ghost houses, actually?

Someone was sliding down the sand dune in the bathtub...

Love the boat shots...no seasick, Peej?

Dyer island?

No seasickness RP... been on boats quite a bit. Bathtub sandboards

Boat trip with penguins and dolphins

Thanks Klipspringer - was good to see them

I have seen that town in a documentary, it is not really very old.

Must have been nice on the sea with the dolphins and the penguins

Not drastically old Lis, but the dunes move significantly every year so it all fell apart quite rapidly once everyone left the place

Awesome landscape shots, PJL

Also love the penguins

Thanks Pumbaa

[PJL]

From Luderitz our next scheduled stop was at a camp near the Sossusvlei dunes, but we had a few nights in our itinerary that weren't pre-planned for stops. On our way down from Windhoek we had seen the lump of Brukkaros volcano and figured that would be a fun place to stop over for a night, as it was kind of along the route up to the dunes.

Somewhere along the way we stopped for lunch



As we approached the volcano it became rather impressive



I think there might have been a campsite somewhere near the base but we were feeling adventurous and hiked our way up to the top of one of the sides and slept out on the ground under the stars.

By the time we got up there, the sun was very much setting







It turned into a fairly windy night but tucked up inside a sleeping bag I remember being very surprised to wake up in the morning having had a great sleep! Sunrise was absolutely spectacular







The shadow of the volcano was impressive



After hiking back down again we were off on our way towards Sesriem...

[Lisbeth]

Spectacular!!

[Alf]

Is that an active volcano