Photosafari with family in Namibia
In mid June we took off to our three week photo safari throughout Namibia. Klaus has had visited the country several times over the past years to use its fascinating landscapes as the backdrop of his photographic collections. This time the journey was a bit of a different nature. The challenge: taking the family with on tour.
The children were longing to see where Daddy usually gets these beautiful photographs, which they see, around his studio and in the galleries.
So off we went with our fully packed 4×4 car, everybody full of excitement and impatient to see the WILD animals! Thanks to modern technologies we can take with on the road these days, our kids managed the long distances fairly well:-)
The first 2 nights we set camp at the Fish River Canyon Area, getting new energy after the 10hr drive up from Cape Town.
The highlights despite from visiting the Canyon were swimming in a pool that gets fed by hot springs and the old cars that are making up the atmosphere and decoration of “Canyon Roadhouse”.
Our journey continued, obviously north, but with little detour to Soussusvlei and Swakopmund, before we arrived at Etosha National Park.There we hit into a vast herd of zebras on the open plains right on the first day and saw elephants drinking at the camps waterhole by night. What an experience!
Further highlights in the area were our stay at the Anderssons Camp in Ongava Game Reserve that is a beautiful reserve, bordering Etosha in the southwest and housing two different camps and very exclusive lodges. Ongava is habitat of a diversity of wildlife, except elephant.
For the first time we sighted a honey badger here and due to the very good tracking skills of Jess, Klaus’s in house guide, Klaus got very close to most of the big species, including a lion pride with cubs and rhinos.
In Epacha Game Reserve Klaus was especially after the black rhino in order to portrait it nicely for their 10 year anniversary of the Custodian Program ( Epacha’s big success story : they started with only 6 rhino in 2003 and now it’s anticipated that there are three times more; all from breeding themselves and keeping them safe.).Photographing and finding them proved not always easy due to the rocky and bushy terrain there. But Klaus managed to get a few close and exciting encounters.
The last two nights we spent at the Bushcamp (very recommendable for families with children) of the Mushara Collection, which offers three differently styled but incredibly beautiful decorated and thought after luxury accommodation. The fact that the privately owned reserve doesn’t lend it towards wildlife photography didn’t matter as it is situated just outside the east entrance (Namutoni) of the Etosha National Park.
Last main visit of our travels throughout Namibia was Windhoek for building contacts and promoting the new edition of the coffee table book
“Pride of Africa” of which a new edition will be launched in October this year.
Back in Cape Town and 5000km more on the clock, we can call it an overall successful trip – a wonderful adventure with the family with beautiful experiences and some great images of wildlife to be included in Klaus’s photography collections.
