Lon's Windows

Windhoek, Namibia

Please excuse the typos in the last few posts.
This internet connection is very poor, and I have to type very quickly.

from Mary Oliver...

One or Two Things

For years and years I struggled
just to love my life. And then

the butterfly
rose, weightless, in the wind.
"Don't love your life
too much," it said,

and vanished
into the world.

Some Other Cool Things From Etosha

Stopping for lunch I took a hike to the local Watering hole. No, it is not the kind of Watering Hole I am used to; but on the way I found these small things.

Etosha South to North

Two 4 hour game drives today with a 2 hour lunch break in the middle. We started early and found the lions that had sung to us all night long. It was a family group with one large male, one female, 2 older cubs, and 2 playful new cubs.

After the lunch break we ran into this bachelor pad of young giraffes. It is called a Kalidescope of Giraffes.

After we left this group of Giraffes the lions took one down for dinner.

At the end of the day we were surprised by this huge rolling plain filled with Impallas, Wildebeasts, Zebras, Kudus, a Rhino in the distance, and more Giraffes.

Sorry this guy was about 500 yds. away.

One Old Wildebeast

2 Day Old Impala.

Very Young Zebra With Mom.

Etosha

When does the sun go down if the earth is a spinning ball? How can It move through the sky so silently as a mute orb? This African plane arcing out behind the water hole is actually so vast that it reveals the arc of the planet.

I am here at the main water hole waiting for the critters while the crew is cooking dinner. The Impalas and Oryxes this afternoon were lazily dining on knee high grasses.

We found two towers of Giraffes while wandering the roads of Etosha.-

We heard lions roaring close by all night long, but the only meat eating mammals seen the first day were the Jackals.

Welwitschia

The amazing Welwitschia plants live over 1000 years on the high desert plateau of Namibia.

This is a young 800 year old female plant.

This is the male. These plants are normally the only greenery on this plateau, except this year, of course. The plants support a large environment of critters.

Doubtful Spring

In the middle of the red sandstone mountains going north in Namibia from Swakopmund to Etosha there is a spring that is sacred to the Nama peoiple.
They used this spring for thousands of years. The Nama carved drawings into the red sandstone here in respect for the spring.

One European man tried to use the valley for raising cattle and went bust. Today the valley and the red sandstone formations are a protected national treasure of Namibia.