Namibia - Sand, Stars and Wildlife

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Trip start
September 4, 2026
Namibia - Sand, Stars and Wildlife Traveler
The Adventure Begins
September 4 in England ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C
I have been really looking forward to this trip which has me travel with five others to various locations around Namibia. It is a varied itinerary too, which includes huge sand dunes, old deserted buildings invaded by wind and sand, long dead trees sitting on a white base, stunningly dark skies as a playground and also, along the way and at the end, an opportunity to photograph Namibia's wildlife.

But before I can do that I must travel there, so my starting point is London Heathrow airport flying with BA on one of those huge double decker aircraft. It is two flights actually: the first is 11 hours or so to Johannesburg, South Africa, then a second flight of around 2 hours from there to Windhoek where I meet up with the group.

I arrived at Heathrow in good time and the A380 left pretty much on time, arriving at Johannesburg on time as well. All going smoothly then ... until things all went wrong.

My blogs might be a bit erratic over the next couple of weeks due to the nature of this trip. I will do my best to update regularly but you may find the footprints arrive in batches.Read more
TravelerHave a great trip, Rob. I look forward to seeing your photos.
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Namibia - Sand, Stars and Wildlife Traveler
Help from Strangers
September 5 in South Africa ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C
As I have mentioned already, my flight from Heathrow went well, leaving and arriving on schedule. I even managed a decent amount of sleep once I settled down about half midnight.. My companion in the next seat was a really friendly guy who although born in Namibia, now lives in Guernsey with his wife and three children. He was travelling to Namibia to attend a wedding.

Having landed, we departed the plane and headed across the airport as transit passengers, so it should be simple. The great thing was my companion knew exactly where to go so it should have been really easy, but when we got to the first control point there was no-one at the desks and the queues were huge. We had less than 90 minutes to get to our flight and time was ebbing away. Eventually we got through but then there a long walk to get to security to go through to our gate.

Then it got worse, because now people were really worried they were going to miss their connecting flights. So was I, and it was at this point we got separated but it would not have made any difference even if we hadn't.

It was a free for all and I could tell you a whole lot more but in the end I missed my flight the flight, as did around eleven others. This was somewhat inconvenient and meant the journey became extremely stressful as it looked like I might not even get to Namibia that day.

I won't bore you with what happened next - you've probably glazed over already - but after a lot of walking, having to enter South Africa then re-enter the airport to check-in with new boarding, we finally got a seat on a plane that would get me to join the group just in time for an evening meal. Phew!

Whilst walking miles around the airport it was so nice of one of the passengers to help me with my luggage, which I was fine with for normal activities at an airport but not for what happened here. My Samaritan was Dara from the Netherlands and she was amazing when carried my 10kg backpack for me. She insisted.

Isn't it nice to know that strangers can be there for you when needed. The world isn't so bad after all.Read more
TravelerWow, not a great start to the trip. Glad someone helped you with your bag and you managed to get a flight in time to meet the group for your evening meal. Have a great trip 😀
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TravelerYes, a bit stressful but at least it worked out ok in the end.
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Namibia - Sand, Stars and Wildlife Traveler
Windhoek
September 5 in Namibia ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
Windhoek is the capital city of Namibia with around 500,000 inhabitants. I haven't checked, but I suspect most Namibians live here. I must be honest and say I never expected the city to be this big though I'm not sure why.

The driver, Gideon, who picked me up from the airport, was our driver for the whole trip and he was so helpful when greeting me at the airport. Before long, around half an hour or so, I arrived at the hotel to meet my fellow travellers then it was then a quick turnaround and out for dinner. What a day!

There are no photos for this footprint I'm afraid as I simply never thought to take any, but don't despair as I'm pretty sure there are some great photos to come.Read more
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Namibia - Sand, Stars and Wildlife Traveler
Travelling
September 6 in Namibia ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C
After all the stress at Johannesburg airport the evening was so relaxing though I was getting quite tired. Everyone was, to be honest so we went to our rooms and I was asleep by 10.30pm.

The first day of our 'expedition' started with breakfast at 9am then we loaded our bags and gear into our minibus and began the long drive south to Keetmanshoop and our first photo location.

There are some long drives during this trip and today is the first of them - about five hours! It's very flat and dry which was not unexpected to be honest. We spotted some monkeys at one point but generally it's a desert landscape. There was the occasional pause for fuel and we stopped at a very pleasant place for lunch.

One notable stop before lunch was at the Tropic of Capricorn where there is no option but to stop and take a photo.Read more
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Namibia - Sand, Stars and Wildlife Traveler
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Quiver Tree Forest Rest Camp
September 6 in Namibia ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
Arrival at our accomodation was welcome after the long drive and it was nice that we were all in the same 'cabin', with the restaurant was just across the way. Very handy given I later discovered it is very dark here.

There was just a short amount of time to sort ourselves out, which actually means choose rooms, drop bags, unpack a few items and sort out cameras ready to photograph the soon to arrive sunset - amongst the quiver trees. I knew what a quiver tree looked like - there was one right by us (see photo) but what would a forest of them look like?

I would soon find though as I walked with the group down the track the led to a gate.Read more
Traveler How many trees do you need to make a forest?
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TravelerAs you will discover - not all that many.
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Namibia - Sand, Stars and Wildlife Traveler
What am I Doing in Namibia?
September 6 in Namibia ⋅ 🌙 19 °C
Namibia is a country I have wanted to visit for a very long time. Iceland was another on my wishlist and I visited there in 2015 when I was treated to a surprise long-weekend adventure.

I had seen photographs of Namibia that inspired me to go and in particular it was photos of dead trees in a white, flat basin surrounded by red sand dunes and deep blue skies. I was so jealous when my daughter Penny and her partner (now husband) visited there a while ago. But this isn't all Namibia has to offer, and I was just waiting for the day I could travel there... and now here I am!

Naturally it is photography that brings me here so I am spending two weeks travelling with four other photographers and our guide Remi, on his tour of various locations around the country.

As always in my travel diaries, all the photos are taken on my phone because that makes it easier to post them for you to see. Occasionally, there might be a photograph from my 'proper' camera when the phone can't cope.

Anyway, that's enough chatter, so let's continue with the journey and the fun stuff along the way.Read more
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Namibia - Sand, Stars and Wildlife Traveler
Quivering Sunset
September 6 in Namibia ⋅ 🌙 19 °C
I was excited to be walking along the track with my camera gear for our first session of photography: to photograph the quiver trees at sunset.

The gate we arrived at led over rock-strewn ground towards the trees and the realization that this forest was more a large collection of trees, rather than the vast conifer forests of Canada, or any forest really. This did not mean that photographing them was easy, because there were still plenty scattered around and close enough to make you careful when choosing a composition that would not be unduly cluttered. It wasn't easy at first but got easier after a while.

Sunsets happen quickly the closer you are to the equator. At first you could take your time, but I knew that the sunset would arrive and be over very quickly, so laid-back panic set in as I searched for my sunset photo. Then the moment arrived and I took my first photos. My best one of the evening was when I was alongside Remi, our workshop leader. I was so pleased to get such a lovely photo before it was time to head back for our evening meal.

It was a challenge at times, but great fun. The whole group clearly loved it, judging by the comments as we walked back.

This wasn't the end of the day, however, because the camera would be working again after our meal.

I'll post my favourite photo of the evening when I've processed it.Read more
TravelerCan’t see the sunset for the trees
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TravelerIn my favourite photo of the evening you definitely can.
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Namibia - Sand, Stars and Wildlife Traveler
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An Evening Under the Stars
September 6 in Namibia ⋅ 🌙 17 °C
When we went for our evening meal it wasn't all that dark but afterwards, when we looked up on our way back to our rooms, the sky was inky black and the stars shined so brightly. The Milky Way was incredibly clear in the night sky right above our heads, and the constellation of Scorpio shone bright and clear.

We retraced our steps back to the gate that led to the quiver trees, negotiated the rocky floor and looked for a suitable location for our nightscape photos. It was extremely dark, so dark, in fact, the camera screen showed nothing of the scene, so it was somewhat tricky to align the composition correctly but after a while I got used to the extreme dark and felt my way towards what I wanted.

The location was fabulous. The quiver trees were great foregrounds to the night sky, though I'm not suggesting it was easy to find something uncluttered. An annoyance was the lights from other people. We all needed to light our way at times, but there were people with exceptionally bright torches that often ruined my photos, meaning there were times of waiting for them to move or turn off their lights, or just taking the photo again. Occasionally, their lights were helpful, though not often. The main photo from my camera has the trees lit from their lights and not mine.

I have taken photos to create a Milky Way panorama which I hope works when I process it. Hope so. Overall though, it was a fabulous evening and, as I have said, the sky was unbelievably good and there was something I had never experienced - ss the evening wore on, the Milky Way became lower in the sky. In fact, by 11:30 p.m. it was too low to work well for photos. But as it got lower in the sky, our surroundings became even darker, and we became aware of just how much the stars provided additional light. It was amazing to experience.Read more
Traveler Not a bad start to the Astro then? Looking forward to more from sossuvlei and spitzkoppe hopefully
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TravelerGood to see some more of your amazing photographs, Rob. What a contrast from Iceland! Hope you brought your bucket and spade, judging by all that sand! Enjoy a wonderful experience...I look forward to seeing more of your work when you get home. All the best. Richard.
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Namibia - Sand, Stars and Wildlife Traveler
Quiver Tree Sunrise
September 7 in Namibia ⋅ 🌙 10 °C
Even though we had been up until relatively late last night, the first task for today was to photograph the sunrise. An early start then.

It wasn't completely dark, but a head torch was still needed as we walked back along the trail to the quiver trees, where we spread out to look for a suitable tree (or trees) as a foreground for the photo.I took a few photos before the sun rose because the light was just lovely and the trees looked great in silhouette. I then set up my camera and tripod ready for the sun to appear. I was not impressed when a couple appeared from nowhere and decided they would photograph the trees I had chosen and stood so my shot was ruined. Somewhat frustrated, I picked up my tripod and looked for an alternative option. I think I have my sunrise photo, and I'll find out when I do the processing. After the sun had risen there was still time to photograph the trees in the golden sunlight.

Remi had set a time for us to meet to head back to our accommodation and then we had breakfast. I really enjoyed the morning photography, not just because it was photography but because it was just lovely to experience the dawn and the fabulous colours that came with it.

After breakfast we packed ready to leave for our next location - Luderitz.Read more
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Trip end
September 19, 2026