Namibia
Namibia is the most dry Country in Austral Africa continent. You can find one of the biggest desert in the world, in fact on the West cost you have the Namib Desert long 800 km and large 200 and inside the Country you find the Kalahari coming from South Africa and Botswana border.
At the same time this young Country (they becomed Namibia only on 1990 after indipendence from South Africa) presents, when water flows, such a lot of wild animals as in the Etosha Park showing an impressive life animal-style!
The Himba people on the Angola border live as 3.000 year ago and you really feel how we are fast and maybe… a bit “overexposed” respect to the real life needs.
Enjoy this wild country (visit carefully and drive always a 4 wheels car!) and its special sundown moments.
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Himba Young MotherThe Himba are an ethnic group of about 20,000 to 50,000 people living in northern Namibia, in the Kunene region (formerly Kaokoland) close the Angola Border where the Kunene river flows. Women are famous for covering themselves with otjize, a mixture of butter fat and ochre, possibly to protect themselves from the sun. The mixture gives their skins a reddish tinge. This symbolizes earth's rich red color and the blood that symbolizes life, and is consistent with the Himba ideal of beauty. Because of the harsh desert climate in the region where they live and their seclusion from outside influences, the Himba have managed to maintain much of their traditional lifestyle.
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Etosha ParkEtosha National Park is a national park in the Kunene Region of northwestern Namibia. The park shares boundaries with the regions of Oshana, Oshikoto and Otjozondjupa. The Etosha Gates are named Otjovasandu Gate, Anderson Gate, Namutoni Gate, and Von Lindequist Gate. Etosha was first established in 1907, when Namibia was a German colony known as South West Africa. At the time, the park’s original 100,000 square kilometres (39,000 sq mi) made it the largest game reserve in the world. Due to political changes since its original establishment, the park is now slightly less than a quarter of its original area, but still remains a very large and significant area in which wildlife is protected.
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X-ZebraZebra stripes are typically vertical on the head, neck, forequarters, and main body, with horizontal stripes at the rear and on the legs of the animal. The "zebra crossing" is named after the zebra's black and white stripes. A wide variety of hypotheses have been proposed to account for the evolution of the striking stripes of zebras. The more traditional of these (1 & 2, below) relate to camouflage. 1. The vertical striping may help the zebra hide in grass. While seeming absurd at first glance, considering that grass is neither white nor black, it is supposed to be effective against the zebra's main predator, the lion, which is color blind[dubious – discuss]. In addition, even at moderate distances, the striking striping merges to an apparent grey. 2. Another hypothesis is that since zebras are herd animals, the stripes may help to confuse predators—a number of zebras standing or moving close together may appear as one large animal, making it more difficult for the lion to pick out any single zebra to attack
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WildebeestWildebeest are famous for their annual long-distance migration, seemingly timed to coincide with the annual pattern of rainfall and grass growth. The timing of their migrations in both the rainy and dry seasons can vary considerably (by months) from year to year. At the end of the rainy season (May or June in East Africa), wildebeest migrate to dry-season areas in response to a lack of surface (drinking) water. When the rainy season begins again (months later), animals quickly move back to their wet-season ranges.
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PanThe Etosha pan is a large endorheic salt pan, forming part of the Kalahari Basin in the north of Namibia. The 120-kilometre-long (75-mile-long) dry lakebed and its surroundings are protected as Etosha National Park, one of Namibia's largest wildlife parks. The pan is mostly dry but after a heavy rain it will acquire a thin layer of water, which is heavily salted by the mineral deposits on the surface of the pan, which most of the year is dry mud coated with salt.
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Old TyreNamibia extends from 17S to 25S: climatically the range of the sub-Tropical High Pressure Belt, arid is the overall climate description descending from the Sub-Humid (mean rain above 500mm) through Semi-Arid between 300 and 500mm (embracing most of the waterless Kalahari) and Arid from 150mm to 300mm (these three regions are inland from the western escarpment) to the Hyper-Arid coastal plain with less than a 100mm mean. Typically the sub-Tropical High Pressure Belt, with frequent clear skies, provides more than 300 days of sunshine per year. It is situated at the southern edge of the tropics; the Tropic of Capricorn cuts the country about in half. The winter (June – August) is generally dry, both rainy seasons occur in summer, the small rainy season between September and November, the big one between February and April. Humidity is low, and average rainfall varies from almost zero in the coastal desert
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DeadvleiDeadvlei is a white clay pan located near the more famous salt pan of Sossusvlei, inside the Namib-Naukluft Park. The trees died, as there no longer was enough water to survive. The remaining skeletons of the trees, which are believed to be about 900 years old, are now black because the intense sun has scorched them. Though not petrified, the wood does not decompose because it is so dry.
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Drinking MirrorThe giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant. Its species name refers to its camel-like appearance and the patches of color on its fur. Its chief distinguishing characteristics are its extremely long neck and legs, its horn-like ossicones and its distinctive coat patterns. It stands 5–6 m (16–20 ft) tall and has an average weight of 1,600 kg (3,500 lb) for males and 830 kg (1,800 lb) for females. It is classified under the family Giraffidae, along with its closest extant relative, the okapi. There are nine subspecies, which are distinguished by their coat patterns. Giraffes usually inhabit savannas, grasslands, and open woodlands. Their primary food source is acacia leaves, which they can browse at heights that most other herbivores cannot reach. Giraffes are preyed on by lions, and calves are also targeted by leopards, spotted hyenas and wild dogs. Adult giraffes do not have strong social bonds, though they do gather in loose aggregations if they happen to be moving in the same general direction. Males establish social hierarchies through "necking", which are combat bouts where the neck is used as a weapon. Dominant males gain mating access to females, who bear the sole responsibility for raising the young.
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Namib DesertThe Namib is a coastal desert in southern Africa. The name Namib is of Nama origin and means "vast place". According to the broadest definition, the Namib stretches for more than 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) along the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Namibia, and South Africa, extending southward from the Carunjamba River in Angola, through Namibia and to the Olifants River in Western Cape, South Africa. The Namib's northernmost portion, which extends 450 kilometres (280 mi) from the Angola-Namibia border, is known as Moçâmedes Desert, while its southern portion approaches the neighboring Kalahari Desert. From the Atlantic coast eastward, the Namib gradually ascends in elevation, reaching up to 200 kilometres (120 mi) inland to the foot of the Great Escarpment. Annual precipitation ranges from 2 millimetres (0.079 in) in the most arid regions to 200 millimetres (7.9 in) at the escarpment, making the Namib the only true desert in southern Africa. Having endured arid or semi-arid conditions for roughly 55-80 million years, the Namib is also the oldest desert in the world.Temperatures along the coast are stable and generally range between 9–20 °C (48–68 °F) annually, while temperatures further inland are variable—summer daytime temperatures can exceed 45 °C (113 °F) while nights can be freezing. There are the highest sand dunes in the world, the highest reaching 300-400 meters (350m on average, named "Big Daddy" or "Crazy Dune").
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Walvis bayWalvis Bay, with its large bay and sand dunes, is the tourism activity centre of Namibia. Other attractions include the artificial Bird Island, centre of a guano collection industry, the Dune 7 sand dune, salt works, birdlife and a museum. Kuisebmund Stadium, home to two clubs in the Namibia Premier League, is also located in the city and the beach resort of Langstrand lies just a few kilometers north. The Walvis Bay Export Processing Zone is an important facet of the local economy.
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The MoonThe stark, bare and inhospitable looking Moon Landscape has become a favourite with the film industry over recent years which regularly visits the area for location shoots. This group of Damara Granites pushed upwards through the earth's crust some 500 to 460 million years ago. This previously high mountain range has been eroded through time down to the foundations which over the past 2 million years have experienced further erosion through the actions of the Swakop River changing it into what is known as a "Badlands".
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Desert WalkThe Namib fauna mostly comprises arthropods and other small animals that can live on little water, but a few species of bigger animals are also found, including antelopes and gazelles (such as oryxes and springboks), ostrichs, and in some areas even desert elephants. All these species have developed techniques to survive in the Namib environment. A number of endemic darkling beetles species- such as the Namib Desert beetle- have bumpy elytrons with a pattern of hydrophilic bumps and hydrophobic troughs. These cause humidity from the morning fogs to condensate into droplets, which roll down the beetle's back to its mouth; they are collectively known as "fog beetles". Another beetle, the Lepidochora discoidalis, builds "water-capturing" webs. Black-backed jackals lick humidity from stones. Gemsboks (also known as Oryxes) can raise the temperature of their bodies to 40 °C in the hottest hours of the day. The desert is also home to meerkats and several species of lizards.
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Smelling the windThe springbok (Afrikaans and Dutch: spring = jump; bok = antelope or goat) (Antidorcas marsupialis) is a medium-sized brown and white gazelle of southwestern Africa. They inhabit most of Namibia - the grasslands of the south, the Kalahari desert to the east, and the dry riverbeds of the northern bushveld of the Windhoek region, as well as the harsh Namib Desert on the west coast. In Botswana, they mostly live in the Kalahari Desert in the southwestern and central parts of the country.
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FamilyThe social lives of male and female elephants are very different. The females spend their entire lives in tight-knit family groups, some of which are made up of mothers, daughters, sisters, and aunts. These family groups can have more than 10 members, including three pairs of mothers with offspring. These groups are led by the eldest female, or matriarch. The matriarch remains leader of the group until she no longer has the energy to keep up with it. The social circle of the female elephant does not necessarily end with the small family unit. The life of the adult male is very different. As he gets older, a male begins to spend more time at the edge of his group and associates with outside males or even strange families. The adult females of the group start to show aggression towards the male, which encourages them to leave the group for good. When males do leave, they either live solitarily or with other males.
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CheetahDespite their speed and hunting prowess, cheetahs are largely outranked by other large predators in most of their range. Because they have evolved for short bursts of extreme speed at the expense of their power, they cannot defend themselves against most of Africa's other predator species. They usually avoid fighting and will surrender a kill immediately to even a single hyena, rather than risk injury. Because cheetahs rely on their speed to obtain their meals, any injury that slows them down could essentially be life threatening. A cheetah has a 50% chance of losing its kill to other predators. Cheetahs avoid competition by hunting at different times of the day and by eating immediately after the kill. Due to the reduction in habitat in Africa, cheetahs in recent years have faced greater pressure from other native African predators as available range declines.[citation needed] The cheetah's mortality is very high during the early weeks of its life; up to 90% of cheetah cubs are killed during this time by lions, leopards, hyenas, wild dogs, or even by eagles. Because of its speed, a healthy adult cheetah has few enemies.
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SavannahAlthough the term savanna is believed to have originally come from an Arawak word describing "land which is without trees but with much grass either tall or short". There exists the possibility that human induced climate change in the form of the greenhouse effect may result in an alteration of the structure and function of savannas.
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Good MorningThe dry season in Namibia is from mid April to late October, with the rains mainly falling from November through to March (January to March being the wettest). In April/early May, the grasses are still long and foliage quite thick after the rains, making game viewing more challenging. More importantly for regions such as Etosha National Park, water is still available in seasonal waterholes throughout the bush, meaning the animals are still quite spread out.
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Elephant PondAn adult elephant eats around 250kg of vegetation every day (leaves, bark and grass) for over 14hrs a day. These feeding patterns modify woodlands in the process. They are dependent on water and can drink up to 200 litres in a single session.
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JustusJustus is one of the National guides of the Petrified Forest Park who helps visitors to understand how after million of years woods become stones. Justus speaks English, Africaaner, Dutch, German, Herero and a bit of Italian. He explains why the Namibian petrified forest is the proof of the Pangaea when all the continents were one only earth. In fact similar petrified forests are in Argentina at the same latitude. Fossil evidence for Pangaea includes the presence of similar and identical species on continents that are now great distances apart. For example, fossils of the therapsid Lystrosaurus have been found in South Africa, India and Australia, alongside members of the Glossopteris flora, whose distribution would have ranged from the polar circle to the equator if the continents had been in their present position; similarly, the freshwater reptile Mesosaurus has only been found in localized regions of the coasts of Brazil and West Africa.
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The KingThe mane of the adult male lion, unique among cats, is one of the most distinctive characteristics of the species. It makes the lion appear larger, providing an excellent intimidation display; this aids the lion during confrontations with other lions and with the species' chief competitor in Africa, the spotted hyena. The presence, absence, colour, and size of the mane is associated with genetic precondition, sexual maturity, climate, and testosterone production; the rule of thumb is the darker and fuller the mane, the healthier the lion. Sexual selection of mates by lionesses favors males with the densest, darkest mane.
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Don't worry be happy!Lions are powerful animals that usually hunt in coordinated groups and stalk their chosen prey. Lions only run fast in short bursts and need to be close to their prey before starting the attack. They take advantage of factors that reduce visibility; many kills take place near some form of cover or at night. They sneak up to the victim until they reach a distance of around 30 metres (98 ft) or less. The lioness is the one who does the hunting for the pride, since the lioness is more aggressive by nature. The male lion usually stays and watches its young while waiting for the lionesses to return from the hunt. Typically, several lionesses work together and encircle the herd from different points. Once they have closed with a herd, they usually target the closest prey.
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FightGrant's gazelles may remain in areas where food is plentiful. Mature males establish territories they may hold as long as eight months. A male tries to detain the female herds of 10 to 25 individuals as they pass through these territories while they move about to feed. At the same time males chase off rival males and try to mate with females in estrus. Grant's gazelles have developed several ritualized postures. Younger males will fight, but as they grow older the ritualized displays often take the place of fights. When fighting does occur, it also is ritualized. It starts with "pretend" grooming, repeated scratching of the neck and forehead with a hind foot and presenting side views of the body. If neither combatant is intimidated, they may confront one another and clash horns, trying to throw the other off-balance.
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Slow Dead of a SolitaireSolitaire is a small settlement at the T-junction of the C14 and C19 gravel roads. Nevertheless, a welcome place for a stop over when journeying across the desert. There's puncture and mechanical repair facilities and a limited stock of tyres. The fuel station is manned daylight hours and the provisions shop opens until quite late. It's here that you might catch a glimpse of Big-Moose who bakes the "Moose Bread' and the renowned apple crumble that is only served without cream. Don't ask for any, because you'll get the stock answer that it's their cow's day of rest. Don't expect any hyper-activity here, it's not a place where you would want to allow your blood pressure to rise too.. high. Just relax and wait your turn.
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Life and DeathScavenging is both a carnivorous and herbivorous feeding behavior in which the scavenger feeds on dead and decaying organic matter present in its habitat. The eating of carrion from the same species is referred to as cannibalism. Scavengers play an important role in the ecosystem by consuming the dead animal and plant material. Decomposers and detritivores complete this process, by consuming the remains left by scavengers. Well known scavengers of animal material include vultures and jackals. Many large carnivores that hunt regularly, such as hyenas, but also animals rarely thought of as scavengers such as lions, tigers, and wolves, will scavenge if given the chance or use their size and ferocity to intimidate the original hunters (the cheetah is a notable exception).
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Symbol of NamibiaAll oryx species prefer near-desert conditions and can survive without water for long periods. They live in herds of up to 600 animals. Newborn calves are able to run with the herd immediately after birth. Both males and females possess permanent horns. The horns are narrow, and straight except in the scimitar oryx, where they curve backwards like a scimitar. The horns are lethal — the oryx has been known to kill lions with them. The Oryx is the Namibian Symbol as showed on the State Coat of Arms where there are Two Oryx Proper.
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Himba GirlHimba women braid each other's hair that they extend with plastic hair that they usually have to purchase, and cover it except the ends, in their ochre mixture. Modern clothes are scarce, but generally go to the men when available.Traditionally both men and women go topless and wear skirts or loincloths made of animal skins in various colors. Adult women wear beaded anklets to protect their legs from venomous animal bites. The hairstyle of the OvaHimba indicates age and social status. Children have two plaits of braided hair. From the onset of puberty the girls' plaits are moved to the face over their eyes, and they can have more than two. Married women wear headdresses with many streams of braided hair, coloured and put in shape with otjize. Single men wear one one plait backwards to their necks, while married men wear a turban of many otjize-soaked plaits.
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Water BorderThe Cunene River (Portuguese spelling) or Kunene River (Namibian spelling) is a river in Southern Africa. It flows from the Angola highlands south to the border with Namibia. It then flows west along the border until it reaches the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of the few perennial rivers in the region. It is about 1,050 kilometres (652 mi) long, with a drainage basin 106,560 square kilometres (41,143 sq mi) in area. Its mean annual discharge is 174 m³/s (6,145 cfs) at its mouth.The Epupa Falls lie on the river. Olushandja Dam dams the river.
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Dik-DikThe dik-dik lives in shrublands and savannas of eastern Africa. They usually live in pairs in territories of about 5 hectares (12 acres). Their territories are often in low, shrubby bushes (sometimes along dry, rocky streambeds) with plenty of cover. Dik-diks are herbivores. Their diet mainly consists of foliage, shoots, fruit and berries, but little or no grass. They receive sufficient amounts of water from their food, making drinking unnecessary. Dik-diks are monogamous.
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SpringGiraffes usually inhabit savannas, grasslands and open woodlands. They prefer Acacia, Commiphora, Combretum and open Terminalia woodlands over denser environments like Brachystegia woodlands. Giraffes browse on the twigs of trees, preferring trees of genera Acacia, Commiphora and Terminalia, which are important sources of calcium and protein to sustain the giraffe's growth rate.[9] They also feed on shrubs, grass and fruit. A giraffe eats around 34 kg (75 lb) of foliage daily. The giraffe requires less food than many other herbivores, because the foliage it eats has more concentrated nutrients and it has a more efficient digestive system.
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Banded MongooseThe banded mongoose is found in a large part of East, Southeast and South-Central Africa. There are also populations in the northern savannas of West Africa. The banded mongoose lives in savannas, open forests and grassland, especially near water, but also in dry, thorny bushland but not deserts. They forage in groups but each member searches for food alone. Banded mongooses live in mixed-sex groups of 7–40 individuals (average around 20). Groups sleep together at night in underground dens, often abandoned termite mounds, and change dens frequently (every 2–3 days). When no refuge is available and hard-pressed by predators such as wild dogs, the group will form a compact arrangement in which they lie on each other with heads facing outwards and upwards.
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SmileZebras communicate with each other with high pitched barks and whinnying. Grevy's zebras make mule-like brays. A zebra's ears signify its mood. When a zebra is in a calm, tense or friendly mood, its ears stand erect. When it is frightened, its ears are pushed forward. When angry, the ears are pulled backward. When surveying an area for predators, zebras will stand in an alert posture; with ears erect, head held high, and staring. When tense they will also snort. When a predator is spotted or sensed, a zebra will bark (or bray) loudly.
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Solitaire Rain FallSolitaire is a small settlement in the Khomas Region of central Namibia near the Namib-Naukluft National Park. The area was named Solitaire by Elsie Sophia van Coller (wife of Willem Christoffel van Coller). The name was chosen because of two meanings. Solitaire can mean a single set diamond and Solitaire can also mean solitude or loneliness. Combined these two meanings create the definition of being unique or one-of-a-kind and a precious but solitary place. The first man-made structure on the Solitaire farm was a 2 room cottage constructed by Mr van Coller who also later constructed the main farm house, a stone kraal adjacent to the farmhouse and a dam wall across the river bed. Later he was also responsible for constructing the current shop and installing the first petrol pump. The shop also acted as the regional post office where weekly postbags were delivered. Eventually a small chapel was built as well. In 1968 the farm 'Solitaire' was sold to Mr Maritz.
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SundownBurning Shore. The same sundown Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt saw in 2006 when they reserved the hotel and its beach for several weeks... This is also Namibia!
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