- I've made it to Namibia. (gentle upbeat music) (gentle upbeat music intensifies) I've made it to Namibia, and I can't even begin to describe, how excited I am to be here. I'm going to be traveling
through the country, for a couple of weeks, on a photography tour, and I can't wait to share it with you. We're currently in Sesriem, which is the desert. Namibia has the largest
sand dunes in the world, and it's a photographer's paradise, because the texture, and the shadows, make it so visually interesting. And the lodge that we're
staying at is incredible. These are like luxury tent chalets. All of the rooms are individual units, looking out over the Namibian desert, and you can roll up the window, so it's all open air, like a canvas tent. But they also have air conditioning, and across your deck, you have a really nice bathroom. So it's like earthy but fancy. You get some wildlife in this region, and the sunrises and
sunsets are incredible. And we're here on a full
moon and lunar eclipse. Last night, we were out
in the dunes at sunset, and the moon rose
perfectly behind the dunes, and it was so big it looked fake. (gentle upbeat music continues) One of the most photographed
places in the Namib desert, is Deadvlei. And the best light is right at sunrise, so we woke up super early to drive in, and hike into the dunes, which is not for the faint of heart. It is a workout. Deadvlei is a white clay pan, that temporarily flooded
hundreds of years ago, allowing camel thorn trees to grow. But when the water went away, the trees died, and only their skeletons remain. They're scorched black from the sun, and don't decompose, because the wood is so dry. (gentle upbeat music continues) Something else I highly recommend doing, if you come to the Namib Desert, is a helicopter tour out to the coast. We did a doors off tour at sunrise, while the lunar eclipse was happening, and it was incredible. You start off in the desert, so you see the sand dunes and formations from the sky. And when you make it to the ocean, the dunes fall into the water. And the ripples of the sand, meeting the ripples of the sea, is just spectacular. There's an enormous seal
colony there as well, and our pilot took us
right down to the water, which was exhilarating. We were so close to the surface, the waves were spraying us. (helicopter whirring) Ah! Oh my gosh. (gentle upbeat music continues) That doors off sunrise
helicopter tour this morning? One of my all time favorite
travel experiences. Absolutely mind-blowing, and now we're going to be
driving from the desert, out to the coast, to spend some time there. (gentle upbeat music continues) One of the highlights
of going to the coast, was getting to see flamingos. And I'm going to admit something
a little embarrassing here. Prior to this morning, it had never occurred to
me that flamingos can fly. I don't know why, because it's not like
they're traveling the Earth, on their little stilt legs, but it made this sighting
even more spectacular, because I had only expected to see them, standing in the water. (gentle upbeat music continues) We've made it to Spitzkoppe, and we're staying at this beautiful lodge, where all of the rooms
are individual houses, overlooking the landscape. Namibia means vast land, and that is the perfect
name for this country, because there really is
so much wide open space. Spitzkoppe is considered
the Matterhorn of Namibia, because it has this striking, shark tooth-like mountain, in the middle of otherwise, completely flat landscape. And it's the quietest
place we've been yet. There really are not a lot of people here. It sounds like tours don't
generally make a stop here, so it's very quiet and serene. So we're going to be spending
the next couple of days, getting up early, and shooting the sunrise, exploring some of these rock formations. There's even zebras here. We saw a mom and her baby on the way in, and it was just the most precious thing. (gentle upbeat music continues) Next, we moved on to the
wildlife portion of the tours, starting at Etosha National Park, which is one of the largest, fully-fenced, protected areas in the world. We arrived in the afternoon, popped the tops of our safari vehicles, which was super cool, and headed in to look for some animals. Our first sighting was six lions, sleeping around a waterhole. Waterholes are the best
places to watch for wildlife, because everyone's gotta drink. We had a couple timid
giraffes come up for a sip, but the lions weren't really interested. We could see the lions
were covered in blood, meaning they had recently eaten, and were essentially in a food coma, just sleeping in the sun. You'll see GPS collars on some of them, and this is for research purposes. Etosha's home to one of
the largest surviving wild lion populations in Africa, and monitoring them is critical, to understanding their
conservation status. (gentle upbeat music continues) Now, the key to a great
wildlife sighting is patience. The best thing you can do, is find a spot to park, and hang out for a couple hours. Sure enough, an hour or so after we
arrived at this water hole, we saw three elephants
approaching from a distance, and it was incredible watching
the power dynamic shift, when they arrived. Because up until now, the lions owned the waterhole. But when the elephants showed up, they moved out of the way. Elephants can cause a
lot of damage to lions, and while lions can still kill one, it's rare, and they have to be
desperate to make an attempt. (gentle upbeat music continues) We spent the next couple
of days in the park, from sunrise to sunset. We were greeted by a dazzle
of zebras one morning. The term for a group
of zebras is a dazzle. And there was this little
foal following behind its mom, and whenever it got too far behind, it would kick up its legs, and do this little run. Something incredible that
I learned about zebras, is new moms will keep other
zebras away from their baby, for a few days after it's born, so that the baby learns
her unique stripe pattern. (gentle upbeat music continues) We also had some incredible
elephant sightings, during our time in Etosha. We were parked at a
waterhole one afternoon, and a herd came in with
this tiny little baby. Our guides guessed it was
less than a month old, and it was absolutely stupid
how cute this thing was. African elephants are
pregnant for 22 months, which is the longest gestation
period of any living animal. So it took a really long time, for this little baby to get here. We were lucky in Etosha, to see several large herds of elephants. And one afternoon, we even got a vocal display
right next to our vehicle. (elephants roaring) (gentle upbeat music continues) We saw lots of other animals as well, including tons of giraffes. Giraffes are by far the easiest
animal to spot on safari. They're just so tall, they can't really hide. We also saw a hyena eating
something out of a waterhole, as well as a lot of antelope species, including a kudu, that has these beautiful spiral horns. (gentle upbeat music continues) We've made it to the Erindi
Private Game Reserve, which is one of the stops I've
been looking forward to most, on this trip, because private game reserves, are a bit of a different
experience to a national park. This is privately owned land, so it doesn't have the same
rules that a national park does. Like for example, the past couple of days, the gates to the national
park don't open until sunrise, and they close at sunset. So you can't enter early, and drive out to a waterhole, to watch animals at sunrise, and you can't stay out until sunset, or blue hour, to take pictures then. Where on a private game reserve, you can go on game drives anytime of day. If you wanna go on a night drive, or go out really early in
the morning before sunrise, you can do that. Also, the accommodation, on private game reserves is really nice. This property is stunning. The landscaping, the view from the rooms, there's waterholes where
you can watch animals, there's swimming pools. So, we're going out on a
game drive this afternoon, and I'm really, really, really
hoping to see some cats. Some lions, a leopard, a cheetah. Some cat action. The first cats we found in Erindi, were some male lions
lounging in the shade. It was pretty incredible
to sit so close to them, and they were totally unbothered by us. (gentle upbeat music continues) Next, we headed off looking
for a leopard or cheetah. Now, unlike lions who are
relatively unfazed by humans, leopards and cheetahs are very elusive, and almost impossible
to spot in the grass, even from a short distance. So, we dedicated the rest
of our time in Erindi, to tracking them. The first evening, our guide received a radio, that a leopard was spotted, in part of the reserve. So we went out tracking
it right at sunset, and this was thrilling. Driving through the bush, as the light was dimming, reading other animal behavior, to figure out what direction
the leopard was going in. And we ended up seeing a mom and her son, which was so exciting. (gentle upbeat music continues) On our final morning, we went out doing the same thing, and came across some lion cubs playing. This was one of the most exciting things, I've ever seen in my life. I think all of us kids, who grew up watching, "The Lion King," have dreamed of seeing a
real-life Simba and Nala. It was two brothers and one sister, and it looked like mom had her hands full. (gentle upbeat music continues) And then we went looking for
the one cat we hadn't seen yet, the cheetah. And after some searching, we found one laying in the shade. It was so hard to spot. We were only 20-feet away from it, and it blended in so well. (gentle upbeat music continues) It's my last day in Namibia. I've made it back to Windhoek, which is the capital city, which is where this trip started from. I knew Namibia was going to be great, but it surpassed my expectations. And I'm absolutely shocked, that after two weeks of
like a pretty busy schedule, waking up at 5:00 AM every day, heading out in the dark, in the cold, to shoot at sunrise, I thought that I would be
pretty exhausted at this point, and like kind of ready to be done. Because even when I
travel to amazing places, after a week or two, like I'm ready to chill out a little bit. But I am not feeling that way today. I could easily do two more weeks, traveling around this country. There is so much to see, and you get such a diversity
with the landscapes. From the desert, to the coastline, to the national parks, and the wildlife. So, I highly recommend adding
Namibia to your travel list, if it's not there already. I know I'm going to be back. So that's it for this video, but not for my time in Southern Africa. I am headed off to another
adventure starting tomorrow, so stay tuned for that. Thanks for watching. I hope you all enjoyed this one. If you wanna see more from this trip, I will have my Instagram
linked down below, and I will see you in the next one. Bye. (gentle upbeat music fades)
