PHOTO-A-DAY CHALLENGE
Contrasts of the Desert Life
Week 20 of the photographic documentary of my daily life
Exploring a different world. Desert life is just so different. It’s simple. It’s slower. It’s about being happy with less. And it’s about seeing beauty in a small flower and a drop of water from the morning mist.
This week Dennett gave us a new challenge. Instead of one photograph per day, we are posting two of them. By doing so we are including some contrasts of our lives and surroundings. Two photographs each day that show diversity. Diversity in our world.
Her wisely chosen one-word-descriptions brought this week’s project to another level. I love how she plays with words and creates a vibe between them and the photograph.
After handing in the car for a service we walked down the street. It was a rainy morning. Again. Rain in the desert. Not the kind of rain you think of. It’s a fine one. It almost feels like a heavy fog.
It’s drizzling.
But nobody wears a raincoat. Nobody has an umbrella. You can’t even buy things like that in the city. That’s what it means being a city in the desert.
The first shot is taken in the “Altstadt” which describes the old city of the former German colony. In the middle of it stands tall the Christmas tree. Not German style. German-style would mean it is a real fir tree. But being in Africa it is a plastic one.
As close as you can get to a traditional Christmas tree. Guess I’ll just have to get used to the plastic. Or start decorating palm trees. Either or.
The second picture taken further down the street is a lovely flower covered in water drops. It stopped drizzling for a moment. This is more my type of plant. A real one. Nature at its best.
This morning we went out with the paddleboard and the kayak for a session on the ocean. Our morning exercise. When the ocean isn’t too rough to go in. I’m enjoying those hours on the water.
And look at that, it’s a huge jellyfish floating around in the water. It is still alive. I can see it breathing. The tentacles look a bit weird. As if a forest grew around them.
Coming out of the ocean we just dry ourselves, unload the water sports equipment and repack the car for a road trip through the desert. One of my favorite activities around here.
We haven’t been even half an hour out of town and this lovely ostrich crosses our path. This is how close we got to the sea life the same day we see wildlife in the desert. The diversity here in Namibia is amazing.
Life and death can be very close to each other. Especially in the desert. Nowhere else in the world have I seen as many carcasses as here. In the Namib desert.
The desert can be cruel. And tough. Only the fittest ones will survive.
Today we left our lovely spot in the middle of nowhere which was our shelter for the night and drove back home. Not without doing another detour driving deeper into the desert.
The Namib desert is incredibly various. It has areas where you can see nothing but sand. Dunes as far as the eye can see. Higher than the biggest mountain in the Netherlands.
Other parts remind you of the moon. It’s called the moon landscape. A valley filled with hills and rocks. Nothing else. No sign of life except some lichens growing on the ground.
The desert can have some mountains too. A few bushes. A tree here and there. Or it is just flat for kilometers. Up to the horizon. Nothing but gravel. Now and then a bigger rock to be seen.
All of that is part of the oldest desert in the world. The Namib desert.
Beach day. And what do Namibians do on a beach day? They braai. That is the Afrikaans word for a barbecue. But never use the word barbecue referring to their culture of making food on the fire. They do not want to be put on the same plate as making food on an electro grill or one with charcoal.
Braai means making a fire. With real wood. And big flames.
And being a town on the coastline we obviously do seafood as well. Fish, mussels, and other sea creatures will get eaten here. The delicacy of eating a fresh crayfish on the beach is one of my favorite ones.
Being in summer we get more and more lovely sunsets on the beach. Sunsets where the fog bank isn’t hanging over the ocean covering the sun for hours. Sunsets where the sky gets painted in red and orange colors.
Taking away the color of this sunset, the whole scene looks sad all of a sudden. No happiness. No summer feeling. No holiday excitement to be seen in the second picture.
Only because I didn’t allow the color to be shown.
While working in the garden this lovely bird flew by. Picking up some seeds in the grass it flew off as I turned my head around. In between the electro fence into the neighbors garden.
Free like a bird they say. That’s true. No fence and no wall will stop a bird.
And there is the poor tomato plant. Hasn’t moved in over a year. Gets chopped down by my hands whenever I walk past it. The seeds get stolen. The leaves picked. Branches cut off whenever they just try to reach for the sky.
These have been my thoughts for the week. It was fun looking for contrary pictures every day. Some days were easier, some more challenging. However, I do invite you to join the fun too. Upload one picture a day for a week and share it with us!
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Anne Bonfert is a traveler. Photographer. Writer. Teacher. Skydiving instructor. Adventure enthusiast. Nature lover. And fell in love with the African continent.
