On our way to Namibia
We left last night for the first leg of our trip to Namibia and then on to Jordan. This is our third trip to Africa since 2012, clearly it has attractions for us. We're flying to Jo'burg via São Paulo with a 14 hour layover in São Paulo. I'm not a great fan of Aeroplan, the only routing that allowed us to get to Jo'burg on points and in Business is the one we're flying. Aeroplan offered us other options, a leg to Montreal then an overnight to Frankfurt or London, a long layover and then another overnight to Jo'burg. However the Toronto-Montreal leg was in Business the two overnight legs were in Economy but Aeroplan wanted to charge us the full Business points total even though the only leg that was in Business was the one to Montreal. I don't mind paying the full whack to fly in the front cabin but I find it really galling to be charged maximum points to fly in steerage. I know, no handkerchiefs, a first world problem.
All flights to South Africa from North America, with the exception of a direct Washington to Jo'burg flight that's almost impossible to book on points, are right angled routes, no diagonals, so an overnight north-south or east-west, a long layover and another overnight flight perpendicular to the first. We're in São Paulo, halfway though our 14 hour layover and another overnight flight to go.
On arrival in Jo'burg we fly to Windhoek in Namibia, pick up our 4x4 and self drive through Namibia for the next two and a half weeks. With the exception of our first days driving most of our travel is on gravel roads so expect that we will be dealing with our share of changing flat tires.
This trip is all about landscapes, the scenery and the light will be stunning. I have packed a tripod and my Pentax 645z medium format camera as well as a couple of Fujis and all their respective lenses. As usual I will be battling overweight issues, my carry on camera gear weighs 20k and I'm allowed 8k so expect that our internal flights will be their usual adventurous nightmare.
On the way to the airport last night I was reminded that our timing for this trip is not ideal when I saw a huge, yellow autumn full moon rising over the city. At the time that we booked the trip I had committed to show at the Cabbagetown Art Show and so we were constrained to leave at the time we are now going, unfortunate as all I could think of was what a stunning shot that would have been with the full moon rising over the Namibian desert. I tried to get a shot of the moon on my iPhone but leaning out of a limo window at 100k on the highway and shooting backwards is not an ideal shooting scenario and instead I settled for trying catch the stunning sunset ahead of us on the iPhone. Not a very good shot, shaky and out of focus but the colours were spectacular and I really wanted to see if the iPhone could catch them, it couldn't, as you can see in the image that leads off this post.
Stay tuned, more to come
