Sossusvlei, Namíbia

The Namibe Dead End of Sossusvlei


Traces of Vegetation
Acacia and shrubs dot the stony soil of the Sossusvlei valley.
Acacia on Dune
An acacia remains on the sandy slope of Dune 45.
Silhouettes in Search
Towards the skies of Namibe
Balloon rises above the road that runs through the Sossusvlei valley.
arboreal skeletons
Dead and stiff trunks of acacia trees that once proliferated in Dead Vlei.
Acacias and the Shade
Acacias thrive at the bottom of one of Sossusvlei's large dunes.
Sand Duo
Hikers traverse the crest of a curved Sossusvlei dune.
Namib Desert Sossusvlei Namibia Shadow Acacia
balloon session
One balloon ascends while another is filled with helium to keep up with the first one.
Valley of Dead Acacias
The salty clay bottom that fills the from time to time flooded valley of Deadvlei.
sand lines
Dunes composition enriched by the shadows of the sun still low over Namibe.
kulala lodge
Acacia logs around the Kulala Eco-Lodge, in the vicinity of Sesriem.
Namib Desert Sossusvlei Namibia Sunset
GOPR4007
solitary walk
Hiker walks along an already opened trail at the base of Dune 45.
When it flows, the ephemeral Tsauchab river meanders 150km from the mountains of Naukluft. Arriving in Sossusvlei, you get lost in a sea of ​​sand mountains that compete for the sky. The natives and settlers called it a swamp of no return. Anyone who discovers these far-fetched parts of Namibia always thinks of returning.

The lodge we had checked into the night before was called Le Mirage.

We couldn't see it any other way, lost as it was in the vastness of Namibian Sossus and in time, in the outlandish eccentricity of a North African castle or medieval ksar, all rounded, made of cylindrical towers grouped in an almost outer circumference.

We shared the cobbled and fortified interior with an international, upscale and well-heeled community of Namibian explorers, one of them a birthday boy. So we went back to watching the ceremonial that is so frequent in Namibia and southern Africa, of employees singing happy birthday and dancing to the sound of drums in the dining room.

Just as it came out of nowhere, the celebration quickly dissipated. Despite five courses being planned, we shortened the repast as much as possible.

We had a lot of office work to take care of for the coming days and, to help the party, the massive walls of those almost dungeons barred the Wi-Fi signal from room 24 that we had been given. We resolved what we could from the imbroglio.

Ecstatic from traveling along the dusty and slippery roads of Namibia, we fell asleep sooner than we expected. We still haven't recovered from that as we should have.

At 4:30 am, the alarm clocks sounded like a horror movie. Half an hour later, we were making an effort to have breakfast with our eyes open.

At five in the morning, still dazed, we set out to discover Sossusvlei.

Sossusvlei's Early Bird Discovery

We were just over 20km from Sesriem, the main town in the area.

Entry point to the vast domain of its great vleis, the terms used by colonists Afrikaners these parts to define the swamps formed when the temporary water of the rivers spreads through the deserts, in this case, that of Namib.

Namib is regarded as the ancient of the deserts. With more than 2000 km of an extended Atlantic strip of Angola, Namibia and South Africa, is also one of the biggest on the face of Terra.

Where we walked, we were about the middle of the latitude it occupies. We never got close to Sesriem.

We leave Namibian road C27 pointing west. In the vicinity of a certain Kulala Desert Lodge, the sandy path we were following lined up with the furrow dug in the desert by a certain Tsauchab River. Without us having any notion then, Tsauchab has a leading role in almost all the scenarios that we would unveil.

From time to time, rare rainy days in the distant Naukluft Mountains, about 150km to the northeast, revive the river.

They renew soil erosion and compaction of the sands at the bottom of Namibe.

Thus, they excavate, deeper and more defined, the sort of alluvial arrowhead, clearly visible from the air or in a satellite image.

In the company of the withered stream of the Tsauchab, under the suspicious eyes of the oryx residents, the jeep passes by the air balloons that almost splash the clear skies of these confines.

Between oryx and balloons, we enter the muddy valley of the Sossusvlei, between the imposing dunes that delimit it to the north and south.

And the Sandy Conquest of the Reputable Dune 45

We stopped at the base of Dune 45. For an obvious reason.

Located at kilometer 45 of the road that leads Sesriem to Sossusvlei, this dune rises 170 meters high, a geological monster formed by sand that is around five million years old.

It is estimated that that of the Orange River, blown from the Kalahari Desert to the near marine shore of Namib. We began the climb to the top, slowly, slowly, not even the slippery sand of its curved crest would allow anything else.

First, with the sun wanting to peek from the Namibian east.

Soon, we and the top of the dunes are orange by the first rays of the day, especially the dunes, made of sand saturated with iron and, therefore, already ocher in themselves, more ferrous inland than close to the ocean.

The more we ascended, the more abysmal the orange ergs revealed by the surrounding dawn.

And the acacia trees at the bases were even smaller at that time of year, laden with their moon-shaped pods, one of the elephants' favorite foods.

As the sun rose above the horizon and the dunes, it erased the patches of shadow on the unlit slopes.

When that magical contrast faded too much, we returned to the starting point, ready to resume the whitish guiding line of the Tsauchab.

We head west, at a certain point, already on the trail of salty clay left by the unexpected torrents, on our way to the threshold where it disappears into the endless sands of Namibe.

Dead Vlei's Dead End and Dying Valley

Some of the dunes form veritable lakes of salt cooked over and over again by the tropical sun.

One of the most famous, the Dead Vlei, rises at the base of Big Daddy, the highest dune in Sossusvlei, at 325 meters, still below the highest in Namibia, Dune 7, at 383 meters.

We pass below the Big Daddy northern threshold. On the opposite side of its crest, we come across the most exuberant of Sossusvlei's clay basins, the Dead Vlei, translatable as swamp or dead marsh.

Even if we now find it too dry to house large plant life, this was not always the case.

What makes Dead Vlei a special setting is the profusion of acacia skeletons, rigid and branching testimonies of whimsical shapes of times when plentiful rains – probably upstream from the river – and a significant flow from the Tsauchab would have granted another fertility.

Namibe proves to be, however, a desert in permanent movement and mutation.

The dynamics of the sands is fueled by the conflict between the prevailing south-southwest wind which, cooled by the icy waters of the Benguela Current, generates the dense fog that surrounds the edge of the desert and constitutes its main source of humidity.

The great rival of this south wind is known as berg, it comes from the Kalahari Desert and, accordingly, is dry, a real furnace, by the way.  

Balloon, Namib Desert, Sossusvlei, Namibia

Balloon rises above the road that runs through the Sossusvlei valley.

The conflict between these two winds and their derivations shapes the orientation and shape of the Namibe and Sossusvlei dunes.

It may have happened that, in this battle, between 500 and 900 years ago, changes in the Big Daddy dune and neighboring dunes blocked the intermittent flow (it happens every 5 to 10 years) of the Tsauchab into the Dead Vlei.

Devoid of the water that irrigated them, the almost millenary acacias perished.

Their trunks and main branches resist. They form surreal monuments to the biological adventure and misadventure that took place there.

As improbable as it may seem, the Atlantic is less than 50km from the dead end valley of Sossusvlei and Deadvlei.

Even so, not even in the biggest floods that have ever occurred, products of meteorological aberrations, did the Tsauchab reach the ocean as a true flow.

At the funneled end of Sossusvlei, with Big Daddy and its allies in front of it, the river surrenders to the immensity of the sands, allowing itself to disappear.

Passing through the River Aperture of the Sesriem Strait

are rare the rivers that never reach the sea.

Africa has some.

Another, the permanent one and permanently supplied by the rains of the Angolan Huambo, spreads out in a verdant and prolific swamp further into the interior of Africa. This is the Okavango (Cubango).

The sun rises on its way to its zenith. Back in the car, we discover that we have a puncture, luckily one of the very slow ones. We reverse path.

We have time to cross the Sesriem Gorge that the Tsauchab crosses just before entering Sossusvlei, after leaving the Naukluft Mountains behind for good.

At certain points, the gorge is a mere two meters wide, a tightness that we felt was completely out of tune with the inhospitable immensity that we had been traveling for days.

Rare as it is, the narrowness of Sesriem still has the power to preserve a shadowy reservoir of water.

It is, therefore, an almost obligatory meeting point for Namibe fauna, oryx and fang goats, ostriches, jackals, hyenas and many others.

The Remote Germanic Genesis of PN Namibe-Naukluft

If we go back to the beginning of the XNUMXth century, to the colonial era of South West Africa, we find that, even without real intentions of animal protection and preservation, it was the Germans who laid the foundation for the current Parque Nacional Namibe-Naukluft, considered the largest national park in Africa and the fourth largest in the world.

In 1907, they established three large Game Reserves. The Namibe-Naukluft region was included in the third. But the German hunting rights in their colony were lost with the defeat of the German Empire and allies in the 1st World War.

In 1915, the South African administration of the former German colony validated the previously established Game Reserves.

Since then, there have been successive changes.

Almost all in the direction of increasing the area of ​​the NP Namibe-Naukluft and, for quite some time now, instead of promoting hunting, as is still the case in other nearby regions, to protect their animals.

A forced pit stop

Let's return to the current reality in which we found ourselves. The hole that tormented us gets worse.

In such a way that forced us to head immediately to Sesriem, the village located 4km from the gorge.

Merely a refueling point for vehicles and people arriving on their way to Sossusvlei or on their way to less popular but equally extraordinary places in Namibia, Lüderitz, Kolmanskop, Aus.

Like Sesriem, among the few settlements that, for one reason or another, dared to challenge the harshness of the desert.

We stopped at the service station. One of the shift workers washes our windshields and side windows. In good time.

In addition to sand, Namibe is made of dust that, when lodged, makes a point of resisting.

We certify for the long trip to Lüderitz.

After which the second employee, the one who had taken over the repairs, gives us the news: “You're in luck. It was a small nail.

It didn't make a big dent and I can only patch it from the inside.

That way they avoid that hassle of the company of rent-a-car want to make you pay for a new tire.”

Appreciate. We rewarded the attention he deserved.

Kulala Desert Lodge's Starry Eco-Refuge

With the car operational and the mid-afternoon brazier settling in, we took refuge in that night's lodge, the Kulala we had passed at dawn.

The Kulala Desert Lodge proved to be another of several eco-lodges built in wood, stone and other materials from the area, with minimal resources but a creativity the size of Namibe, welcoming and inspiring to match.

We regain the sleep we lost weeks ago.

Even dinnertime warranted a difficult awakening. With the night set, we went up to the lodge's bedded terrace.

There we dedicated ourselves to contemplating and photographing the hyperstarry firmament, with its stars and planets, we dare say that some of them, less extraterrestrial like the Sossusvlei that surrounded us.

Namib Desert, Sossusvlei, Namibia

Kolmanskop, Namíbia

Generated by the Diamonds of Namibe, Abandoned to its Sands

It was the discovery of a bountiful diamond field in 1908 that gave rise to the foundation and surreal opulence of Kolmanskop. Less than 50 years later, gemstones have run out. The inhabitants left the village to the desert.
Lüderitz, Namibia

Wilkommen in Africa

Chancellor Bismarck has always disdained overseas possessions. Against his will and all odds, in the middle of the Race for Africa, merchant Adolf Lüderitz forced Germany to take over an inhospitable corner of the continent. The homonymous city prospered and preserves one of the most eccentric heritages of the Germanic empire.
Cape Cross, Namíbia

The Most Turbulent of the African Colonies

Diogo Cão landed in this cape of Africa in 1486, installed a pattern and turned around. The immediate coastline to the north and south was German, South African, and finally Namibian. Indifferent to successive transfers of nationality, one of the largest seal colonies in the world has maintained its hold there and animates it with deafening marine barks and endless tantrums.
Damaraland, Namíbia

Namibia On the Rocks

Hundreds of kilometers north of Swakopmund, many more of Swakopmund's iconic dunes Sossuvlei, Damaraland is home to deserts interspersed with hills of reddish rock, the highest mountain and ancient rock art of the young nation. the settlers South Africans they named this region after the Damara, one of the Namibian ethnic groups. Only these and other inhabitants prove that it remains on Earth.
Fish River Canyon, Namíbia

The Namibian Guts of Africa

When nothing makes you foreseeable, a vast river ravine burrows the southern end of the Namíbia. At 160km long, 27km wide and, at intervals, 550 meters deep, the Fish River Canyon is the Grand Canyon of Africa. And one of the biggest canyons on the face of the Earth.
Robben Island, South Africa

The Island off the Apartheid

Bartolomeu Dias was the first European to glimpse Robben Island, when crossing the Cape of Storms. Over the centuries, the colonists turned it into an asylum and prison. Nelson Mandela left in 1982 after eighteen years in prison. Twelve years later, he became South Africa's first black president.
Savuti, Botswana

Savuti's Elephant-Eating Lions

A patch of the Kalahari Desert dries up or is irrigated depending on the region's tectonic whims. In Savuti, lions have become used to depending on themselves and prey on the largest animals in the savannah.
Chobe NP, Botswana

Chobe: A River on the Border of Life with Death

Chobe marks the divide between Botswana and three of its neighboring countries, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia. But its capricious bed has a far more crucial function than this political delimitation.
Okavango Delta, Botswana

Not all rivers reach the sea

Third longest river in southern Africa, the Okavango rises in the Angolan Bié plateau and runs 1600km to the southeast. It gets lost in the Kalahari Desert where it irrigates a dazzling wetland teeming with wildlife.
Table Mountain, South Africa

At the Adamastor Monster Table

From the earliest times of the Discoveries to the present, Table Mountain has always stood out above the South African immensity South African and the surrounding ocean. The centuries passed and Cape Town expanded at his feet. The Capetonians and the visiting outsiders got used to contemplating, ascending and venerating this imposing and mythical plateau.
Graaf-Reinet, South Africa

A Boer Spear in South Africa

In early colonial times, Dutch explorers and settlers were terrified of the Karoo, a region of great heat, great cold, great floods and severe droughts. Until the Dutch East India Company founded Graaf-Reinet there. Since then, the fourth oldest city in the rainbow nation it thrived at a fascinating crossroads in its history.
Saint Lucia, South Africa

An Africa as Wild as Zulu

On the eminence of the coast of Mozambique, the province of KwaZulu-Natal is home to an unexpected South Africa. Deserted beaches full of dunes, vast estuarine swamps and hills covered with fog fill this wild land also bathed by the Indian Ocean. It is shared by the subjects of the always proud Zulu nation and one of the most prolific and diverse fauna on the African continent.
Twyfelfontein - Ui Aes, Namíbia

The Rupestrian Namibia Uncovered

During the Stone Age, the now hay-covered valley of the Aba-Huab River was home to a diverse fauna that attracted hunters. In more recent times, colonial era fortunes and misfortunes coloured this part of Namibia. Not as many as the more than 5000 petroglyphs that remain at Ui Aes / Twyfelfontein.
Walvis Bay, Namíbia

The Outstanding Shoreline of Walvis Bay

From Namibia's largest coastal city to the edge of the Namib Desert of Sandwich Harbour, there is an unrivaled domain of ocean, dunes, fog and wildlife. Since 1790, the fruitful Walvis Bay has been its gateway.
PN Bwabwata, Namíbia

A Namibian Park Worth Three

Once Namibia's independence was consolidated in 1990, to simplify its management, the authorities grouped together a trio of parks and reserves on the Caprivi strip. The resulting PN Bwabwata hosts a stunning immensity of ecosystems and wildlife, on the banks of the Cubango (Okavango) and Cuando rivers.
Spitzkoppe, Damaraland, Namíbia

Namibia's Sharp Mountain

At 1728 meters, the “Namibian Matterhorn” rises below the ten highest elevations in Namibia. None of them compare to Spitzkoppe's dramatic and emblematic granite sculpture.
PN Etosha, Namíbia

The Lush Life of White Namibia

A vast salt flat rips through the north of Namibia. The Etosha National Park that surrounds it proves to be an arid but providential habitat for countless African wild species.
Palmwag, Namíbia

In Search of Rhinos

We set off from the heart of the oasis generated by the Uniab River, home to the largest number of black rhinos in southwest Africa. In the footsteps of a bushman tracker, we follow a stealthy specimen, dazzled by a setting with a Martian feel.
Residents walk along the trail that runs through plantations above the UP4
City
Gurué, Mozambique, Part 1

Through the Mozambican Lands of Tea

The Portuguese founded Gurué in the 1930th century and, from XNUMX onwards, flooded it with camellia sinensis the foothills of the Namuli Mountains. Later, they renamed it Vila Junqueiro, in honor of its main promoter. With the independence of Mozambique and the civil war, the town regressed. It continues to stand out for the lush green imposing mountains and teak landscapes.
Host Wezi points out something in the distance
Beaches
Cobue; Nkwichi Lodge, Mozambique

The Hidden Mozambique of the Creaking Sands

During a tour from the bottom to the top of Lake Malawi, we find ourselves on the island of Likoma, an hour by boat from Nkwichi Lodge, the solitary base of this inland coast of Mozambique. On the Mozambican side, the lake is known as Niassa. Whatever its name, there we discover some of the most stunning and unspoilt scenery in south-east Africa.
Hippopotamus moves in the flooded expanse of the Elephant Plain.
safari
Maputo National Park, Mozambique

The Wild Mozambique between the Maputo River and the Indian Ocean

The abundance of animals, especially elephants, led to the creation of a Hunting Reserve in 1932. After the hardships of the Mozambican Civil War, the Maputo PN protects prodigious ecosystems in which fauna proliferates. With emphasis on the pachyderms that have recently become too many.
Annapurna Circuit, Manang to Yak-kharka
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna 10th Circuit: Manang to Yak Kharka, Nepal

On the way to the Annapurnas Even Higher Lands

After an acclimatization break in the near-urban civilization of Manang (3519 m), we made progress again in the ascent to the zenith of Thorong La (5416 m). On that day, we reached the hamlet of Yak Kharka, at 4018 m, a good starting point for the camps at the base of the great canyon.
Bertie in jalopy, Napier, New Zealand
Architecture & Design
Napier, New Zealand

Back to the 30s

Devastated by an earthquake, Napier was rebuilt in an almost ground-floor Art Deco and lives pretending to stop in the Thirties. Its visitors surrender to the Great Gatsby atmosphere that the city enacts.
Aventura
Volcanoes

Mountains of Fire

More or less prominent ruptures in the earth's crust, volcanoes can prove to be as exuberant as they are capricious. Some of its eruptions are gentle, others prove annihilating.
Dragon Dance, Moon Festival, Chinatown-San Francisco-United States of America
Ceremonies and Festivities
San Francisco, USA

with the head on the moon

September comes and Chinese people around the world celebrate harvests, abundance and unity. San Francisco's enormous Sino-Community gives itself body and soul to California's biggest Moon Festival.
Magome to Tsumago, Nakasendo, Path medieval Japan
Cities
Magome-Tsumago, Japan

Magome to Tsumago: The Overcrowded Path to the Medieval Japan

In 1603, the Tokugawa shogun dictated the renovation of an ancient road system. Today, the most famous stretch of the road that linked Edo to Kyoto is covered by a mob eager to escape.
Obese resident of Tupola Tapaau, a small island in Western Samoa.
Lunch time
Tonga, Western Samoa, Polynesia

XXL Pacific

For centuries, the natives of the Polynesian islands subsisted on land and sea. Until the intrusion of colonial powers and the subsequent introduction of fatty pieces of meat, fast food and sugary drinks have spawned a plague of diabetes and obesity. Today, while much of Tonga's national GDP, Western Samoa and neighbors is wasted on these “western poisons”, fishermen barely manage to sell their fish.
Newar celebration, Bhaktapur, Nepal
Culture
Bhaktapur, Nepal

The Nepalese Masks of Life

The Newar Indigenous People of the Kathmandu Valley attach great importance to the Hindu and Buddhist religiosity that unites them with each other and with the Earth. Accordingly, he blesses their rites of passage with newar dances of men masked as deities. Even if repeated long ago from birth to reincarnation, these ancestral dances do not elude modernity and begin to see an end.
Sport
Competitions

Man: an Ever Tested Species

It's in our genes. For the pleasure of participating, for titles, honor or money, competitions give meaning to the world. Some are more eccentric than others.
Aswan, Egypt, Nile River meets Black Africa, Elephantine Island
Traveling
Aswan, Egypt

Where the Nile Welcomes the Black Africa

1200km upstream of its delta, the Nile is no longer navigable. The last of the great Egyptian cities marks the fusion between Arab and Nubian territory. Since its origins in Lake Victoria, the river has given life to countless African peoples with dark complexions.
Camel Racing, Desert Festival, Sam Sam Dunes, Rajasthan, India
Ethnic
Jaisalmer, India

There's a Feast in the Thar Desert

As soon as the short winter breaks, Jaisalmer indulges in parades, camel races, and turban and mustache competitions. Its walls, alleys and surrounding dunes take on more color than ever. During the three days of the event, natives and outsiders watch, dazzled, as the vast and inhospitable Thar finally shines through.
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Got2Globe Portfolio

life outside

Earp brothers look-alikes and friend Doc Holliday in Tombstone, USA
History
tombstone, USA

Tombstone: the City Too Hard to Die

Silver veins discovered at the end of the XNUMXth century made Tombstone a prosperous and conflictive mining center on the frontier of the United States to Mexico. Lawrence Kasdan, Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner and other Hollywood directors and actors made famous the Earp brothers and the bloodthirsty duel of “OK Corral”. The Tombstone, which, over time, has claimed so many lives, is about to last.
Christian believers leaving a church, Upolu, Western Samoa
Islands
Upolu, Samoa  

The Broken Heart of Polynesia

The imagery of the paradisiacal South Pacific is unquestionable in Samoa, but its tropical beauty does not pay the bills for either the nation or the inhabitants. Anyone who visits this archipelago finds a people divided between subjecting themselves to tradition and the financial stagnation or uprooting themselves in countries with broader horizons.
Reindeer Racing, Kings Cup, Inari, Finland
Winter White
Inari, Finland

The Wackiest Race on the Top of the World

Finland's Lapps have been competing in the tow of their reindeer for centuries. In the final of the Kings Cup - Porokuninkuusajot - , they face each other at great speed, well above the Arctic Circle and well below zero.
Lake Manyara, National Park, Ernest Hemingway, Giraffes
Literature
Lake Manyara NP, Tanzania

Hemingway's Favorite Africa

Situated on the western edge of the Rift Valley, Lake Manyara National Park is one of the smallest but charming and richest in Europe. wild life of Tanzania. In 1933, between hunting and literary discussions, Ernest Hemingway dedicated a month of his troubled life to him. He narrated those adventurous safari days in “The Green Hills of Africa".
Cahuita, Costa Rica, Caribbean, beach
Nature
Cahuita, Costa Rica

An Adult Return to Cahuita

During a backpacking tour of Costa Rica in 2003, the Caribbean warmth of Cahuita delights us. In 2021, after 18 years, we return. In addition to an expected, but contained modernization and hispanization of the town, little else had changed.
Girl plays with leaves on the shore of the Great Lake at Catherine Palace
Autumn
Saint Petersburg, Russia

Golden Days Before the Storm

Aside from the political and military events precipitated by Russia, from mid-September onwards, autumn takes over the country. In previous years, when visiting Saint Petersburg, we witnessed how the cultural and northern capital was covered in a resplendent yellow-orange. A dazzling light that hardly matches the political and military gloom that had spread in the meantime.
Mount Lamjung Kailas Himal, Nepal, altitude sickness, mountain prevent treat, travel
Natural Parks
Annapurna Circuit: 2th - Chame a Upper BananaNepal

(I) Eminent Annapurnas

We woke up in Chame, still below 3000m. There we saw, for the first time, the snowy and highest peaks of the Himalayas. From there, we set off for another walk along the Annapurna Circuit through the foothills and slopes of the great mountain range. towards Upper Banana.
blessed rest
UNESCO World Heritage
Hi Ann, Vietnam

The Vietnamese Port That Got to See Ships

Hoi An was one of the most important trading posts in Asia. Political changes and the siltation of the Thu Bon River dictated its decline and preserved it as the most picturesque city in Vietnam.
Ooty, Tamil Nadu, Bollywood Scenery, Heartthrob's Eye
Characters
Ooty, India

In Bollywood's Nearly Ideal Setting

The conflict with Pakistan and the threat of terrorism made filming in Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh a drama. In Ooty, we see how this former British colonial station took the lead.
Vilanculos, Mozambique, Dhows travel along a canal
Beaches
Vilankulos, Mozambique

Indian Ocean comes, Indian Ocean goes

The gateway to the Bazaruto archipelago of all dreams, Vilankulos has its own charms. Starting with the elevated coastline facing the bed of the Mozambique Channel which, for the benefit of the local fishing community, the tides sometimes flood, sometimes uncover.
Tawang Monastery, Arunachal Pradesh, India
Religion
Tawang, India

The Mystic Valley of Deep Discord

On the northern edge of the Indian province of Arunachal Pradesh, Tawang is home to dramatic mountain scenery, ethnic Mompa villages and majestic Buddhist monasteries. Even if Chinese rivals have not passed him since 1962, Beijing look at this domain as part of your Tibet. Accordingly, religiosity and spiritualism there have long shared with a strong militarism.
Train Fianarantsoa to Manakara, Malagasy TGV, locomotive
On Rails
Fianarantsoa-Manakara, Madagascar

On board the Malagasy TGV

We depart Fianarantsoa at 7a.m. It wasn't until 3am the following morning that we completed the 170km to Manakara. The natives call this almost secular train Train Great Vibrations. During the long journey, we felt, very strongly, those of the heart of Madagascar.
A kind of portal
Society
Little Havana, USA

Little Havana of the Nonconformists

Over the decades and until today, thousands of Cubans have crossed the Florida Straits in search of the land of freedom and opportunity. With the US a mere 145 km away, many have gone no further. His Little Havana in Miami is today the most emblematic neighborhood of the Cuban diaspora.
Casario, uptown, Fianarantsoa, ​​Madagascar
Daily life
Fianarantsoa, Madagascar

The Malagasy City of Good Education

Fianarantsoa was founded in 1831 by Ranavalona Iª, a queen of the then predominant Merina ethnic group. Ranavalona Iª was seen by European contemporaries as isolationist, tyrant and cruel. The monarch's reputation aside, when we enter it, its old southern capital remains as the academic, intellectual and religious center of Madagascar.
Bwabwata National Park, Namibia, giraffes
Wildlife
PN Bwabwata, Namíbia

A Namibian Park Worth Three

Once Namibia's independence was consolidated in 1990, to simplify its management, the authorities grouped together a trio of parks and reserves on the Caprivi strip. The resulting PN Bwabwata hosts a stunning immensity of ecosystems and wildlife, on the banks of the Cubango (Okavango) and Cuando rivers.
Bungee jumping, Queenstown, New Zealand
Scenic Flights
Queenstown, New Zealand

Queenstown, the Queen of Extreme Sports

In the century. XVIII, the Kiwi government proclaimed a mining village on the South Island "fit for a queen".Today's extreme scenery and activities reinforce the majestic status of ever-challenging Queenstown.