by Editor HJ Yang
Edited and published by Yvette Depaepe, the 7^th of February 2025 

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the east and south. Its capital and largest city is Windhoek. It ranges from arid in the north to desert on the coast and in the east.
 
The driest country in sub-Saharan Africa, Namibia has been inhabited since prehistoric times by the Khoi, San, Damara and Nama. Around the 14th century, Bantu peoples arrived as part of the Bantu expansion. From 1600 the Ovambo formed kingdoms such as Ondonga and Oukwanyama. In 1884, the German Empire established rule over most of the area, forming a colony known as German South West Africa. German rule ended during the First World War with defeat at the hands of South African forces in 1915. In 1920, at the end of the war, the League of Nations mandated South Africa to administer the colony. From 1948, when the National Party was elected to power, South Africa imposed apartheid on what was then South West Africa. Namibia gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990, following the South African Border War.

My first visit to Namibia was during our first Africa tour in September 2013. It only lasted a few hours and I saw a very small village called Buitepos. It's a small border town at the main crossing point between Namibia and Botswana. I have no memory of it except for a few huts under trees.

I have heard a lot about Namibia from my fellow photographers. Finally, in July this year, I went on a 16-day photographic trip to Namibia.

We arrived in the capital Windhoek on the 3rd of July. Our group consisted of six guests from USA, Austria, South Africa, a local driver as a local guide and a photo guide from Spain. The next day, after breakfast, we headed south towards the Quiver Tree Forest. These succulent plants with their cracked golden-white bark are a unique and perfect place for landscape photography.

Two days late, after a sunrise session in the Quiver Tree Forest, we drove to our next destination: the coastal town of Luderitz, where we visited the nearest ghost village of Kolmanskop for the first time. This abandoned mining town was one of the focal points of the greatest diamond rushes in history.

We then arrived and stayed at Sossus Dune Lodge as our base for visits to Sossusvlei. This unique eco-sensitive lodge, built of wood, canvas and thatch, is situated inside the Namib Naukluft National Park near Sesriem Canyon and the park entrance. From our veranda we could see a clear night sky. The landscape at Sossusvlei is unique in the world. The Namib Desert with its characteristic red dunes offers us a unique scenario to explore during the next 3 full days.

'Sossusvlei'

'Red dune'

During these days we will visit the iconic sites of Deadvlei and Dunes 45 & 47. Namibia is a country of contrasts. We moved from the desert to the Spitzkoppe area, crossed the Tropic of Capricorn and traversed the Naukluft National Park.

We continued over the Grootberg Pass towards Etosha National Park. Before arriving we visited the Himba tribe in Khorixas. The Himba are one of the last tribes in Africa to live strictly by tradition. We had the opportunity to see them in their natural environment, observe their culture and gain an insight into their traditional way of life.
 
Over the next two days, we visited this famous national park from Okaukuejo to Namutoni from various viewpoints at the waterholes where we stopped to enjoy the views of the Etosha Pan. This vast area, also known as the "place of dry water", offers us a unique experience. We returned to the capital on the 18th of November.

There are two interesting events during the trip that have stayed with me.

The first happened on the first night drive of the trip, when we were out under the dark, clear sky photographing the Milky Way under the Quiver trees. After three hours of shooting, we all came back to the vehicle, ready to go back to our hotel, but one person from our group was missing. Where is my wife? We all went back into the thick forest to search for her, calling her name and flashing our lights in all directions. We spent more than half an hour looking for her. When we finally found her, she turned out to be perfectly fine on the other side of the slope, completely focused on her time lap and oblivious to the concern for her.

The second memorable moment happened on our first wildlife excursion, visiting our last park of the trip in Etosha. When our photo guide pointed out some baby elephants in the distance, they turned out to be young warthogs. We all made fun of his mistake for the rest of the trip. To be fair, he is a landscape photographer, not a wildlife photographer.

However, the most memorable, impressive and unforgettable during this trip for me are the night sky and unique red sand dunes there. Night sky is so clear and stars are so bright as well as the Milky Way. They are so far but you feel so closer to them.

In Namibia, when you stand in the quiver tree forest, boulder forest or the unique red sand dunes under million stars and Milky Way in clear night sky in totally silence, it is impossible for you not to wonder, to think and feel. There is no word I could fully describe what I saw and how I felt. I felt totally lost in this wonderful nature environment in time and space.

In these moments, all I want to say is “O, My God!”  And all I want to sing is “Hallelujah!”  Most time, I just stared at the sky and did not want to do anything, just looking up and wondering. It is impossible for you not to be spiritual at that time. Yes, God is mighty and we are just so small and so insignificant in this universe. It forces you to think nature, God and yourself and how they are related to each other.

The Bible tells us that a basic understanding of God can be gained from the natural world; specifically, we can see "his eternal power and divine nature".

This scripture testifies to God's existence through nature:
The heavens declare the glory of God. The heavens show his handiwork.Day after day they continue to speak, night after night they make him known.They speak without sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world.

The apostle Paul reminds us of this: "For since the creation of the world men have seen the earth and the heavens. By what God has made they have clearly seen his invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature.So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

You do not have to accept the existence of God, but you do have to accept the power of nature, because you and I have observed and felt it from time to time.

In those moments, you have a sense that you are in the presence of something overwhelming, mysterious and magic. Time is suspended or at least blurs. Space is more than three dimensional since you forget where you are. One is encircled by and immersed in an enormous bliss.

The art historian Kenneth Clark, who was not religious, had one of these experiences at an Italian church: “I can only say that for a few minutes my whole being was irradiated by a kind of heavenly joy, far more intense than anything I had known before.”

Then there was another man who had a similar experience, quoted by the psychologist William James in his book "The Varieties of Religious Experience": "For the moment there was nothing left but an unspeakable joy and exultation. It is impossible to describe the experience fully. It was like the effect of a great orchestra, when all the separate notes have melted into one swelling harmony, leaving the listener conscious of nothing except that his soul is being carried upward and is almost bursting with its own emotion".

Nature definitely has the power for you to be spiritual, though not necessarily religious.
Nature will cleanse your soul. So go to nature to observe, enjoy and feel the wonder, mysticism, magic and overwhelming power of nature. You may find yourself or God through nature. Who knows?

'Charged Rhinos'

'Charged Rhinos'

'Sunset time'

About Editor Huijun (HJ) Yang, Ph.D.
Dr. HJ Yang, Scientist, Businessman and Nature Photographer, writes about his photo trips around the world and his personal view on art, science, philosophy and life experience. Some of his writings are below:

Giving a voice to nature through photography
Journey to Baffin Island
Photography strongly connected to nature
Patagonia Special Expedition
Tracking Polar Bear Cubs
Emperor Penguins on Snow Hill Island
Jaguar and Harpy Eagle in Brazil
O' Alaska

Book / Huijun Yang: Wave Packets and Their Bifurcations in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Applied Mathematical Sciences, 85, Springer, New York, NY, 1991.