I Arrived Back In The UK Safe And Sound,

I am only making a short post today, 

as I am re-packing for my visit to Thailand on Thursday, in the evening I was out, but first my meal,

a read and no not a sherry, tonight a glass of milk as I will be driving later, 

Diana had bought me a prawn cocktail, 

and a shepards pie, 'Cheers!', after which I was out to Beckenham Photographic Society, in my absence Andrew had entered a couple of my PDI's for me last week, (Projected Digital Image) they are shown on a screen rather like slides were when transparency film was used, a lot of people do not like making prints preferring to keep to digital images, the judging was tonight, but first a small ceremony as a award to the club was given,

Rodger on the right, 

gave the shield to Andrew, the club chairman, it was that the club was triumphant against 23 other photography clubs in Southeast England, next back to the judging, I entered 2, as did 11 other club members in the standard group and here they are, 

there were 22 prints entered, above The Dulcimer Player, he scored a low 7.5 out of 10,

but I did rather better with Neon Lights In Chinatown, Pattaya, scoring 9.5 and as it happens 2nd. place, as I will be going there tomorrow I might treat myself to a evening meal in Sea Zone to celebrate! after the meeting I picked Diana up from work, arriving home we chatted away as a Midsomer Murder was playing, after which we were off to bed.

I Will Try To Post These In Some Sort Of Order,

but no promises!

from London to here, Frankfurt, then on to Namibia, where I was picked up by Hosia, 

and was soon on my way, 

to Windhoek, the capitol of Namibia, 

driving through the town there were these amazing trees, covered in the most delicate purple flowers, in Thailand we had a sort of equivalent, flame orange and found everywhere outside of towns flame trees, (Delonix regia), and locally called Hang nok yung farang (หางนกยูงฝรั่ง), meaning "foreign peacock tail" Thai is often a very descriptive language, 

and here we are, Casa Piccolo,

my first stop for a couple of nights whilst the rest of the group arrived,  

in the courtyard a lemon tree with huge fruits, 

and a fountain in the middle, I decided on a walk,

 just down the road, 

I bimbled down here to a hotel's bar,

for my first of many Windhoek beers,

a walk, (stagger), well it was a hot afternoon and I needed rehydrating, back to,

Casa Piccolo, where I was greeted by a ostrich and chick,

a van arrived with, 

fellow travelers Helen and Seyhan and master photographer Will, who will lead the photographic workshop,

in the evening, 

a trip to a local restaurant, 

my first taste of the local meats, springbok I think it was, and nice it was too, sorry fans of Bambi, but there it is, 

a quick photo before we were off back to the hotel, 

and this is not Wills bad driving, to fit into a space as the place was packed, Will was instructed to put a few wheels on the pavement!, after which home for a good night's rest.

I Am Briefly Back From Namibia,

for just a couple of days before leaving for Thailand, 

as I am back a very short, quick post of my trip, firstly I should say it was organised by master photographer Will Gray, who provided all of us with unlimited advice, tips and techniques throughout the trip and was supported by his charming wife Sal, who looked after all of us with unflinching devotion, also I must mention Howard, who was a tour de force for his on the ground help with vehicles and hardware for the trip, his company is Namibia Car Rentals, if you need a car or a 4 x 4 he is the go to guy in town, (Windhoek), back to the photos, all taken on my mobile telephone or my pocket Panasonic Lumix DMC TZ 30, these are just a few of some of the places we visited, tomorrow I will try to begin at the start of journey, it will be a tad difficult as I will lose a day traveling to Thailand, also I will not have my desktop computer with me, so I will not be able to 'fine tune' any of them, I have not retouched them or improved them in any way except from cropping a couple, I will leave all of that to when I am back in Blighty mid December, when I can start looking at the photographs I took with my Fujifilm camera and my infrared Panasonic, above one of the cutie's on the trip, a meerkat, 

doing what they do best, digging, 

although we were on the lookout for live animals, at our first stop there was a animal cemetery, 

my accommodation for the night, 

the back of the 4 x 4 cruiser open as we ready to set off,

 

many of the drives between lodges were a tad long, so a stop every now and then, 

one of the places we called into,

where the quiver trees grow, and no they do not 'quiver', the name arises from the fact that the indigenous San people, (Bushmen), traditionally used their hollowed-out branches to make quivers for carrying their arrows, as it happens despite looking like rugged desert trees, they are actually a large, branching species of aloe (Aloidendron dichotomum, formerly Aloe dichotoma) native to South Africa and Namibia,

the lodge, 

the dining area under a branch roof, 

a huge barrel cactus, both Echinocactus and Ferrocactus were here, the Echinocactus has a fuzzy crown of fine spines, while the Ferrocactus are ferociously thorned, also in my cactus keeping days they were rather unkindly known as Mother-in-law's pillows! 

one of the quiver trees,

and a succulent in seed, 

another shady corner in the compound, 

we made our way to the quiver tree forest, 

and stunning they were, 

as a rock hyrax, (Procavia capensis) looked on, 

it was stony going, 

but worth the walk, 

Andrew and Seyhan getting down low,

as well as Will and Sal,

looking at this little beauty, 

Will getting in close,

sort of group photo, as we bumped into some other travellers here, 

it was that time of the evening, a tradition, a sundowner,

wherever we were a table was set up, 

for a evening tipple and a few snacks, 

a relaxing way to end the day, from left to right, Helen, Sal, Will, our driver Hosia, Helen and Andrew,

before returning to our lodge, our evening's meal, these are just a few photos, I will try to pop some more on the blog before I leave on Thursday.