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3.5 amazing hours, Namib Desert (final episode, with musical bonus)

 

The featured image looks north/ish, to the silhouetted edge of the Namib’s “sand sea”, circa 40 kilometres east of Sossusvlei.

I took the photo at 7.37 pm – Sossusvlei’s sunset time on 21 November 2022.

This little series’ final image was captured 7 minutes later.

Had I had available the necessary time and technology, I would then have loved to listen to a particularly sublime musical creation which I first heard in 1989, and which amazes and inspires me, still.

 

 

 

7.33 pm, 21 November 2022, 6 minutes after sunset, circa 40 ks east of Sossusvlei, Namib Desert, Namibia. All photos copyright Doug Spencer

 

 

 

 

7.33 pm, 21 November 2022, 6 minutes after sunset, looking north to edge of the Namib Desert’s “sand sea”. All photos copyright Doug Spencer.

 

 

 

7.34 pm, 21 November 2022 – 7 minutes after sunset, circa 40 ks east of Sossusvlei. All photos copyright Doug Spencer.

 

The satellite image below will give you some idea of how the Sossuvlei area’s different natural features “sit” and interact.

If you look at what resembles a crocodile’s open jaws,  our Kulala Desert Lodge vantage point sits a tad left/west of the imaginary crocodile’s top front teeth.

The mountains and inselbergs visible in some of my photos are the dark shapes to the south and east of those imaginary teeth.

 

 

Satellite image of the section of the Namib relevant to “3.5 amazing hours…” series

 

 

 

Musical bonus

This trio piece is fifteen minutes long, exquisitely nuanced, beautifully recorded, and perfectly structured – it is pleasingly hard to believe that “Endless” was indeed a spontaneous improvisation.

It needs, deserves – and will richly reward – a listener’s undivided attention, ideally via good speakers or headphones.

“Endless” was issued in 1989 on the album Changeless, which presented four spontaneous (October 1987) conversations between pianist Keith Jarrett, double bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Published in 'western' musics Americas and Eurasia and Africa instrumental music music nature and travel photographs