A wildebeest spotted in Namibia. Photo by Karin Church

Warthogs like this one are found throughout Namibia. Photo by Karin Church

Sand dunes spotted in Namibia in January 2024. Photo by Karin Church

A leopard seen in Namibia in January 2024. Photo by Karin Church

BY BROOKE DAVIS
Kiwanis Club of Los Alamos

At the February 18 th Kiwanis meeting, member Karin Church treated the Kiwanis club to a presentation and slide show of her photography from the trip she took to Namibia with her son in January 2024. The country is quite large, about 120 percent the size of Texas, with only major roads paved.

After much research, they narrowed their scope of their travels to the sites and experiences they most wanted to include in their limited one-week adventure.|

Church and her son drove through approximately one-third of the country. They took a Cessna fly-in tour to visit the more remote and less accessible areas and employed local guides at all sites. She cautioned not to drive outside of towns at night as there are no streetlights and the animals are free range.

Church’s talk was titled “Namibia – The Most Amazing Country You’ve Never Heard Of” and she was subsequently amused to discover that many people in her audience had been there. Namibia is a fairly young country, having achieved independence in 1990. It was a former German colony and in 1920 was administered by South Africa.

Their trip took them to many interesting sites including the beach resort and sand dunes of
Swakopmund, the Skeleton Coast (originally named for the abundance of whale and seal bones but now more known for shipwrecks), Sossusvlei with its clay pans and 1000-foot red dunes, the Onguma Safari Camps, Etosha National Park and Okonjima National Nature Preserve. Karin is an enthusiastic photographer and shared a great many wonderful wildlife and scenic photos.