windhoek city central namibia

Windhoek is small for a city and a capital city to boot. This neat clean city without smog is situated between mountains on an uneven hilly terrain. Aloe littoralis is on the emblem of Windhoek city. This lovely tall tree aloe can withstand frost, drought and scoring heat. This emblem fits in well with the people of Namibia who are tough and beautiful like Aloe littoralis.

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Photo below shows the dry winter scene.

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Wild animals like the Kudu, jackal and small mongooses can be seen in the hills around the city, especially in times of drought. The baboons tend to be a dangerous nuisance. They are cute to look at, but they can attack and the males are large enough to kill a human or dog. The photo bellow is from a large handsome male who saw the ripe papaw in the garden and decided that it was just what he wanted. We did not want to agitate him so we took the photo through the kitchen window. This gives the impression that he is behind bars, but we were strictly speaking behind the bars not him.

One of the gecko species

Gorgeous little fellow. Those large eyes are necessary for nightlife. Tiny slits of skin under his feet forms a suction which enables him to run along upside-down on the ceiling. His feet feel like velvet if he is on your hand. I hope the old tale that they are poisonous has been cleared in modern times. He will hiss to try and defend himself but his bite feels like a soft pinch. It does not even leave a red mark, far from drawing blood, let alone the ridiculous poison tale.

Approach him and he will run away if he is on a wall, but on this carpet he thinks that he will disappear like when he is on the bark of a tree, so he remains still. This works out fine in nature on a camelthorn tree but at night on a carpet some-one will not see him and step on him. Consequently any gecko on the carpet, no matter how cute he looks, is put outside.

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This Solifugidae spider is active at night. It belongs to the small group of spiders that does not have any poison which is the reason it has to have such large jaws. He crunches a beetle like it was a potatoe crisp. The two feelers in front are larger than the legs and the long stiff hair covering is for the spider to feel the way and not to blunder into anything at night.

Fact is it is not a pretty face to see even though I love the crawlies. It is very scary as it runs with speed. The reason it does run so fast is for it's own life, but if this large spider run through the house jumping out of the way comes first, the camera is second choice. By that time he is gone. Fortunately he thought he missed something and did the rounds a second time.