Gemsboks Gallore!

Hello Again!

Being a novice blogger and still getting the 'hang' of things, I think I noted that I have a 'follower'.  Thanx.  Hopefully, after I get better and after I get the IT gurus to link this blog to my company website (www.africatourconsult.com), then I will have more 'hits' and more 'followers.'

Namibia recently had one Oryx sell at a game auction for N$900,000!  That is (at 7.7 to one USD) about $117,000 US. GREAT!  It makes a strong and positive statement on the issue of 'what is the best land use' in the dry conditions in Namibia.  Namibia is a semi-arid country, but culturally and economically, people of all ethnic groupings prize and value raising cattle.  Yet... the water (or lack of it!) makes this unproductive for most Namibians trying it on the smaller scale.  Unless farmers are lucky about where God placed an aquifer or other viable underground water sources, profitable cattle farming is a challenge.

BUT.. game farming can be a great thing!  It has the wild animals living in their natural areas, eating and drinking as they have adapted to do so.  What wonderful game viewing we have in Namibia! 
If you come here on holiday, you will see it too. But, Namibia is not a game viewing destination. We are the FULL MONTY! We have the high sand dunes, the cultural interactions, the long fabulous coastline with ship wrecks in the sea...along with the game!  We have game on many guest farms where you could stay or in Etosha National Park booking your accomodation in Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR) properties!   The photo above cuts off the high horns of the Oryx, but it is the only one I had available.  The little babies are brown like that at first, then they come into their coloring.

I digress....

This N$900,000 Oryx, or Gemsbok ... the Afrikaan- speaking people say that 'G' in Gemsbok, like a weird hard 'H' sound.. almost like they are getting ready to spit (sorry for this yucky image).  It is pronounced as a hard 'G', not like gems or gemstones.  It is like the hard G in 'Gimme your money!' like in a mugging.

Sorry again for the analogy... but I wanted to give the sound correctly.

This Gemsbok that sold for so much is unusual ... it is special.  It is golden (actually a glossy shiny light brown in different shades, golden in the sun though)  in color.  The rest of these wonderful antelopes are usually different shades of gray, but all looking alike when they are grown up.  They all have faces with white lines of hair around their eyes and black and dark gray around those white lines.  Google a ORYX and I am sure you can find better photos.  Their most distinctive mark is those long, long pointed 'antlers' or horns on their head. These things are straight up in the air and leaning sort of back.  Those 'horns' on their heads can stick up at least a yard (a yard = three feet or a slight bit longer than a meter) and even longer for the bull males! I saw one in Etosha with one of the horns growing off to the left!  It looked like a goal post on an American football field where one of the post was in the process of being torn down by fans!

When you come to Namibia on your holiday... you will see lots of Gemsbok.  Maybe not the golden N$900,000 one, but, you get the point. (no pun intended)

Bye for now.
Jackie