[Namibia 2017] Quiver Trees of Namibia #2

Namibia’s quiver trees are remarkable not only for their strange, prehistoric appearance, but for their longevity. In keeping with their not-quite-of-this-world aura, the trees, it seems, found ways to outsmart nature. In a formidable environment like the Kalahari, the quiver trees were able to adapt and as a result, can live for more than a century. The oldest among them is more than three hundred years old. Growing as tall as thirty feet, the upturned branches of the quiver tree escape the most intense heat radiating from the desert floor. The branches are coated in a powdery substance that reflects the sun’s rays, as if issuing a dare to the environment. The trees survive where virtually nothing else can, in one of the world’s harshest environments.

Even the quiver trees have their limits, however. Because of their remarkable life spans, the trees have witnessed the warming of the planet, and with their inborn skill for survival, they’ve begun migrating south, farther away from the equator. It’s as if, in shifting their range farther south and to higher altitudes, the otherworldly quiver trees are issuing a silent warning for the rest of us.

At first glance, the Quiver Forest seems to be a place devoid of life, a place in which only the most undaunted of survivors — the trees themselves — dare to exist. But there is life in abundance in the Kalahari. Even in the driest parts of the desert, ground cover flourishes. Only in the Kalahari’s salt-infused pans—and then only in the driest part of the year — is the landscape truly devoid of plant life. In much of the region grasses and acacia trees grow, undeterred by their harsh environment.

In the Quiver Forest it’s easy to be preoccupied with the strange, magisterial trees that give the place its name, to see only the curiously-shaped plants that seem to have come from a child’s sketch book. But the forest contains a multitude of other stories. Scattered among the trees — themselves older than any human will ever be — are volcanic boulders, thrust onto the earth’s surface in some distant epoch. The stories this place could tell. The world does this here and there — spreads an ancient landscape out before us, simply to remind us of our small place in the order of things.

Is there any place in the world like Namibia? Is there any place where the earth has given us gifts of such rare and unusual beauty?

Technical details:

Camera	Nikon d810
Lens	Nikkor 16-35 f/4
Settings	ISO 64, 24 mm, f/11, 3 seconds
Type	Single shot
HDR	Additional exposures for highlights

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Anshar Photography
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