Travel With Jan

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Abu Dhabi: Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

Kashgar: The Sunday Livestock Market

Sufi Spiritual Frenzy: Sudan

At Home at Gezira El Bairat, Egypt

Erbil, Kurdistan, Iraq

Icehouse and Cedars: Iran

Petra: "Manal, Reyna, and One Hundred Camels"

Istanbul: "Sunday in the Park"

Baku and the Caspian Sea

Casablanca: Market Stroll

The Nizwa Souk: Oman

Martapura Kalimantan, Indonesia

The Erongo Volcanic Complex

Posted June 7, 2024 by Jan

Namibia

Erongo Complex

Pension Rapmund

Swakopmund

Namibia

June 4, 2024

Hello,

Are you a Mineral Collector? The Erongo Complex is The Place!

The granite hosted pegmatites of the Erongo Volcanic Complex in central Namibia are well known for the wide variety of minerals present, of considerable interest to mineral collectors. These include (amongst others) often spectacular, museum quality examples of beryl, schorl, jeremejevite, fluorite, quartz, goethite and cassiterite. The locality is particularly recognized for hosting a variety of beryl types, including green, yellow (heliodor), colorless (goshenite) and blue/greenish blue (aquamarine) variants.

My tour group stopped at a Mineral Market here in the Erongo Complex. The serious geologists among us purchased large mineral specimens suitable for proud display in home or office.

Naukluft and Tsaris and Sossusvlei

Posted June 2, 2024 by Jan

Namibia

Pension Rapmund Swakopmund West Central Namibia

June 2, 2024

We continue our journey through the Namib-Naukluft National Park to explore the agonizing shapes yet pleasing “earthtones” of the fault formations.

We then leave the Naukluft Range to visit the Tsaris Mountains. Here within the black and white striations lie some of the oldest shell fossils in the world: Namacalathus. The discovery of these fossils caused the Precambrian Cambrian boundary to be revised back in time. *

Finally we visit one of Namibia’s great natural wonders, the Sussusvlei Pan and the surrounding red desert sand dunes.

The Naukluft Mountains

Posted June 1, 2024 by Jan

Namibia

Naukluft Mountains

Namib-Naukluft National Park

South-Western Namibia

June 1, 2024

Hello,

Today we visit the eastern-most portion of the Namib-Naukluft National Park, a huge park that encompasses a large area of south-western Namibia.

We walk to see the main basal thrust plane of the Naukluft Fault.

The fault is of interest to geologists because carbonate rocks at its base have lubricated the fault. This lubrication allows rock units to be pushed great distances.