Actually, I didn't know Hermi when we first met on May 4th, 2012. I didn't even have the door of my Toyota fully open when Hermi greeted me enthusiastically and welcomed me to his land. At this point I deliberately say country and not farm, because with an area of no less than 330 km², his farm is almost as big as the total area of the Maldives and they consist of 1196 islands!

However, I didn't know this at the time.

Hermi was on the verge of tears and told me about the haters on the internet who gave his farm negative reviews because they didn't have fresh strawberries for dessert. At the time I was a bit exhausted after the long and very strenuous journey and didn't really know how to deal with this host who was obviously on the verge of a nervous breakdown. After a drink, however, Hermi calmed down and we were able to discuss my plans since I was the only guest.

The fact that it is a large farm will become clear to the completely inexperienced at the latest when Hermi starts his Land Rover and takes his guests on a photo safari, because the journey to one of the hot spots is a whole hour and believe me Hermi drives like that a madman.

Unfortunately, I was somewhat handicapped in terms of photography due to my grass pollen allergy, but with Hermi as a guide, even a mediocre photographer will find everything their heart desires and that is exactly what makes this place so extraordinary.

I realize that almost all tourists are also keen amateur photographers and would like to take good photos of these breathtakingly beautiful landscapes home with them. Very few know how to compose motifs correctly and where to look for them. And this is exactly where Hermi comes into play.

He is a good photographer himself and not only brings each of his guests close to a good spot, no, he practically nudges you with his nose.

For me, for example, I am a passionate extreme wide-angle photographer and rarely compose landscapes with the telephoto. I don't really like that. I love my 14-24mm and the fisheye, actually especially the fisheye, because only a few can handle it really well. Hermi, however, has only trained his eye for focal lengths between 100 and 400mm and therefore sees things that are just too far away for me to be interesting.

To make it short…. If you want to bring home unforgettable shots of the red dunes, drive on the D707, take at least 2 days and don't forget your telephoto. Incidentally, I would like to mention that Hermi is a very good cook and equally good host. The fact that there is no electricity in the rooms in the evening is just as clear due to the distance to his farm as he has to drive 400 km to go shopping.

Those are just the impasses of life on another planet, the beautiful Canaan Farm.

And here I am not even mentioning the crazy drives in the middle of the night that Hermi willingly took me to photograph the stars, or the actions when we hunted the various animals with his Land Rover, springbok, oryx and ostrich to the full to photograph a gallop. Of course that's not woke anymore these days... which I don't give a shit.

Walzing Mathilda with Milky Way in Background

I can't tell much about Hermi himself, since we only had a few days together during which he told me a little about himself, but these were the most impressive stories I had heard on all my Namibia trips to date.

As the son of a family that came partly from Austria and partly from England, his grandfather or great-grandfather had already bought the land on which he now lived, the Kanaan Farm and completely fenced it in, which is tantamount to a life's work when you see the sheer size of the farm on.

33,000 hectares not only sounds impressive for a single person, they are too. If you are standing on the crest of a dune and Hermi points to the horizon and says... do you see that group of trees on the horizon there..? That's where my property ends, and on the other side, you see the mountain range near the horizon... there's the other perimeter fence.

Quiver Tree

Chasing a herd of Common Ostrich (Struthio Camelus)

So these two days with Hermi flew by and I found myself back on the dusty pad towards Sesriem. But since I'm a particularly smart guy, I noticed right after my departure - so 2 hours later - that I had forgotten my two tripods in his Land Rover. Man was I mad at myself.

A single person can't be that stupid, I thought to myself, grabbed my satellite phone and desperately called Hermi. He was very relaxed and suggested that I meet in the middle. So I “only” had to drive an hour back and found Hermi standing sideways on the sand track waiting. He smiled at me, handed me a cold can of Coke and handed me my tripods.

I thought he was a really nice guy and drove the shitty route towards Sesriem for the third time.