Thursday, 28th February. Before sunrise, all the others went off, after a coffee, for a bird-watching walk around the grounds of the Lodge. Being rather birded out, I allowed myself a few more minutes in bed, though still had had my breakfast pretty early, well before the others got back to have theirs. I filled in time by wandering round the grounds on my own in non-birdwatching mode, and then visiting the ‘Reptile Walk’ of the lodge, which had sadly seen better days.
The bar, where we had had our lunch on the two days we were there.Trees often grow through termite mounds, apparently because of the greater fertility of the soil, and possibly their greater water contentI didn’t go looking for birds, but sometimes you just can’t avoid them. Red-billed hornbill, in still poor, early morning light.Anchieta’s dwarf python. Quite big. actuallyBlack mamba. Not very big, but I’m glad there’s glass between me and it.Later, as I went to join the vehicles to leave, this family of striped mongooses, very much at home in the grounds of the lodge, were taking advantage of the hose water.
We covered a lot of ground this day, 430 km/267 miles. It was pretty hot (35 degrees C max) , and thunderstorms threatened, never amounting to much though.
Weaver birds’ nests. Even a refuelling stop is the opportunity for birdwatching.Ooh, and here we are at a sewage works.Fortunately, the problem with Jakes’s vehicle (a tyre I think) arose in a town, Tsumeb. Jakes explains it, Neil listens, and the mechanic mops his brow.Namibia is rich in minerals.
Our lunch was taken at a Roy’s Rest Camp, whose proprietors have a wacky sense of humour!
Looks fairly normal to begin with, just a little run-down. (It gets good reviews though).Just two examples among many of eccentricity.The dining area seems normal, until you start noticing little curios. No pictures because I was eating…… and then keen to get back to chat with this man. A Scot, who had lived in Australia for the last 40 years (though you’d think he’d never left Renfrewshire from his accent) who is travelling the world with just a 150 cc bike, (there in front of our right-hand vehicle), a mobile phone, and virtually no plans. Is nearly at the end of his years-long odyssey. Amazing fellow. I got this photo, with his permission, but didn’t like to ask his name.
Once we got going again, there was little time to stop for wildlife photographs, and I snatched such pictures of Namibian rural life as I could through the windows of the vehicle.
When we were nearly at our next destination, near Rundu, a dust storm arose as we went through the town. “Windows closed please!”
Shortly afterwards, we arrived at Kaisosi River Lodge on the Okavango River, with Angola on the other side.
Four rooms in this building. Mine was downstairs, in the nearer half, the river beyond.From the riverside, No 3.Just so peaceful after a long day’s journeying. View from the ‘French’ window.View from the verandah by the dining room.
But the dining room was not – yet – for us. After settling in, we went out to visit ….. a sewage works.
Homeward bound in the shower with firewood.Black-crowned Night-heronsRed bishop. The first we had seen, but we were to see more.Embroidery on my pillowcase. Pied kingfisher.
Tuesday 26th February. Today we were leaving Halali Camp and moving on to Mokuti Lodge at the eastern end of Etosha National Park in time for lunch, and to stay two nights. While we were waiting for our vehicles to collect us, some of us were amused to see a honey badger arrive at the row of bins opposite us, (all closed at that stage), sniff at each, and, clearly much practised, neatly flip open the lid of the end one – holding it open with its back leg to prevent it falling shut – go inside and take out this packet of meat, then calmly tear it open and eat the contents, slice by slice. It then proceeded to do exactly the same with a packet of cheese slices. Not the way you really want to observe wildlife, but a clear illustration of adaptation to human presence. They were there first!
We set off through the national park, taking our time, stopping at the roadside and waterholes, making for our new lodge.
Lilac-breasted roller?ImpalaKori bustard (BL)
I was in Jakes’s vehicle this day, and he was particularly excited to see this rhino. It is a White rhino, quite rare (and, as I discovered later, a reintroduction). ‘White’ is a corruption of, I believe, Dutch ‘wijd’, referring to its wide mouth. The White rhino also has a prominent neck hump. It is noticeably larger than the Black rhino. The Black rhino is also called the Browse rhino.
Hooded vulture (BL)Spotted hyenaAt the roadsideEuropean bee-eatersOryx. Answers also to the name GemsbokIt’s not only giraffes who have to splay their legs to drink. So do impalaWhen we saw elephant approaching from our right, we not only stopped, we backed up a little. We were clearly in the path they were going to take.
This is how near they were, even as they were going away.
When we were only a few miles from or next lodge, we stopped at Namutoni Camp, a former German colonial fort, now another government-run lodge.
There was a small museum there, and a family of striped mongooses.
But our next lodge was privately run, and a distinct notch or four up on those we had already stayed at. After a leisurely lunch, and a siesta, we were due to go out, though this was put slightly in doubt by rain, the first of only two occasions when we wondered whether our plans might be affected in this way. But the storm was brief, nothing like enough to help do anything about the drought, and we went out at the planned time.
Southern red-billed hornbillLeopard tortoiseRed-necked falcons Signs of the recent rain soon disappearedOur first ostriches. We were to get better views in later daysSwallow-tailed bee-eaterNorthern black korhaan (aka White-quilled bustard)Adult warthogBut it was nowhere near these three little hoglets we saw later, running out of a culvert, no parent in sightPale chanting goshawkBlack-backed jackalWildebeest and cattle egretsAll of life is here! Impala (as far as I can tell), zebra, giraffe, grey heron, and just two Greater flamingos. But for the drought, there would have been huge flocks of flamingo we were told. As it was, we were very lucky to see any.Although it was very warm, we had little sun all afternoon, and rain threatened much of the time, though never fulfilling its threats. Such rain as there was anywhere was very localised. This part rainbow accompanied us for a good while as we made our way back to the lodge in the late afternoon. I wondered whether its curious shape was because the sun was so high, but this theory was well disproved nine days later.
Monday afternoon and evening, 25th February. After a siesta we went out for another drive, aiming for another waterhole. On the way:
Kori bustard – a very big bird which ‘flies reluctantly’These may resemble our collared doves, but they are African (aka Cape) turtle doves. I rather mind the name, given that our own turtle doves are now such a rarity.
Once at the waterhole we were royally entertained.
Springbok trying to keep cool. It was particular hot this afternoon.Adult and juvenile Bateleurs. ‘Bateleur’ is French for an acrobat, and the bird is so-named for its sideways rocking flight. like the rocking of the high-wire artist’s pole.Black-faced impalaJuvenile baleteurZebra with a springbokA scattering of giraffesI thought I was taking the juvenile Bateleur cooling itself. But, as I take photos on burst setting, I found I had also taken a sequence of a bee-eater coming in, hoping to catch a fish. Sadly the sequence did not include the entry to the pool, but here it is emerging – with no fish.? I’m tempted to suggest a juvenile African fish-eagle, but our records say we did not see one that day.A lioness appeared some way off, and joined another.Springbok
During our return to Halali Camp for our second night there:
A slender mongoosesome striped mongooses,and another black rhino! Most unexpected to see so many and so soon:
After an early dinner we returned to the morning’s waterhole, by now floodlit, in the vehicles this time even though it was only a short walk away.
As we arrived, a hippo was leaving, and there was the twittering of hundreds of sandgrouse (?) arriving and drinking their fill for quite a while until they left.A mother hippo and youngster arrived.Another (the first?) arrived. Mother was very protective, though the youngster seemed curious about the newcomer.
But sadly, having stayed an hour we had to leave before we could see the outcome of the confrontation.
Monday, morning, 25th February. Here is a map of Etosha National Park. “>http://a href=”https://www.etoshanationalpark.org”><img src=”https://www.etoshanationalpark.org/media/Etosha-Map2.jpg” alt=”Etosha National Park Map” title=”Etosha National Park Map”/></a>
It’s huge. Etosha Pan itself is 75 miles/120 kilometres long. This is a dried up lake, the salt from which affects the land to its south. We had entered the NP by Anderson Gate, in the middle of the Park, and Halali Camp is a little over a third of the way along the Pan to the northwest of the Gate. The map shows the many waterholes.
After a very early breakfast, we went out for a ‘game’ drive. It was not quite as light as my camera made out to begin with.
Black-backed jackal
Our first lion, a female with a nasty but healing wound. She seems to have the remains of a kill.
Springbok and Striped MongoosesSecretary bird, the last we were to seeOur first elephant, much further off than it appears from this maximum zoom photoThe Pan in the middle groundRock kestrel?. No, a lesser kestrel according to BL.And then we heard a lion was on its way. Our leaders positioned the vehicles near the pool it was thought to be heading for.What a handsome beast!He roared for his females. It was loud! Nothing like the gentle huffing in the following video taken from a new spot we had moved to
He stopped, examined us …… and then moved off. We did not see his females.We continued on our way, and I’m starting to recognise a blacksmith lapwing.What’s that venturing its head out of a (dried up of course) culvert?…… A spotted hyenaAnother black rhino – or rather two!
When we got back to Halali Camp, it was still relatively early, and we had a couple of hours off. The Camp had no free wifi, but our vehicles did, and I spent some time in one of them (as it was being driven to get fuel and then parked somewhere in the camp) catching up with vital home political news. (For those interested in such things, I learned that THAT vote, due already for the nth time on 27th February, was being put off again for two weeks.)
Before lunch, the group walked five minutes to the waterhole a few had visited the previous evening. En route we saw in the camp grounds, among other things, …
a Cape glossy starling (we were to see many varieties of beautiful starling in the two weeks),and an African Scops owl, trying to sleep, a bit fed up with the attention. To quote from my bird book, ‘ … its cryptic colouring makes detection difficult. This camouflage is further enhanced by its habit of depressing its fathers to appear long and thin, raising its ear tufts and half-closing its eyes, creating the illusion of a tree stump.’
Once at the waterhole, where we were comfortably seated, we saw plenty of life.
Kudu and Marabou storkRed-billed tealKuduLaughing dove and Long-tailed paradise whydahs (?)I think this is the male of a species of Paradise whydah in transition to breeding plumage, but I’m not sureImpalas practising. Elephant dung gets everywhere.Marabou storkLong-tailed Paradise-Whydahs, male and femaleThe pool was not empty for longRed hartebeestAnd this I how the pool was when we left for our lunch.
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