Off the beaten track – Tsumkwe to Nokaneng
We’ve written before about how our love of birds has taken us all over the country. We’ve just returned from yet another trip that was moulded around seeing breeding colonies of the strikingly beautiful...
Bird of the week – Week 43: Bokmakierie
The call of the Bokmakierie is a delight to hear. The paired birds almost invariably call in duet and have quite an extensive repertoire, but often containing a bok, bok, bok followed by a...
Just for today….
Just for today Do not worry Just for today Do not Anger Just for today Honour your parents Teachers and elders Just for today Earn your living honestly Show gratitude to every living thing...
Bird of the week – Week 42 : African mourning dove
Southern Africa is blessed with a great variety of doves and pigeons; around fourteen different species are resident here. Some are common and widespread throughout the region, others not. One of those that is...
Weekend at Arnhem Cave
We’re always scouting for camping venues close to home, and have discovered a great farm about 140 km east of Windhoek. Not only does it have campsites and chalets, but Namibia’s largest cave system...
Bird of the week – Week 41 : African Jacana
In Afrikaans it has the delightful name of “Grootlangtoon” which can be translated as “Big long toe”. This is wonderfully descriptive of a bird that has toes so long that they trail behind the...
Where have all the rhinos gone?
Our readers are mainly folks living out of Africa, so I’m going to ask you a strange question here – have you ever seen a rhinoceros in the wild? If you haven’t, may I...
Bird of the week – Week 40 : African pied wagtail
A familiar sound along many of the waterways of southern Africa is the sustained “tsip weet-weet” of the African pied wagtail, a song that is easily recognized once initially identified. As is the bird...
Go with the flow – in the Okavango Delta
No visit to Botswana is complete without experiencing a mokoro trip in the Okavango Delta. Whilst the national parks enthrall you with their abundant wildlife and scenery, gliding through the narrow channels of the...
Bird of the week – Week 39 : Bateleur
When the ruins of Great Zimbabwe were discovered by the first European adventurers in the early 16th century, and more fully investigated in the 19th century, one of the intriguing discoveries made amongst the...
The Bizarre Welwitschia
In June 2009 the Daily Telegraph in the UK ran a competition in their gardening section to find the “World’s Ugliest Plant”. The competition was won by the Corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanum) (no surprise...
Bird of the week – Week 38 : Madagascar bee-eater
There is a population of Madagascar bee-eaters that arrives in the north-western corner of Namibia and neighbouring southern Angola around September each year to breed. These birds stay for just four or five months...
All creatures great and small
My previous blog was about the spotted hyenas that we saw on a visit to the Kruger National Park. I also spoke about the majority of people wanting to see the Big 5. It...
Bird of the week – Week 37 : Dusky sunbird
One of the fairly common avian residents of the arid western parts of Southern Africa is a small sunbird, just about 11 cm in length, which is busily active even in the midday heat,...
Spotted Hyenas in Kruger National Park
A visit to the Kruger National Park in South Africa is such a rewarding experience for avid animal and bird lovers like ourselves. We have just returned from a holiday in that part of...
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