I heart Namibia

I just got back from a truly awesome tour. It reaffirmed why Namibia is my favorite place to guide. We saw tons of great birds and mammals, stayed at a wide variety of very cool lodges, ate many, many different animals, saw two of Africa's mightiest rivers, swam with a pet otter, kayaked with fur seals, and bungee jumped off the Victoria Falls bridge. All-in-all, a good time.

The trip started in Namibia's capital, Windhoek, then went down the mountains and through the desert to the coast at Walvis Bay, then through the Erongo Mountains to Damaraland, across Etosha National Park, through the Kavango region into Bostwana, back into Namibia and across the Caprivi Strip, and ultimately into Zambia, where the trip ended at Victoria Falls.

Even though the trip report is posted and includes lots of awesome photos, mostly by Larry Kay, (click here, it's a pdf), I took lots of cool photos that are more appropriate for this forum. Some of them are below.

Thanks to a tip from my colleague Ken Behrens, we were able to see lions at a giraffe kill in Etosha. It was pretty awesome, and sort of gross, and a little bit sad. It was a huge adult bull giraffe, not an easy thing for lions to take down. If you look closely (or, better yet, click on the image to blow it up), you will see two lions in the background, their bellies completely stuffed with giraffe meat.

Elephant in front of the setting sun in Etosha.

A favorite tour activity: photographing roadkill. In this case, a scrub hare.

Me and a big termite mound near Outjo.

Sarah photographing an elephant in Etosha.

The Kay family in front of Shamvura's massive Carmine Bee-eater colony along the Okavango River in Namibia. If I had turned around, I would have entered into a staring contest with a group of hippos.

Perhaps a photo that only a birder can appreciate: these are Dune Lark tracks in the Namib Desert sand (and yes, we saw the bird too!).

Back to Africa

I arrived back in Cape Town a few days ago from a wonderful summer in the States. I found that, in the time I was gone, my refrigerator had broken and been discarded (and not been replaced); among the items stolen in our house robbery was my beloved (now dearly departed) Leatherman; and summer has not yet arrived to the bottom of the continent, so I huddle in my sleeping bag at night because, along with the knife and fridge, my sheets also vanished during my absence.

Table Mountain and the beach near my house, thankfully, are both still here.

And the sun still sets over the Atlantic.