African Safari - Vagabond Style

[Vagabond]

African Safari – Vagabond Style.

 

Southern Africa has one big advantage over The Americas and the Indo-Pacific. To get there from the UK you fly straight (or nearly straight) down a line of longitude. It takes ten to twelve hours, and you can do it overnight. Get on plane, eat, sleep, eat again, get off plane, and hey presto, its morning, you are in Africa, and there is no jet lag to mar the first day or so.

 

So down the longitude from Gatwick to Windhoek – the Namibian capital, for the start of our month-long DIY safari.

 

We like to do things on our own – so our party will contain no "reps", no non-anglers, no bloody greenies, and above all no bloody know-all, alternative-therapy, leather-elbow-patched, lettuce-nibbling lefties.

 

So we rent a Land Rover Discovery 3, toss in the binoculars, a telescope, a load of fishing gear, cameras, hiking boots, a map, a ten gallon container of water, a tool kit and a very few spare clothes. No guide, no tourist bus, no special treatment. We can chose to stop where and when we like, even change our plans if we want to.

 

We can eat in a posh restaurant or exist on biltong, tomatoes, bread and water al fresco, we can sleep in comfy lodge beds or in a jungle hut – even in the car if desperate (that wasn’t necessary though). The only real constraints are to arrive on the right day at those places where we have booked fishing.

 

Namibia and West Botswana have long, straight, empty roads, disappearing into nothingness – the heat haze makes the horizon invisible. But beware complacency on the empty roads – game can step out of the bush anywhere, and if you do see another vehicle, be aware that Namibians are the world’s worst drivers – crazier than the Greeks, more reckless than the Portuguese. The insurance disclaimers on the hire agreement reinforced that view. We took minimal insurance and adopted a deeply defensive driving strategy.

 

Most Namibian gravel roads are good, but we had to negotiate some soft sand, some dry river beds, and some extremely steep and rocky terrain. The Disco 3 multi-purpose off-road systems (six options obtainable at the turn of a switch) took care of all that – it wasn’t even necessary to reduce tyre pressure in deep soft sand. Earlier this year, I had spent a day on Land Rover’s assault course near Ashford in a Disco 3 and that familiarisation proved very useful. A month’s driving in the Disco 3 convinced me – I want one!

 

Our first port of call was a basalt plateau 80 –odd miles north of Windhoek, where we spent one night at a lodge, and scored the first major triumph of the trip – a magnificent pair of African Hawk-Eagle, which alighted in a tree on the edge of a basalt cliff. These we have been looking for on previous trips to Africa, but this was our first sighting. We watched them for a good half-hour. A bonus in the shape of one of their immature offspring came and perched on the cliff nearby.

 

Next day, we went further north, to the Angola border, formed by the Okavanga river, then followed the river east into Botswana, where we had booked six days fishing with Tourette. That fishing was excellent, and a full account will appear on the Freshwater Forum later today.

 

After our fishing, we came back into Namibia and explored the Etosha National Park – an area the size of Switzerland. The thick bush gave way to a huge salt pan (80 miles across!!) as we went westward, then gave way to the Namib desert. Our main purpose here was to locate the specialist endemic birds of this region. It meant seeking out waterholes where various species of sand-grouse and other rarities such as blue cranes came in to drink. In the course of looking for the birds, we saw a huge variety of other wildlife – much more, I suspect, than most "safari tours" see.

 

Whenever we saw such a tourist party, they were gawping at lions – but in addition to lion we saw many of the small cats, mongooses and other small carnivores that most people miss, African Wild Cat (a pair), Genet, Servaline Cat, Cape Grey Mongoose, Striped Mongoose and more. Several close encounters with elephant and rhino, and one with buffalo. There were antelopes galore, springbok, steenbok, gemsbok, kudu, hartebeeste and wildebeeste. Most of the animals and birds were recorded on Norma’s video camera, but I did take a few still shots.

 

Turning south west, we explored the Erongo Mountains for more birds, such as the elusive Rockrunner (we found several) and a few mountain animals - the tiny Klipspringer antelope and the Southern Porcupine. Then across the Namib desert to Walvis Bay.

 

The Namib – the empty, tireless, arid, unforgiving, shimmering, searing and pitiless Namib. Bounded by mountains to the east and the Skeleton Coast to the west. If the Flying Tench dislikes rain whilst fishing, then the Skeleton Coast will suit him fine – it hadn’t rained for eighteen years where we fished.

 

We had booked a day’s beach fishing and a day’s boat fishing here – to be recorded on the Sea Fishing Forum later today. DON’T MISS IT!!

 

After the fishing we drove back east across the Namib, choosing minor roads and tracks and driving slowly to look for the specialist desert birds. The reward was two sorts of bustard, desert larks, and the Desert Tractrac Chat.

 

Then up the notorious Spreetshoogt Pass into the mountains, where the rare Herero Chat was the final highlight of our trip. Back east to Windhoek, and into the Namibian Airline plane to eat, sleep, eat again whilst we flew back up the longitude to Gatwick overnight. On the way out we had discovered Namibian Airlines to be excellent, except that they have the most uncomfortable seats of all the civilian airlines we have used. On the way back, however, the aircraft was three parts empty, so we could stretch out across three seats each and sleep in relative comfort. We logged 293 species of bird for the whole trip, and we are still working on the identification of all the four-legged creatures we came across.

 

The food was excellent – when we were fishing or birding we had biltong and tomatoes as iron rations for midday. For the evening meal there were ostrich, gemsbok, kudu and eland steaks whenever you needed a change from beefsteak. Eland is a bit like horsemeat, but kudu and gemsbok each have a delightful gamy herby flavour of their own. Ostrich is like super-turkey! Breakfasts were huge, Full English best describes them, with a savory mince offered alongside the usual egg, mushrooms, sausage, bacon and black pudding.

 

In Walvis Bay we sampled the seafoods - octopus, oyster, prawn, and several fish, of which kingclip is the best. The "Raft" in Walvis Bay, built on a small pier, is one of the best restaurants we have eaten in. It offers excellent food, very efficient waitresses, smart service, reasonable prices, and is superb value for money.

 

Here are a few of the (non-angling) still shots I took – the fishing shots are on the two accounts referred to above.

 

Rothschild's Giraffe

 

 

 

Burchell's Zebra

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Springbok and stroppy lioness

 

 

 

 

Dunes in the Namib desert

 

 

 

 

Caama Hartebeeste and Blue gnu in the background

 

 

 

Gemsbok

 

 

 

 

Desert Elephant

 

 

 

Roadside Lion

Edited November 14, 2008 by Vagabond

[Newt]

Great write-up Dave.

 

I always love the way you and Norma seem to squeeze so much living and so much fun out of these trips.

 

293 birds - Wow!!

[Ken Davison South Wales]

Magical read Dave really enjoyed, off to read the salt water and fresh water reports

[Elton]

Blimey, Dave. That looks even better than Colchester zoo!

[Clifftop]

Really enjoyed reading about your trip, a great read Thanks.

 

Cheers Fred

[RobStubbs]

Nice piece, I look forward to reading the other bits !

 

Rob.

[Steve Walker]

Seek out the sea fishing section; the freshwater write-up is great, but the beach fishing is amazing!

[lutra]

Thats another great report Dave.

 

Them Desert Elephants amaze me, how does an animal of that size manage to sustain its self in that harsh environment?

[Vagabond]

Them Desert Elephants amaze me, how does an animal of that size manage to sustain its self in that harsh environment?

 

 

See that thorn bush in the foreground ? They rip 'em up and eat 'em - thorns and all !

 

They do seem to move about a lot, and not all the desert is as bare as in the picture.

 

The sheer numbers of springbok, zebra, wildebeeste and gemsbok in the semi-desert is also pretty amazing - its not easy to see how so little herbage seems to support so many animals, but the sums associated with biomass, food pyramids and the like must obviously add up or the animals would not be there!

 

Another factor is that we were there at the end of the dry season, and things get considerably better after the rains (not in the Namib though, it hardly ever rains there - and large animals are pretty thinly spread in the Western Namib).

 

A lot of the animals would be living on the fat reserves they built up last rainy season - no youngsters were being born whilst we were there, I would expect that to change after the rains.

Edited November 14, 2008 by Vagabond

[Ken Davison South Wales]

I have now read all three threads and each one was a pleasure to read. How you managed to beach that Bronze was beyond me Dave, I am still aching from reading about it and par for the course Norma ends up with that 16lb Tiger amazing. Certaily brightened up my last couple of evenings