Wilkinson's World

Archive for November, 2010

When you live inland in a desert environment, surrounded by leafless thorn trees and no grass or waterways, you sometimes long for the vibrancy of growth and moisture.  Strangely enough, to me, gazing over a dam is not the same as watching a flowing river.  It’s as if the dam is stagnant, whereas a river echoes the flow of blood through my veins, making me feel alive.  I mention this, because when we arrived at Namushasha, our holiday destination in the Caprivi Region of Namibia, my soul immediately responded to the flowing river and the lush green environment, and my spirits lifted immensely.

Namushasha is a country lodge on the banks of the Kwando River.  We were absolutely delighted with our luxurious suite that had a balcony under a canopy of indigenous trees, and a beautiful view of the river below us.  We couldn’t have imagined a more idyllic setting, with abundant birdlife and the sound of grunting hippos from the reeds on the riverbank opposite us.  We’d hardly settled in and poured ourselves a beer in readiness for a spectacular African sunset when a Barn owl hooted about two meters from where we were sitting.  Every night we were serenaded by a pair of these owls who obviously had no shortage of food in the immediate vicinity of our suite.

We quickly learnt not to step out onto the balcony without a camera, because the birds presented themselves to us at every opportunity.  About four pairs of Paradise Flycatchers flitted around playfully – tantalizing us as they moved so quickly.  Other birds that came and went were Swamp Bou bou’s, White-fronted bee-eaters, White-browed robin-chats and a host of LBJ’s and  flycatchers.

Throughout the day, and especially in the early evening, the river was a flight path for various herons, cormorants and darters.  A Yellow-billed Kite gave us a scare when it landed on a branch draped with fishing line and a lure with many hooks – we wondered if it had been snagged.  Fortunately after examining the lure and not finding any food, it flew off unharmed.  The Fish Eagle’s haunting cry was often to be heard.

There are some excellent walking trails around the lodge and, in spite of the heat, we spent many happy hours wandering through the bush photographing birds and trees.  There were lots of baobab trees in the area and for the first time we saw baobab flowers.  These delicate blooms only last for about a day so we were very gratified to be able to see some at last.  In a wooded area we came across a pair of Grey-headed bush-shrikes that were obviously not too intimidated by our presence as we managed to get quite close to them for some photographs.  We couldn’t say the same about the Brown firefinches, as they were very definitely camera-shy!

On our last evening at the lodge we treated ourselves to a game drive to the nearby Nambwa Game Reserve.  To get there we took a short boat trip across the river and then climbed into an enormous vehicle, aptly named “The Monster” to take us into the park.  A small colony of Carmine bee-eaters was breeding in the ground next to where The Monster was parked.

The game drive was somewhat disappointing as we only saw buffalo and a few buck – not the elephants that we were hoping to see.  Nambwa apparently has the largest concentration of African elephants on the continent, which we have seen on a previous visit.  Although we sat at the waterhole for quite a while, they didn’t come down for a drink.  In spite of this, we enjoyed the tour and felt it was a fitting end to our stay at Namushasha.

For folks not wanting to stay in the lodge, Namushasha has a really nice shady campsite, although campers are warned of visits by hippos and elephants.  It’s definitely worth a visit if you are ever in the area and I must say too that the food at the lodge is fantastic.

The four francolins of the genus Scleroptila, found mainly in the grassland areas of southern Africa, are a  confusingly similar group, with their white throats and brown speckled plumage. There are differences, however, and the fact that they are often to be found in different parts of the country does make identification somewhat less of a problem.

The Orange River francolin occupies mostly the north-western part of the southern African region, from northern and central Namibia, westwards across into Botswana and southwards into the northern part of South Africa. Within this range it is regarded as a fairly common resident of open grassland and dry savanna, usually found in pairs or in small coveys of up to ten or twelve birds.

They are quite often seen at the edge of the road, or scurrying down a gravel road or track ahead of the car and although the francolins are medium-sized with a length of around 33 cm, it is surprising how quickly they are able to disappear from view when entering a convenient patch of dry grass. Their cryptic colouring is a mottled pattern of black and brown that serves as effective camouflage in their chosen environment, and coupled to this is the fact that they are naturally shy and elusive. The sexes have similar plumage, with the males being slightly larger than the females.

Orange River francolins feed on bulbs and seeds, with some green shoots, berries and insects. Their call is a rapid kibitele, kibitele, kibitele that is repeated up to nine times.

Like most of the francolins and spurfowls, the Orange River francolins are monogamous. They nest in a scrape on ground that is lined with dry grass and is usually quite well hidden. The female lays a clutch approximately 4 or 5 yellowish-brown eggs that hatch after an incubation period of approximately 21 days.

The scientific name for the Orange River francolin is Scleroptila levaillantoides; Scleroptila from the Greek for “stiff feathers” and levaillantoides from the Latin meaning “like levaillantii” – referring to Scleroptila levaillantii which is the scientific name of the Red-winged francolin. Thus we have “a stiff-feathered bird that looks like a Red-winged francolin”. Which underlines what I said in the first paragraph, the Scleroptila francolins look very similar.

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 Carmine bee-eaters and rare African Skimmers.  It all started in June when we attended a travel exposition in Windhoek and discovered a company offering greatly reduced prices if one purchased accommodation at any of their country lodges.   We promptly bought six nights and then looked at where to go to cover previously unchartered territory and new birding experiences.

We were excited to see that they had a lodge at Tsumkwe, on the far north-eastern side of Namibia, in an area that is totally off the beaten track.   They had a second lodge, Namushasha, in that direction, in the Caprivi region, where we have wanted to see the Carmine bee-eaters, so it seemed logical to plot our trip with these two lodges in mind.  Having mentioned our plans to some folks we met at a dinner party, we learned that from Tsumkwe, one could go straight into Botswana through a small and relatively unknown border post at Dobe, and then cut up north to Namushasha, instead of backtracking to the main road and driving all the way across the Caprivi.  This valuable information saved us hundreds of kilometers of traveling and shortened our journey considerably.

Tsumkwe is a remote and tiny village just south of the Khaudum National Park.  It only has one general dealer store and a garage that restocks its fuel supplies once a week, so you have to be careful to carry enough fuel in case they have run out on your arrival.  It is also an area well-known for the few remaining San Bushmen (Ju/’hoansi tribe) who live there, and a number of living museums where Bushmen, dressed traditionally, give the public a glimpse into their lives, ancient spiritual beliefs and how they survive off the land.  These Bushmen will be the subject of an entire blog as we spent a delightful time with them on a very hot Saturday afternoon.

The lodge at Tsumkwe is quite basic but comfortable, and the food is excellent.  We were amused to see, on entering our chalet that the washbasin, cupboards and dressing table were all made from 44 gallon drums.  How innovative is that!  They also have a campsite.

With a whole day to explore the area before we left on the next leg of our trip, we decided to visit the Nyae Nyae Pans which are about twenty kilometers from the village.  After rains these pans are filled with birds and animals of every description, but unfortunately for us we were too early to see water so had to content ourselves with photographing Grey-backed sparrowlarks, squirrels and the beautiful scenery.

From the pans we drove to another landmark of the area, the largest Baobab tree in the region, known as Holboom (hollow tree in Afrikaans).  This tree is absolutely mind-blowing in size – it is difficult to wrap your mind around how old it must be and how it could have a girth like it has.  We had a picnic lunch in its shade and reluctantly dragged ourselves away after having climbed up and into its midst.  It was home to a number of birds and tree squirrels.

A few meters from Holboom there is another enormous Baobab under which one can camp if arrangements are made with the headman at the village.  An awesome spot to visit, but one needs a 4×4 as the track is very sandy in patches.

We entered Botswana the following day at the Dobe border post.  Short of actually conducting the border formalities on the bonnet of our car, it was probably the smallest and most informal customs and immigration set up we’ve come across.

No cash changed hands so there were no cross border charges, and after a quick spray of the car wheels to prevent us spreading foot and mouth disease we were on our way along a very sandy and indistinct track to  Nokaneng and then up north to Namushasha on the Kwando River.