July 19, 2016

Namibian owls: Creatures of the night

Once you’re hooked on owl watching, you’ll never look back, unless you’re a pearl spotted owlet with a separate set of ‘eyes’ at the back of your head, or a marsh owl, which always look back over its shoulder after take off. Although owls are relatively common, very few people have ever actually seen one.
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July 21, 2016

Shark Island – reflecting a dramatic historical past

There are few places where Namibian history is as tangible as on Shark Island, the wind-swept and barren rocky promontory protecting Lüderitz harbour. The historical reminders and monuments on Shark Island reflect the last 120 years of Namibia’s dynamic history most vividly, and are as interesting and dramatic as the historical processes that shaped the town of Lüderitz itself.
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July 22, 2016

The incredible Zambezi Region

Travelling through Namibia is like travelling through several different historical epochs, continuously encountering different cultures and experiencing different types of climate and vegetation. The Zambezi Region in Namibia's extreme north east is entirely different to the rest of the country in all these respects, especially as regards its history.
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July 25, 2016

Scheppmannskirche – the church in the desert

Turning off the airport road between Walvis Bay and Rooikop, after some twenty kilometres, you reach the water-extraction station of Rooibank, where Walvis Bay and Swakopmund obtain their drinking water. About one kilometre before Rooibank, on the top of a hill on the right side of the road, is a small church. What is the story of this church that was built right in the middle of the desert?
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July 26, 2016

Birding hotspot: Lüderitz

Once you’re in Lüderitz, please don’t become too carried away by the beautiful Art Nouveau and German-Imperial style buildings, because then you’ll definitely run out of time. Our trip along the peninsula south of Lüderitz proved to be most fruitful, with our first sighting being a lonely Greater Flamingo wading along the edge of the Radford Bay lagoon.
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July 28, 2016

Diamonds in the dust – Ghost towns of the diamond era

Ever imagine finding a fortune? Most of us do. Some scour car-boot sales hoping to find a Rembrandt painting tossed aside as a worthless daub, others dream of a long-lost uncle leaving them an inheritance of millions. All over the world people clutch their lottery tickets expectantly in the hope that a matching series of numbers will open the door to a world of wealth and wonder.
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August 1, 2016

Of wind, air and climate change

On a frosty winter morning there is no wind over the Khomas Hochland in central Namibia. Rising over 2 000 metres into the atmosphere, this plateau was elevated hundreds of millions of years ago during the turbulent birth of Africa. Today, with its deeply incised valleys, it is where the wind of the day gains its strength.
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August 2, 2016

A story etched in vegetable ivory

Tall, elegant trees with long, fan-shaped leaves armed with sharp, black thorns – this is the makalani palm, Hyphaene petersiana, found throughout northern Namibia. With male and female flowers borne on separate trees, makalani palms produce a very hard nut – the dark-brown skin covering an ivory-coloured kernel – referred to as ‘vegetable ivory’.
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August 3, 2016

A quantity and quality birding area par excellence

People often ask what our favourite birding spot is. I would rate the Bwabwata National Park situated along the Kwando River in the Zambezi Region among the top birding spots in Namibia, probably in the same league as Mahango and Impalila Island. After each birding trip we do our usual ‘saw’ list, and after Bwabwata we soon realised that, as far as birding is concerned, the park is a quantity and quality birding area par excellence. After 40 odd years as a bird-watcher and still seeing new bird species in a place I’ve visited regularly, is truly exceptional.
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August 4, 2016

Visiting a Peace Park

Peace Parks was the term coined by the World Conservation Union in the 1980s to describe a trans-frontier conservation area, a region that embraces the land of more than one nation, unifying fragmented ecological habitats and promoting environmental and political stability. The Peace Parks concept has been described as “A vision of peace for the subcontinent that sees the recreation of ancient wildlife paths, the unity of ecological and cultural territories and the sustainable development of rural areas.”
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August 5, 2016

The Namibian Riviera

It’s hard to believe that more than five centuries ago Portuguese sailors caught sight of the empty sands of Namibia's coast and sailed away, never to return. Today visiting Europeans, who can’t find a single metre of beach at home that is not occupied by an oiled compatriot baking under a beach umbrella, will think they are either time travelling, already in heaven… or holidaying on Namibia's Atlantic coast.
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August 9, 2016

Etosha – Creatures great and small

Among the most often-asked questions by visitors to the Etosha National Park are “Where are the lions?” and “Where are the elephants?”. These awesome animals are understandably on the wish list of every tourist. However, Etosha boasts a daunting array of other creatures that pose a challenge for the discerning sightseer.
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August 11, 2016

Tangled up in blue – Kingfishers of Namibia

There are 90 species of kingfishers in the world, ranging in size from the large Australian Kookaburras, weighing nearly half a kilogram, to the minuscule African Dwarf Kingfisher, which weighs only nine grams, and our own African Pygmy Kingfisher tipping the scales at only 14 grams. Nine of a possible 16 kingfishers occurring in Africa are found in Namibia.
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August 12, 2016

O&L Energy introduces invader bush as the future of energy in Namibia

The Minister of Agriculture, Water & Forestry (MAWF), John Mutorwa visited the Teufelsbach farm on Wednesday, 10 August, on invitation of the Ohlthaver & List (O&L) Group’s subsidiaries, Namibia Breweries Limited (NBL) and Organic Energy Solutions. The Minister was officially introduced to O&L Energy’s latest innovation that converts invader bush to energy.
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