Lower Zambezi, Higher Cost

Africa’s national parks differ a lot from country to country and they are run in very different ways, so I never know what to expect next. In South Africa and Namibia, the parks are over-organized operations with gates, curfews and strict rules, though I found them somewhat bendable despite constant ranger patrols. In bureaucratic Botswana, the seemingly dead plains of the Kalahari Desert are empty from any regime,... [Read more]

Private Parts in Zambia

I am far from a nun, extremely comfortable with my body, and if you describe me as “shy” in front of anybody who even remotely knows me – they’d laugh in your face. That said, I would like to think I’m all about respect. Respecting other cultures and their degrees of modesty are highly important during the sort of travel I enjoy most. However, in Africa I officially declare myself confused by modesty... [Read more]

Leaving Namibia, or How to Find a Pangolin

I hate to leave Namibia - it has been so good to me. But my last days
here weren’t without memorable adventures. I wondered if the day would
come when Columbus would drown in the thick mud it often has to go
through. And that day nearly came.

Mamili National Park was going to be the last on my list in this
country. It was almost completely flooded and looked deserted. A few
successful... [Read more]

Border-less Wildlife

On the little stretch of Caprivi, where the colonial politics of the
past have arbitrarily divided the land into Namibia, Botswana, Zambia,
and Angola, wildlife knows no borders. The river here serves as the
divide, and its name changes every hundred miles or so. Birds here are
as colorful as I’ve ever seen. Carmine bee-eaters sunbathe on low
branches, and I photograph them in all their... [Read more]

Caprivi People

Namibia differs from Botswana like day from night, except for
Namibia’s Caprivi Strip. On a map, it looks like the neck of a guitar,
and stretches for over three hundred kilometers west to east, although
it’s only thirty to seventy kilometers wide. Along its seldom used
roads are scattered tiny mud-huts and skinny livestock. Most of the
structures are round, with a frame of thick... [Read more]

Chameleon Africa

Africa is a chameleon. I am only a day’s drive away from Etosha - my most recent never-ending fountain of wildlife, and it’s like I’ve landed on a different planet with its own magnificent and diverse population of birds and antelopes. Reminding me of my South American darling, the jabiru, saddlebill storks rummage through the reeds with their incredibly colorful bills, spread their enormous sail-like... [Read more]

Five-Hour Photo

She lay in wait and so did I. How famished she must have been, if only
watching her hunt I’ve become so hungry I’ve risked getting out of the
car, fetching my gasoline camping stove, and cooking up a hearty meal
right there in the back seat of my double-cab truck. What torture it
must have been, to see the springbok inch towards her hiding place
near a waterhole, and keep her tired... [Read more]

Click n’ Clack

I’ve been lucky recently with good guides. It is especially pleasant when you don’t want or need one, but they are being forced on you by regulations of the place you are visiting, like in Namibia’s Brandberg — home to some of the world’s most famous rock art dating as far back as two thousand years. Gwen, a local Damara girl and our assigned guide, was the only woman guide in Brandberg and,... [Read more]

Fury Families

Africa’s furry and feathered ones remind me how good (and annoying) it feels to have mom watch over your every step, ready to burst into action when needed and to wreck havoc if she suspects her baby is in any danger. When we cross the street, my mother still instinctively goes for my hand, even if I’m already holding my husband’s. Once, I made the mistake of climbing out to the fire escape of my grandma’s... [Read more]

A Desert in Bloom

“Desert in bloom” must sound perfectly surreal; well, it looks perfectly surreal as well. From afar, flat barren meadows look like someone has been painting in the mountains and spilled a whole bucket of paint onto the grass below. “Accidents” like this are seen everywhere: orange, yellow, red blotches of daisies by the pound catch the eye and make it hard to concentrate on driving. Finally I gave up and... [Read more]

The Amber-Eyed Prince

In the Kalahari our eyes met and I melted. My knees would buckle if I wasn’t already sitting. For a second there, I thought he was about to jump into the car through the open window and tear me apart, but I didn’t care - he was just that beautiful.

Young, three-four month, maybe less, but by his amber eyes you could clearly see why he is up for the throne of the king in this desert.

... [Read more]

The Great Kalahari Desert

I’d walk the Kalahari Desert if they’d let me. Herds of springbok would race by, pronking in the insane and magnificent way they do, showing me how strong and healthy they are so I wouldn’t even attempt to catch and eat them. Oryx would watch me carefully, then run off, and turn back to see what I’m up to again and again. Hartebeest and wilderbeest would lie on the blonde grass in the shade of trees,... [Read more]

Cats and Caves

I feel caged in big cities sometimes, so I was more than happy to get back to Nature, even though it meant climbing down into the musty and stinky Arnhem Caves of Namibia in search of bats. Ankle-deep in guano, we searched in the darkness for flying creatures with big teeth or funny horseshoe-shaped noses, disturbing their sleep. As long as we used red light, the bats were not bothered much. Only on dead mummified “vampires”... [Read more]

Red Sands of Sossusvlei

Sossusvlei has waited for me long enough. Seeing it in the first light of dawn made me want to run along the crest of the nearest dune and not stop until I reach the sun. However, scaling the sand dunes is hard work. Eventually, I took off my shoes and, packing more and more red grains of sand into the thick woven fabric of my hiking socks, dug my feet into the dunes, crest after crest. Breaking the facets of sand mountains,... [Read more]

Cheetah Chaterbox

If you ever scratched behind a cat’s ear and heard it purr, you know how hypnotizing and sweet this faint tractor-like sound is. Now keeping that in mind, try to imagine what a purring cheetah sounds like.

Namibian farmers’ rights are far better protected then Namibia’s cheetahs. Many are killed when a farmer’s physical and/or financial well-being is claimed to be at stake. On the bright side,... [Read more]