Highveld Sunrise

Driving through a before-sunrise white wonderland of, well, frost, we made our way east to the Kruger National Park. We are very fond of our birthday getaways there and making this the new RAV’s first one, we’re sure that it would be as special and memorable…

We decided to enter the Kruger at Phabeni gate, which turned out to be no hassle at all (only have your Wild Card reservation number at hand). We immediately saw our first swallows of the season (wire-tailed swallows) and a few other regulars.

One of our favorite places in the Kruger is the Lake Panic bird hide just outside of Skukuza.

Lake Panic

Last year Lake Panic hosted several species such as goliath herons, green-backed herons, darters and Diderick cuckoos. This year it played host to a large herd of hippos! We also had sightings of darters, water thicknees, grey-headed heron and black crakes at this hide, among others.

On the H1-1 road leading to Pretoriuskop, which would be our home for the next three nights, we had our first breath-taking experience of the weekend. Right on the side of the road we saw the elegant stature of a cheetah.

The First Cheetah

Cheetahs are the fastest land mammals. They can accelerate from 0 to 103km/h in 3 seconds, reaching speeds of between 112 and 120km/h. This magnificent creature was staring us right in the eye. Thinus heard it chirping and purring as I was wiping tears of joy from my eyes. What a special and wonderful day! That was Friday the 13th.

Saturday morning had us still riding high on a wave of awe and excitement as we discovered two pearl-spotted owls in a tree close to our hut. This little owl reaches a height of 19cm and has a very distinctive, aggressive cry.

Pearl-spotted owl

It was surrounded by a band of crimson-chested sunbirds who were noisily (albeit unsuccessfully) trying to defend what they believed was their tree.

We peacefully made our way east across the Kruger to Lower-Sabie, feasting our eyes on nursing elephants, stately African Fish-Eagles, Bateleurs and a fat iguana. We left Lower-Sabie at about 15h30, which would give us two and a half hours to get back to camp…

But then we had to wait for him

Africa Elephant

and then them

Baboons

and while looking at him

Spotted Hyena

we saw him

Leopard

oh and then these guys played in the street for ever

Playing Wild Dogs

before we got mock chased by these fellows

Angry White Rhino

which translated into: WE WERE LATE! Also along the way we encountered a serval and (another) cheetah, but we were too delayed and it was too dark to stop and photograph.

So that was Saturday…

Pretoriuskop

Transport Dam

Sunday morning we explored the circular roads around Pretoriuskop, stopping at a dam that was tranquility itself. The route also housed the rare Tsessebe, which we saw with a mixed herd of impala and waterbuck.

Leopard

The rest of the day saw us with more rhinos, hippos and elephants. We also stopped at Afsaal picnic site to visit an African Scops-Owl. The Scops-Owl is even smaller than the Pearl Spotted Owl mentioned earlier!

We stopped a while on the way back to camp to appreciate the crimson sunset, when we noticed a small convoy of cars transfixed in the middle of the road up ahead. Upon approach we saw that a leopard was making his way between the cars from one side of the road to the other. His eyes stared disinterestedly ahead and he took little notice of any of us. It was an exhilarating experience to see him walk across the road right in front of the car, his tail nearly brushing the bonnet!

Leopard

We stayed with him a while and then headed on to camp for some relaxed camp-fire time.

On Monday we packed up all our stuff (and almost included two vervet monkeys that stole a bag of peanuts from my car!) and headed for the Malelane gate the long way around.

The Hut

After experiencing out of control  ‘controlled’ fires both sides of the road for 20 minutes, we paid a visit to all the waterholes along the way and found a welcome surprise on the sandy bed of the Biyamiti water hole – two woolly necked storks were preening in the sun, accompanied by a grey heron and a hamerkop.

After a second visit to the African Scops-Owl at Afsaal, we came across four baby hyenas on the side of the road. While three of them were rather content and untroubled to lie on a bed of grass in the sun, a fourth baby was inquisitive enough to approach the car. He gave us a few curious looks and then went about being a baby hyena as usual.

Pretoriuskop

Apart from hundreds of antelope and impala, for the 3 days we saw 2 cheetahs, 3 leopards, 10 white rhinos, elephants, hippos, baboons, 5 hyenas, 12 wild dogs, 1 serval, 1 tsessebe, iguanas, squirrels, terrapins and a small tortoise. We also saw 104 different bird species, of which 17 were added to our birdlist for the first time!

Mount Matekenyani

The trip home was a long but satisfied one and we both agreed that the Pretoriuskop 2010 birthday getaway will be one to remember and cherish for years to come.

Estie and me went mountain biking today, and on our way back drove past a small patch of water close to Eco Park Estate’s entrance. Here we saw a lost, but equally placid with its new Blacksmith Plover friends, African Openbill Stork.

With its large beak and separated mandibles touching only at the tip, it was doing its little bit to catch frogs which might make it strong and help it get of the IUCN endangered animals list.

We could get quite close to take a picture. This is a first time see for both of us, and we will check up on its welfare every time we cycle here.

There’s a lot happening in the sky again this month (and no, Mars is still not getting any bigger, contrary to popular belief). Yet, mid August, Night will walk down the sky with the Moon in her hand.

Surely, a Lunar eclipse in a clear Winter sky will be worth staying up for. So pour a glass of Amarula Cream and go wait for it to happen on Saturday night the 16th from around 21:35 till 00:44. The climax (albeit just 81% cover) will be at 23:10 for us in Gauteng.

Also on the Z1 Zodiac highway heading Eastbound in late afternoon traffic is Venus having just passed very close to Saturn. Mercury is moving upwards and hovering just below Venus for the eclipse. It will flash its lights and overtake Venus on the 21st. Closer to midnight, watch out for bright Jupiter blocking 2 lanes up at the Zenith.

We’ve been told that while the moon is out, points man will be on duty. If you know about any other situations, please give us a call (or comment below).

Die plan was oorspronklik om die name van biere wat ek drink hier te lys. Tog, al host ek self hierdie webwerf is die bandwydte beperk. Na 4 dae hier het die plan dus verander en rapporteer ek nou slegs dat België wel baie bier het!

Hier is donker bier, ligte bier, tafel bier, bier gebrou deur plaas eienaars, winkel eienaars, studente, monike en abdye, nonne, bier van kersies, bier met sjokolade geur, sjokolade met bier geur, brood wat klaar gevul kom met sjokolade, oja, sop met bier, stew met bier. 4% bier, 8% bier en ook 12% bier! Elke bier het sy eie storie, wapenskild, glas, coaster en plekkie waar dit al vir eeue verbrou word.

Dinsdag
Ons neem ‘n uur rit na ooste in ‘n dubbelverdieping trein tot in St. Truiden in die provinsie Limburg. Net ver genoeg om klein bietjie slaap in te haal. Rick en Marleen Beckers, ook van Vlaamsbelang, ontmoet ons op die stasie. Tot aandete loop ek en Joseph rond in die 2e grootste mark plein in België en besoek een van vele Begijnhowwe, die van St. Agnes. Dit is ‘n tipe klooster met woning vir vroue wat wil nonne wees maar nie nonne genoem wil word nie. Elke dorp het een. Van die huise in die begijnhof dateer reeds uit die 15 honderds, en uit respek stop ons om voor ete plaaslike Begijnhof Blonde Bier te nuttig.

Ons besoek wat oor is van die Church of Notre Dame hier, en gaan deur die Abdij van Franciscus, ‘n klooster vir manne wat nie monnike genoen wil word nie. Hy was die stigter van die monnik-orde wat die meeste soos monnike lyk, met die doel dat hul so arm as moonlik sal leef (met die bekende bruin rokke van goedkoop materiaal). Veel van die goed in die abdij het behoue gebly, en mens kan sien hoe hulle geleer en leef het. Vir my klink dit soos Pretoria Boys High regs langs Pretoria Girls High.

Woensdag
Rick en Marleen se seun, Wim, bly in Leuven en ons word genooi om ‘n aand by hom oor te slaap. Leuven is net soos Potchefstroom ‘n universiteitsdorp. Maar Potchefstroom huisves nie die oudste universiteit in Europa nie. Deur die pous homself goedgekeur en in gebruik geneem in 1425, het die Katolieke Universiteit Leuven sy eie indrukwekkende biblioteek, sy eie 35000 studente, sy eie 40000 fietste (wat of gery word of teen 100e pale vas gesluit is), en sy eie bier wat op kampus verbrou word en regstreeks met ‘n pyp na Domus, ‘n kampus eetplek, aan ‘n kraan koppel.

Ons ontmoet Wim in die Rechtershuis, die drinkplek vir regstudente. Anders as Suid Afrika se eg engelse universiteitstelsel waar koshuise die fokus van studente se sosiale lewe is, is als hier gesentreerd rondom die rigting wat jy swat. Elke fakkelteit het ‘n vakbar, waar al die kuiers gekuier word en die gevegte oor bier met buur rigtings geveg word. Wel, Wim studeer regte (of het, maar soos myne is sy studentekaart 2 jaar later steeds geldig). Ons toer saam hom deur kampus, die bib, die begijnhof, eet middagete en so aan by Domus, ontmoet sy suster, Roosmarijn en haar vriend en ry na Wim se kommune, of kot, om ons sakke af te laai. Voor die kommune staan al sy vullis sakke steeds, met ‘n groen plakker wat sê die vullistrok weier om dit op te laai, want die vullis is nie uitgesoek volgens materiaal tipe, verval datum, kleur, reuk en koolstof-14 isotoop telling nie. Ons dra dit als terug na die binnehof om volgende Woensdag weer uit te sit.

Die aand gaan ondersteun ons saam Caroline, Ellen, Ellen, Céline en ander ous in die kommune Johnny Berlin (die Rechterhuis se rockgroep, met Wim se broer Roelof as drommer) in die plaaslike “Battle of the Bands” kompetiesie. Ons ry terug kot toe en daarna, u edelagbare, onthou ek niks.

Donderdag
Vroeg oggend loop ek en Joseph na die stasie om ‘n trein na die 9e eeuse welvarende vrye handelstad, Brugge, te kry. Ons besoek eerste die stadshuis en skuur verby aankomende verkeer in die die smal toring van 90m hoog om van bo te sien hoe lyk die stad en van naby te hoor hoe klink 54 klokke se 27 ton wat saam sê “dis 11uur”. Ons leer, proe, voel en proe van die geskiedenis van cacao, sjokolade, diamante en Brugse Zot bier in die onderskye museums. Dan sien ons die res van die ou stad vanuit die bootjie wat ons Vlaamse toergids met Spaanse snor stuur op die rivier deur die stad. Laaste verpas ons die trein (wat altyd onmoontlik presies op tyd is) en kom ‘n uur laat terug in St. Truide, net betyds vir aandete.

Vrydag
Vandag gaan ons op ‘n provinsie Limburg kasteel toer saam Rick. Ons ry van dorpie na dorpie in sy motor. Dis vreemd om as passasier aan die verkeerde kant van die kar te sit. Dis duim vashou om karre verby te steek in straatjies wat te smal is vir 1 kar, waarin karre aan beide kante parkeer staan terwyl karre nog van voor kom. En die ergste van die ge-uitswaaiery is dat niemand ooit kwaad word om dit te doen nie.

Mooi kastele sluit in die 1 van Heks, waar 90 verskillede soorte kersies verbou word. Ek het dan ook die amptelikke tellers ontmoet. Goeie boere mense.

In Tongeren, die ou Gaulse stad van Ambriorix, besoek ons die oue tronk, wat tot in 1995 nog ingebruik was. Hierdie word later ‘n Romeinse stad wat reeds in die 2e eeu ‘n muur omgekry het. Dele van hierdie magtige muur is steeds in die stad sigbaar en ‘n oorspronklike romeinse katapult en pyl-en-boog kanon staan in die park.

Ons drink rooiwyn by van Rick se vriende in die Tongeren Vlaamsbelang kantoor, en ry terug na St. Truide vir ons laaste aandete daar voor ons nuwe gasheer van Herk-den-Stad ons kom oplaai. Glo het sy vier dogters…

€8 vir ‘n taxi of loop in ysreen vir 3km? Die keuse is heel maklik as jy dink hoeveel bier €8 kan koop. Wel, met R13/1€ dalk nie soo maklik. Maar daar is gerugte dat bier in België goedkoper is as Ierland, so ons besluit om te loop. Koud en nat kom ons 5:30 by Christa se woonstel om vandaar ‘n epos te stuur om vir ons volgende gasheer te sê dat ons wel oppad is.

Ons neem tog ‘n taxi na Dublin lughawe en vlieg in koue rukwinde na Brussels, hoofstad van België, of dan soos almal ons heeltyd herrinner, Vlaandere. Bart Laeremans ontmoet ons hier en ons ry saam na sy kantoor as LP van die party Vlaamsbelang in die Belgiese Parlement. Hier ontvang ons die voorsmakie van wat heel alledaags sal word – ‘n toebroodjie en bier vir ontbyt.

Na ‘n kort toer deur die parlement stap Bart saam ons deur die antieke stad Brussels. Jou verbeelding word vasgevang deur die ryk geskiedenis wat opgesluit is in stegies vol resturante, kroeggies, sjokolade verkopers, handgemaakte kant winkels en die ondenkbaar groot katedrale vanaf die 13de eeu met erg gotiese boustyl en veel barok invloed. Brussels is die stad van St. Michael, die een wat die draak oorwin het, en dit word uitgebeeld in heelwat beelde binne en buite die katedrale wat al meer as 400 jaar hier staan.

Na ‘n hele dag se loop in snyende koue wind en gereelde onwelkom reën ry ons na die klein dorpie Grimbergen. Hier moet ons eers die klein kroegie met groot watermeule se eie bier drink. Elke kroegie in België verbrou sy eie bier, elke bier hier het sy eie tipe glas en elke glas word net gebruik vir sy eie bier.

Een pint Grimbergen Goud verder ry ons na Bart se huis waar ons sy vrou en 3 kinders ontmoet. Ons eg Vlaamse aandete bestaan uit tamatie sop met Brusselse spruite, steak, aartappelskyfies of dan friete, slaai, ‘n vreemde maar gaaf geel sous, rys-pap poeding met bruin suiker en tuisgemaakte chokolademouse. Ons gesels oor ‘n Suid Afrikaanse Merlot oor Suid Afrika se lot, kultuur, taal, ons land se gemeenskappe, geskiedenis en politiek. Ingeligte Joseph doen meeste van die praat werk en ek leer soveel van die onderwerpe as Bart en sy vrou.

Die dag word afgesluit met ‘n goeie koffie, wat afgesluit word met Irish Mist, ‘n sitrus likeur. Ons tref op internet reelings om more met die truin na St. Truiden te gaan, val neer op die bed en slaap na ‘n lang, volgepakte dag.

My day started as old Noah’s – stuffing 2 of each kind of clothing I could find on my floor into my bag at 5 in the morning. By 6am I was ready enough to go to bed. Until 7. Then I woke up, got up, got dressed, realised I was still dreaming, woke up, got up, got dressed and went to a procurement meeting to try and build a pebblebed power station.

Friday

At 9 I was late enough to forfeit my new AmEx Debit Card that I needed to save me the extra service fee of 1.7% per transaction. My parents picked up Joseph from the petrol station where he was waiting at. We met at my place and I packed my bags into their car. Significantly behind schedule, I drove to the airport as quickly as my dad’s old Camry and my backseat driving dad would allow. We checked in, got our boarding passes, greeted my parents, bought some very expensive traveler’s checks and we had our last duty free South African draught as we waited for our official boarding call to start the trip.

On board the Emirates Boeing 777-300er, everything was as grand as I wasn’t used to – a personal flat panel touch-screen TV for each seat, more than 850 TV, series, radio and music channels to choose from, including channels connecting to a front and downward facing camera mounted on the aircraft nose and an overlay of the aircraft position, track log, speed, and eta over a 3D map of earth. Enough to keep you busy on this 8 hour part of the trip to Dubai. That is if the free on board coffee, beer, wine and liqueur don’t.

We arrived at Dubai International Airport at 10pm local time, I went through my first post 9/11 customs point, barefoot with my shoes, belt, wallet, watch, fillings and thoughts in a basket, being screened in every possible electromagnetic frequency band. I passed and so did the 2 bottles Amarula, 2 bottles 3 year KWV and the new bottle 5 year old KWV we bought for next to nothing at the duty free shop. We left Dubai’s busy market-place airport after 2 hours, continuing our journey to London.

Saturday

As pink and golden light filled the little window on my side for more than an hour’s sunrise over the eastern horizon we had breakfast on board and then touched down in Gatwick, London. Inside the massive airport, we needed to kill 5 hours. We did by walking through the same shops 37 times, riding the monorail train between the terminal buildings a number of times, collecting unattended trolleys so we could claim their €1 deposits, sleeping in coffee shops (pretending to be reading) and attending the service in the chapel. This turned out to be a very personal experience as we were the only people there (except for Steve, the retired Salvation Army Reverend).

We then waited in the customs building for the late by more than an hour Ryan Air flight. Outside, the wind was howling and some runways at Dublin were closed because of this. When we flew over the green equator, the big desert, mountain ranges of Western Africa, big blue and green parts of ocean, and now the little pieces of land making up the UK, Steve’s words echoed – “I searched everywhere for Him, and that’s exactly where I found Him.”

Well, my cousin Christa found us, delayed by an hour, at Dublin Airport. We got into a taxi and drove to her one room apartment in Dublin city center. After unpacking, our first obvious stop was at the Jameson Distillery. We did the tour and I volunteered to be the tester that had to choose my favorite whiskey between 3 Irish, Jack Daniels and Johnny Walker. Even though everything around me was green, how could I not choose my favorite, Johnny, above Jameson? Hesitantly our host, Neil, still issued my certificate stating I’m now a certified Irish whiskey taster.

We walked back to Christa’s house in the freezing cold, had a very good Whiskey-sauce Stew at Flanagan’s, a traditional Irish restaurant and headed of to our designer cottage on the better side of the river Liffe.

Christa’s friend’s architect friend lend us his house in Ambassador Court. Very generous of him, and completely understandable that he felt the need to remove his €500,000 “Brok” masterpiece-of-something sculpture for the duration of our stay. I fell asleep on his designer couch for the first time in 3 days.

Sunday

It turns out one thing you do a lot when backpacking in another country is to walk around with your backpack. Which we did again this really chilly cold morning to have breakfast at the hospital where Christa works. With full bellies, Joseph attended a church service in a huge protestant church and I went to Trinity College to walk through one of Ireland’s oldest libraries with more than 200,000 books stacked 45m high. I also went to see the “Book of Kells“, an illustrated Latin manuscript of the four Gospels of the New Testament, dated 800 ad. The pages are so painstakingly decorated with the smallest detail that in the opening’s words to the gospel of John, “Jesus Christ” is abbreviated to the 2 greek letters “Chi Rho”, but it still take up an entire page!

We met up with Joseph again and went into the very large, very old and very grand Temple Bank of Dublin. Which incidentally also won the “2007 pub of the year“ award. Here we withdrew our first body warming glasses of Sherry.

The mean way to see stuff is the Hop-on Hop-off buses that circle through Dublin’s most famous sites. We visited what’s left of the mighty Dublin Castle, sneaked into a book reading in the massive City Hall (where we were given free red wine), attended an exhibition on the history of Dublin and the wars fought here, and eventually ended at the highlight of the day’s tour – the impressive Guinness Breweries with the tallest bar in Ireland. 7 stories high, the Gravity Bar’s view is never ending as you drink the world’s finest pint.

Lastly, as any tourist should, we pub-crawled through Temple Bar, a long street with many traditional Irish pubs. My only policy was to never drink the same beer twice. Unless someone else pays. We had a Guinness Stew dinner in the famous oldest bar in Ireland, the Brazen Head, before finishing the night off at the South African pub, Woolshed. Did I mention somewhere that Dublin has got a heck of a lot of beer?

That’s it, I’m paste! Tomorrow we must get up insanely early to catch a flight to Brussels. I think.

The things that I agree to late at night while sitting next to a fire, Amarula in my hand, my buddy on the rock opposite me and only crickets and a nightjar in my ears…

3 months ago it sounded like a pretty good idea. Now, its 3:30am, my plane leaves in few hours, I still have an 8am meeting to attend and I haven’t packed a thing yet! Still, my “OK, lets do it!” is my “OK, lets do it!”, (whether sober or not), meaning 9 hours from now Joseph and me will be on our way to Europe!

We’ll be flying from Johannesburg via Dubai to London and then to Dublin. 2 days later we head east for Brussels. This is more or less where our official planning stops. The idea is to see most of the Netherlands and Belgium and probably some of Germany for 2 weeks, then back to Johannesburg again via London and Dubai. 17 nights. I know where we will sleep for the first 2.

This will be my first trip overseas. Yes, except for the one time last December when Werner and me almost made it to Antarctica on my 4 seater rubber duck (damn, I’ll think twice before trying a stunt like that again, especially only minutes before sunset!). If Europe has Internet access, I’ll try and update this site as our trip develops.

But first, I need to find 2 or 3 clean shirts from the heap of clothes on my floor…

For a while now this blog has been stagnant. This is not because I’m lazy (which I am) but because I’m going on so many outings lately, that I never get time to type something about them.

Well, and also because I’ve been busy installing and setting up my very own custom blogging software powered by WordPress on my very own server. Slowly my posts have been moving over, and finally, I’m just waiting for the domain to transfer.

As soon as I figure all this out (and still haven’t chewed off both my wrists), I will switch over. The address for the blog will stay the same, outings.thinusbotha.co.za, but some of the links inside might have changed. Use the search feature on this new blog if you are looking for something. I will lastly update all links in the old Blogger to point to my new server, before I eventually delete the old blog. Sad, ain’t it?

Please leave a comment or tell someone else if something is interesting to you so that this site can stay busy so that I can get my 0.8 US cent from my sponsors so that I can be closer to buying my Jeep. Thanx man!
Enjoy!

Its happening again tonight – The moon, like some of my friends, once a month, becomes evil! So anything bright in its path will line up with it. Hell, you can always draw a straight line between any two points! (Albeit not necessarily the shortest line between the two points…)

So, go outside tonight around 19:00, look to the West and see for yourself: a pretty cool sight with bight Venus, Saturn, Regulus in Leo and the 10% lit waxing crescent moon all nicely (and innocently) grouped together! Click the image for some help identifying whats where.

If we all are still alive by then, go out same time on the 25th. You’ll see the moon lining up with bright Jupiter and red giant Antares in Scorpio, right above our heads.

As an encore for this month, early morning of the 28th is the climax for the Southern Delta-Aquarid meteor shower. So if you ever wanted to make a wish on a shooting star, this will be like taking notes into an exam (aka cheating). Not the busiest meteor shower of the year, but with predicted 10-20 meteors per hour and possible peak of about 60, you are bound to see at least one. Look for the radiant in Aquarius around 1am.

Leave a comment if you’ve seen any of these and tell me what you thought of it.

And lastly, for those counting it off to the end -
“28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds…” – Frank

The early morning’s thinnest sliver of light appeared silently. Several billion trillion tons of super hot exploding hydrogen nuclei rose slowly above the horizon and managed to look small, cold and slightly damp. There is a moment in every dawn when light floats, when there is the possibility of magic. Creation holds its breath…

This is the scene that greeted us on our important expedition. The mist clung to the surface of the marshes. The swamp trees were grey with it, the tall reeds indistinct. It hung motionless.* Our mission, which we chose to accept, was to find a duck. Not just a regular southern, or down under duck. The Pintail. Northern Pintail.

Quoting Wikipedia, his condensed resume reads as follows:

The Pintail or Northern Pintail (Anas acuta) is a common and widespread duck which breeds in the northern areas of Europe and Asia and across most of Canada, Alaska and the mid-western United States. This dabbling duck is strongly migratory and winters further south than its breeding range, as far as the equator.

Thus, the rumors that one was seen in the marsh area of Diepsloot between Johannesburg and Pretoria, South Africa, seemed worth investigating. Martin, Hannelie and me left very early, equipped with our binoculars, beanies, a basket with muffins, a flask with steaming coffee and Martin’s shiny new Swarovski spotting scope.

This is almost as winter as we get and the cold foggy world that we entered as we turned off the N14 highway made us wish that we had coffee. Then we realized that we did. So we drank some.

Diepsloot is known for its informal settlements, crime schools and high-jacking opportunities, but maybe not as well known for its beauty, animal life and outdoor possibilities. Inside the nature reserve we came across a Husky dog club gathering. Each owner brings his overly eager Husky to join in the pulling of a little car/sled. They explained that this is a regular thing, but only done until about 8am, when it becomes too warm again for the dogs to be too active. So we watched as the half-wolfs jump off their 4×4’s or Mercedes seats to go and sit at their positions in the pulling queue, barking with excitement, ready to be strapped in!

Directed by the rumors, we drove to the first dam of the three. Here we spoke to another couple that was looking for the same bird and swapped numbers to help each other find it. After a while, and seeing a few other interesting feather wearers, we drove to the second dam. This treated me to many new birds for my list, including Yellow-billed Egrets, Lesser Masked Weavers, African Swamphens, African Stonechats, Hottentot Teals and the electrically blue Half-collard Kingfisher.

2 other birding guys told us about the Long-crested Eagle that was nesting in a close by tree. We eventually saw her, with the little fringe barely sticking out above the nest. The male was scouting the area in a tree right next door. At the third dam we also saw the Ovambo Sparrowhawk, (both were firsts for me), some Burchell’s Coucals and the king himself – the African Fish Eagle!

Well, after driving up and down for 3 hours, phoning a few times to check Status Quo with the other 2 couples, we eventually heard that the bast…, I mean duck, was seen at the second dam, flying over to the first. We drove there again and waited. Many other ducks and egrets spent their late morning cursing at their no-show celebrity British cousin for stealing their lime light.

And then it happened – from over the dam, in a group of other water birds, a male Northern Pintail flew over! Unmistakable with white breast and lateral neck stripe on its dark brown head. And off course the pinned tail. This is as exciting as something this simple can get!

So, mission complete. I marked off 39 birds, of which 9 were first timers. And I saw the elusive Northern Pintail duck!

Creation exhaled. Then, blue in the face, it nearly collapsed.