The only new bird on the pre-breakfast walk was a willow warbler; it was
more a chance to remind ourselves of what a superb place Okaukuejo is for its
wealth of birds, let alone the mammals beyond the perimeter fence. Cheryl
photographed a pied crow eating a mouse; white-crowned and red-breasted shrikes
were as tame as ever here. At the waterhole, watched over by one large
elephant, the mammals came and went: zebras in a procession going out, a line
of kudus coming in. Namaqua sandgrouse burbled as they flew around and a single
cattle egret fed on the pool’s edge along with the usual wood sandpiper and a
bunch of Cape turtle doves.
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| A pied crow eats a rodent (Cheryl Hunt). |
It was mostly a day of travel, though punctuated with various breaks.
The first of these was just off the tarmac road south out of Etosha National
Park
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| A confiding southern white-crowned shrike at Okaukuejo. |
Leaving Etosha we carried onto Outjo where there was a delightful coffee
shop. Some in the group went into the Spar supermarket and several came away
with purchases from the souvenir shop. Lunch at Omaruru was at a restaurant
with a large garden that had various eccentric sculptures, wood-hoopoes flew
through and a fine citrus swallowtail was nectaring on flowers.
It was only on
the last stretch towards our new base in the Erongo Mountains 15:45 . We
were greeted with a smile and a glass of orange juice and settled into our rooms
overlooking the granite hills. There was time to potter, swim or watch
white-winged starlings and mountain wheatears before gathering for drinks and a
delicious four-course meal.
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| The dramatic backdrop at Erongo Mountains (David Bennett). |
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