The Caprivi Strip and Victoria Falls

Our journey into the Caprivi Strip, the odd north-eastern extension of Namibia covered in dry mopane woodland, was broken by a stop at Sarasunga River Lodge, overlooking the Okavango River, with Angola on the other side – a country tick for us all.

A quick stop at Rundu Sewage Ponds enabled us to ’mop up’ several water birds including African Openbill, Rufous-bellied Heron, Quail-finch and large numbers of Black-crowned Night-herons.

However, the undoubted highlight, certainly for the keen birders amongst us, was the finding of a 1st for Namibia!!! The Greenshank-like call had us fooled initially, but after much consultation with birders 'back home' in both the UK and South Africa, the bird was identified confidently by Simon and Rainer as a Lesser Yellowlegs. Plenty of identification photos were taken between us, and there was just a little bit of excitement and modest self-congratulation.

Our next phase of the trip took in the Mahango Game Reserve where we did manage to spot several new mammals including the magnificent Sable and Roan Antelopes, Reedbuck, Red Lechwe and Hippos and Buffalo.

In classic fashion for an African trip we did get stuck in the sand here and had to be pulled out ignominiously by the road-workers, only to find that we’d left our lunch behind! But it was all fine in the end.

Back on the road again, we stopped off at a wonderful campsite (named, amusingly for us, Bum Hill). This place did look quite promising but sadly we didn’t have enough time to explore fully.  Our lunch was fairly basic, bought from the ubiquitous Choppies store, but at least we did remember it this time…....

However, the lunch was made more palatable by finding the showy Racket-tailed Roller displaying and calling spectacularly. Another stop on the Caprivi Strip yielded several magnificent Schalow’s Turacoes and a couple of Trumpeter Hornbills overhead.

Eventually we arrived after a long hot drive at Katima Mulilo at Kalizo Lodge right on the banks of the Zambezi River looking over to Zambia. It was a great situation and birding spot but faulty plumbing here did mar our night somewhat. Our brief sojourn here gave us White-crowned Lapwing, Square-tailed Nightjar, Horus Swift, Fan-tailed Widowbird and another deeply stimulating near-endemic Cisticola – Luapula to be precise.

On arriving at the border we had to spend several hours negotiating the crossing into Zambia. This seemed quite chaotic after our smooth transitions between Namibia and Botswana, but eventually we got through and arrived at sunset in Livingstone at the Waterfront Lodge.

To our dismay, we did find that we were unexpectedly camping once more, but a ‘last supper’ of fish in town and the stunning Victoria Falls helped us to weather this disappointment.

The Falls were as spectacular as their reputation, and provided a suitable backdrop for the time-honoured tradition of Wykehamists performing a ‘hot’ from our very own football game when abroad.

Rainer is now well-trained in this ritual, and even set up a particularly dramatic place for this at the top of the Falls wading out onto an island (quite close to Hippo and Croc-infested pools, he later told us!).

Our last day dawned. Where else would we spend our final morning birding, but in a sewage pond?  This one was filled, rather worryingly, with Elephant footprints but did give us lots of new birds, including Dickinson’s Kestrel, Collared Palm Thrush, Purple Gallinule, Red-faced Cisticola, Senegal Coucal, Greater Painted-snipe and African Rail.

After failing to fool Rainer with some ‘Bigfoot-style tracks and signs we set off to the airport, where computer failure resulted in a very long-winded check-in with half the group going to LHR in transit and half having to re-check in. However, this went surprisingly smoothly, and after farewells and thanks to our excellent guide and firm friend Rainer, we flew back to the UK overnight with no further hiccups.

The final count? 325 birds seen between us, including over 100 lifers for both Julia and Simon. Also we ‘ticked’ several new mammals including Black Rhino, Sable and Roan Antelopes, Sengi and Porcupine.

We also ‘ticked off’ many African experiences such as robbery, serial sickness, stuck in sand on several occasions, electrified swimming pool, a badly cut foot, loss of binoculars, loss of luggage, sewage overflow at one campsite, confusion over accommodation bookings, and even a small tornado.

However, more importantly most of the teenage boys with us were ‘converted’ into birders, even if just temporarily. Who knows? Perhaps some of them may now be infected with the same passion in the future.

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