Here are some Gnus blocking our way. It rained at little overnight ahead of the big rains coming
A watering hole and we’re in luck. A giraffe. Later I decide it’s my favourite animal here
Then 2. They’re semi nervous. Almost skittish
Then a third. It was amazing
Some cool video
Later we came across some more wandering through scrub
Haha, happy times. The world record giraffe is 19′
This is the Plain’s Zebra. The ones we saw in Maltahohe were Mountain Zebra, which have a shiner coat and narrower stripes
Excuse the tourist chat in the video
This was a rare daytime sight. The Honey Badger
From Wiki
As with other mustelids of relatively large size, such as wolverines and badgers, honey badgers are notorious for their strength, ferocity and toughness. They have been known to savagely and fearlessly attack almost any kind of animal when escape is impossible, reportedly even repelling much larger predators such as lions. Bee stings, porcupine quills, and animal bites rarely penetrate their skin. If horses, cattle, or Cape Buffalos intrude upon a ratel’s burrow, it will attack them. They are virtually tireless in combat and can wear out much larger animals in physical confrontations.
Then a Cheetah and 2 cubs, untie shade under that tree, about 75′ away. You can’t see them here
Here
We went on safari for 2 half days, then set off back to Windhoek. It’s super hot, about 38C. We’re not at our record yet of 40C from both India and Australia, but we will be soon.
Web didn’t need a Camelback in India because there was bottled water at road side frequently. But we do here because there is nothing roadside ever. It makes lunch harder. But the problem is the Camelback cuts down the jacket ventilation by a lot, so I’m feeling the heat more. I’m about to strap it to the duffle, the only downside being having to get off the bike to drink.
Here’s a Namibian rest stop in the shade. It’s unlikely we’ll see these any further north. Namibia is easy. In many ways it’s the easiest country we’ve ever toured in
Ok, so here’s a biggee:
About 150K south of Namutoni we stopped at this very small lake. It’s one of only 2 year-round bodies of fresh water in Namibia. The other is a few miles away, below in the post. Incredible.
Lake Otjikoto
So, the story.Namibia, despite being a dry and hot place without a great deal to support it, is teeming with life. There are tons of the usual stuff, but only one freshwater fish outside of the north and south border rivers. So one endemic fish only in the huge interior.
But it gets weirder. It’s the below, predictably a Cichlid. Tilapia guanasa.
It comes from this shitty little sinkhole, Lake Ginuas. A collapsed karst system. Now introduced to a few other places because it’s obviously critically endangered by the ridiculous solo entirety of its habitat. Toe expand it’s habitat, it was introduced to lake Otjikoto, which we visited
So how did it get here?
That’s the problem. The collapse happened millions of years after any changes to typography by erosion or connections to any river system. Plus there’s a clear 500 miles of almost desert around it. And it has no close relatives, it’s not a subspecies. It’s a one-off.
Here are schools of the big at the surface. Click to enlarge
There’s an old German pumping station above the Lake. It looks like it’s been 50 years since it last operated
Later that night I slept in a huge room in an otherwise beaten up lodge with doves flying over my head. There was a nest at the peak of the interior
The movie