Namibia

After a good breakfast at Frans Indongo lodge we continued to the Cheetah Conservation Fund.

CCF is working broadly to save the wild cheetah and its wilderness habitat. They are working with education and public outreach, with science and research and with conservation biology. Their headquarter is east of Otjiwarongo, in Namibia – the country with the largest number of wild cheetah but the CCF is also active in Kenya, Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Iran and Algeria.

As a tourist visiting the CCF you have a wide variety of activities to choose between. We had been here before and this time we visited the Cheetah museum and we also joined the “Eland Drive”, a drive through two big enclosures with female cheetahs.

The “Eland Drive” is a good way to see cheetahs. They are very hard to see in the wild and even here is is not easy to spot them.

It was almost noon on a very hot day and we found our first cheetah in the shade of a tree.

She was kind enough to take a small walk. The last time we were here the driver brought small pieces of meat to attract the cheetahs but this driver was not as keen.

She looked a bit sad… One of the challenges for the CCF is to persuade farmers to accept cheetahs living on their land. Of the total area in Namibia 40 % is communal lands, primarily used for subsistence agriculture. Another 45 % is private fenced commercial farms. 95 % of the cheetahs in Namibia live on commercial livestock farms.

Here we found a group of four cheetahs. Can you see all four? 

One of them – Blondi – did not like us so she left.

Beautiful animals. 20 % of the world cheetahs live in Namibia and most of them in the central parts between Windhoek and Otjiwarongo.

Back at the center we saw the feeding of the cheetahs living most closely to the office. They are fast…

…and hungry.

After visiting the Hoba Meteorite we continued south. We had visited Frans Indongo lodge once already but were happy to return. This time I joined one of their game drives.

It was in the evening with the sun getting low. We saw small animals like the squirrel above…

…but also bigger ones, like the White Rhino-family above, with junior hiding behind his big dad.

An Oryx fleeing our noicy car…

…and a few Black Wildebeest thinking of whether to run or not.

We met our Rhino family again…

…and even a Rhino can be very cute!

Please world, let us have Rhinos in the future as well!

The sun went down as we returned to the lodge. Frans Indongo is located 43 km northeast of Otjiwarongo, some 4 hours drive from Windhoek and conveniently close to places like CCF (Cheetah Conservation Fund), Waterberg and Etosha.

Here it is breakfast time.

View over the savanna from the restaurant. A lot of different antilopes to be seen from here.

Frans Indongo lodge is a very nice place to stay!

Once upon a time, just a few kilometers west of what today is a city called Grootfontein in Namibia…  (Google Maps)

To be more exact it was 80 000 years ago. Something fell from the sky…

And yes, maybe it could happen again? That “something” was a meteorite. It contained approximately 82,4 % iron, 16.4 % nickel, 0,76 % cobalt and also traces of carbon, sulphur, chromium,  copper, zinc and gallium. But the content is not very interesting. In this case size matters…

It is called “The Hoba meteorite” and it is the largest known meteorite in the world. It is almost 5 m long and up to l m thick. It weighs approximately 50 tons! Some shooting star!

The Hoba  meteorite was discovered by Jacobus Hermanus Brits in 1920. It was declared a national monument on 15 March 1955. This demanded a permission from the farm owners. They were in 1955  Mrs. 0.Scheel, in 1979 Mr. J. Jooste and today Mr. J. Engelbrecht who has donated the area surrounding the meteorite.

Thus today’s site was created in 1987. It is today a chance to see the biggest “space object” on earth.

We woke up at Ovisume, had a good breakfast and were ready for another go!

The day before was dark, but now we headed for that huge area in strong sunlight.

Soon this impressing Giraffe bull turned up…

…with some family.

We can’t help loving the Warthogs even if they are not as beautiful…

…as the black-faced Impalas.

If you are Swedish and like chocolate you will recognize the Marabou Stork.

Springboks in large numbers…

…are magnificent runners – and jumpers!

A group of Black Wildebeest found a shady spot.

The secretary bird…

…and again, after take-off.

Another Giraffe evaluating us…

…and fleeing with some friends.

Our favorite again. Nice pose against the water.

The sanitation team – a group of Vultures.

Black Wildebeest, preparing for…

…the run!

Eland bull leading his herd.

Gemsbok and Black Wildebeest.

Blue Wildebeest crossing the road in front of us.

And this game drive is also ended by the Water Buck.

Wow, is there a lot of game at Ovisume!

We arrived at Ovisume late in the afternoon but there was still time for an evening game drive. It was a beautiful, calm and very warm evening.

We soon saw our first game – a herd of “Black Wildebeest”.

And then this beautiful Giraffe, jogging away.

A Marabou stork at the water hole.

Some kind of duck at the same place.

A bush fire somewhere gave smoke that colored the sun rays. It created a magic atmosphere.

A Kudu bull.

Two giraffes. I could almost here them ask if their pose was good enough for me. It was!

The sun shining through that smoke…

…gave a special color to everything.

As the sun descended taking photos became more and more difficult…

…even if this Kudu cow helped me by putting her pretty head in the sun light.

The colours made me think of the Autumn back in Sweden, but there you wouldn’t get the Zebras…

…or this Gemsbok. The noice of our car spoiled some of the magic but every now and again we turned the engine off and listened to the silence.

Even after the sun passed the horizon there were things to see. Above a few Springboks and a Water Buck.

More Water Bucks makes a good final picture from this magical mystery tour in Namibian wilderness…