Returning to Namibia for a short visit early 2016 – and a few posts on it…
About the trip south and Hanna meeting friends
Lovely reunions!
More reunions and a trip back to Sweden…
Returning to Namibia for a short visit early 2016 – and a few posts on it…
About the trip south and Hanna meeting friends
Lovely reunions!
More reunions and a trip back to Sweden…
After our Erindi trip we still had a few good days…
Hanna met Michelle (her mother took this photo)…
…I and Hanna went to Craft Market Café…
…and to Grove Mall, visiting Wakaberry (frozen yoghurt)…
We were invited to Sue’s birthday party. Here is Sue and Mike…
…Fran, Michael, Tim and Kully…
…Lilian, Karin, Isobel and Des…
…Clare, Steve, Tim and Kate. Thanks Sue for inviting us!
Hanna met her good friend Tulah…
…and for the last evening I was again in my favourite position – with a G&T at the braai…
…preparing Eland and Oryx for that last dinner. Bye, friends!
Last day; leaving Saga at the airport (for a flight with BA via Joburg and London)…
…a lunch at Fresh’n’Wild, last packing and…
…the drive to the airport.
At Hosea Kutako International, dressed up and ready to go from plus 35 to minus 5…
…in Air Namibia 285 from Windhoek…
…to Frankfurt. And then the final flight from Frankfurt to Copenhagen in SAS 640:
Until next time – bye Namibia and friends!
Our morning game drive continued…
…this miracle boy. His leg was broken but successful surgery has put him back in wild-life. He lives freely, able to hunt and feed himself!
Here he is with another male Cheetah.
…and this I believe is a White-backed vulture…
…and these are Ground squirrels.
It was getting late but our driver thought there was time for one more tracking…
We surprised one big male lion, walking in front of us as we came driving.
This lion was “Shadow”, an old and very big lion. He would usually be with his pride in another part of this huge game reserve but…
…since a few days he had been here – with his brother “Golden”. They have their own prides in different parts of Erindi. “Golden” was however hurt in a recent fight with another male lion and…
…now “Shadow” has been with his brother for a few days to see him recover. Isn’t that a sweet story!?
Early Friday morning and off for more animal sightings…
First this handsome Water Buck bull…
…and then this Crimson-breasted Shrike, in Namibia known as “the German flag”. Namibia was a German colony over a hundred years ago and this bird, with the colors from the old German flag, used to be the national bird of Namibia.
The African Wild Dog was once numerous in Namibia but is today an endangered specie.
They are living and hunting in packs, able to run at high speed for a very long time and known to hunt antelopes to exhaustion.
I wouldn’t like to meet a pack of Wild Dogs while on foot…
…kites in a tree (Yellow-billed kite? – Yes, Erik agrees in comment below!)…
…and another rare animal. The black rhino is critically endangered but Namibia has one of the largest black rhino populations in the world. Unfortunately poaching is today becoming a huge problem even in Namibia.
This Rhino is called “Lippy” but he can’t understand why…
Black Wildebeest (Brindled Gnu)…
…and who will help me identify this bird? (Erik’s comment below says it is probably a Taita falcon”)
Two Oryx (national animal of Namibia) crossing the road…
…and finally two Black Wildebeest (White-tailed Gnu).
More photos from this morning game drive in the next post!
We were up in the car, heading out in that vast game reserve…
Did you see the elephant at the end of the clip? Here he is again:
An old bull, very calmly passing in front of us.
…and Abdim’s Stork.
Now it was time to see if we could track something else. Lots of animals at Erindi are wearing collars with transmitters. This makes it possible to track them.
Young (about 10 months old) male lion. This pride consisted of three female grown-ups and about seven cubs.
Happy with our fantastic lion sighting we stopped for the traditional sun-downers.
Nothing quite like an African sunset.
A final sighting of a group of Impala. Here is a mother with her two calves.
Last Thursday we left Windhoek driving north, following the tarred B1 for 130 km.
Turning left there was another 40 km of gravel/sand to the gates of Erindi Game Reserve, a reserve that covers more than 70 000 h!
As you enter you see this sign, warning for wild animals of different species. And on the 25 km to the lodge that day and returning the next, we saw for example:
Giraffes…
Blue Wildebeests (Brindled Gnus)…
…and Elephants. By the way, can you spot the giraffe..?
Arriving to the “Old Traders Lodge” we just made it to a quick lunch. The restaurant is situated next to…
…and Crocodiles and any other game coming for a drink.
Walking around in the lodge you can also spot smaller animals. Above a lizard – there are more than a 100 different lizard species in Namibia, maybe this is a Wedge-snouted desert lizard?
This might be a Yellow Blister Beetle…
…as we came to our room and opened the curtains and doors to our outdoor sitting area an elephant approached the waterhole…
…and this is so Namibian. Two and a half hours drive from the capitol city you are in another world!
As the elephant had its drink we saw that we had a short time to spend before the game drive and it was…
…pool time!
While Saga and Hanna spend times with their good Namibia friends I also have some good times…
Great evening with kabeljou on the braai. With Karin, Tim, Jo and Des.
…and lunch – with Jo and Tim.
Early morning walk at Elisenheim Estate – beautiful!
And tonight – that amazing beef fillet at Stellenbosch Wine Bar…
…Hugo, Lilian and Tim!
More than 9 months after I left Namibia it was time to return.
Early Saturday morning on the train from Ängelholm to Kastrup airport, Copenhagen.
Taxi, de-icing and departure…
Windhoek – not really dressed for the occasion!
The main objective of this trip is for Hanna to meet her friends. She has missed them so much! Here with Agnes…
…and here with Laaiqah!
In English:
Today is the end of my blog. It will still be available for reading but there will be no new posts. My blog is called “my African adventure” and it has been a fantastic adventure.
December 30 2010 I wrote my first blog post. Like most of the early posts it was in Swedish. The day I wrote my first post I had received an e-mail from ICAO:
”Dear Mr. Ellerstrand,
We are pleased to advise that we have received formal approval of your candidature for the post of Air Traffic Controller (Area/Approach) (OPAS) in Windhoek, Namibia, for the duration of 12 months to commence soonest appointment formalities are completed.”
I started my employment March 1 2011; today March 31 2015 is my last day as employed by ICAO.
The blog has 584 posts and it has been well visited. In 2011 and 2012 there was an average of 52 visits a day but this has increased to 115 per day for the last three months. In total there has been more than 100,000 visits!
For those of you looking for something in the blog I suggest you click on “About the blog” where you will find links to posts in English; leading you to different parts of the blog.
Thanks a lot to all of you who followed my blog!
På svenska:
Idag avslutar jag min blog. Den kommer att finnas kvar men det blir inga nya inlägg. Min blog har haft titeln “my African adventure” och det har verkligen varit ett äventyr!
Den 30:e December 2010 skrev jag det första inlägget på bloggen. Jag började min anställning i ICAO 1:e mars 2011 och idag, 31:e mars 2015 är min sista dag som anställd i ICAO.
Jag har skrivit totalt 584 inlägg, de allra flesta på engelska och jag har haft många besök på bloggen. Under 2011 och 2012 låg snittet på 52 besök om dagen men de senaste månaderna har jag haft i snitt 115 besök om dagen. Totalt har det blivit över 100 000 besök!
Om du söker något på bloggen som är på svenska kan du klicka på “Om bloggen” där du hittar länkar till olika ämnesområden. För att läsa på engelska klickar du på “About the blog“.
Tack till alla er som följt bloggen!
There are blog posts from my work for ICAO in Namibia. They are grouped:
A nice new concept of tranferring knowledge
ICAO lost a Project Coordinator. Namibia lost more…
A flight with a nice aircraft
A small airport in the far northeast
An old tower and a new tower
Air Navigation Services Safety Oversight
Finally this function is being created!
The approval – the proof of compliance!
Wednesday Pizza Lunch – Part 2
More transfer of knowledge!
These investigations into ATS-related incidents were long overdue when I got the task.
Unfortunately more ICAO staff was leaving the project
The end is in sight and this post looked back at the last year or so…
A post on safety-related tasks during my last weeks in Namibia
Information from ICAO in Namibia
Performance Based Navigation – and Namibia Civil Aviation Authority! Hear all about it…
There is a need for improved safety at Windhoek’s city airport…
Everything comes to an end…