Game drive in Bwabwata National Park, Namibia

9/12/2015

PictureHorseshoe Bend, Bwabwata, Namibia

By Roxanne Reid
There’s lots to do at Namushasha River Lodge in the Zambezi region (formerly Caprivi) of northeast Namibia. Its position along on Kwando River makes it perfect for boat trips or fishing. As we discovered, it’s also a good kick-off point for a game drive in Bwabwata National Park.

Our drive began with a short boat trip across the river to where the lodge parked their Land Cruisers. After our boat cruise the evening before, it was another chance to see sacred ibis, bee-eaters outside their nesting holes in the riverbank, a submerged hippo, waterbuck and some red lechwe among the reeds.

The Bwabwata National Park, where wildlife and local people live side by side, covers more than 6000 square kilometres. It has been described as ‘one of a new generation of parks’ because it is pioneering a live-and-let-live conservation ethic that has opened opportunities for community members in conservation and ecotourism.

One of the less sandy sections of the Bwabwata

The section we drove with Rector Tetuka, our guide from Namushasha River Lodge, was wild. The track – it couldn’t even be called a road – was rough and uneven, with thick sand in places. At times long grass virtually obscured the tweespoor so it was just as well Rector knew where he was going. Waterholes were dotted here and there – natural depressions still full from the rainy season. The area gets up to 600mm of rain between November and March. Some of the waterholes had been further excavated by elephants in the wet season.

Pied kingfisher male on the lookout for breakfast

At one of the waterholes we saw plumcoloured starling, blue waxbill and golden-breasted bunting, as well as two kudu bulls and their ladies. Not far away were some impala – referred to by Rector as ‘McDonald’s antelope’ because they’re fast food for predators. One ram was chasing another with much barking and commotion, then he changed course and began chasing a female who leapt daintily over a shrub and gave him the slip.

We saw the tracks of elephant and spotted hyena but the animals had melted into the bush. A group of white helmetshrike went cackling overhead and landed in a tree, startling two warthog who ran off, tails in the air. A yellowbilled hornbill called out from another tree. ‘There’s a fried banana,’ Rector said with a grin – a reference to the bird’s long curved yellow beak.

He also had an amusing name for guinea fowl, calling them ‘$1000 chickens’. Why? ‘Because that’s what it’s going to cost you when one goes through your windscreen if you’re travelling fast’ on the tarred B8 that runs from Rundu to Katimo Mulilo.

Plains zebra

Termite mounds were plentiful. The local people use them as cement for building their houses because it’s strong, probably because of its clay content. We’d seen a man digging up the sand from a termite mound along the main road the day before. ‘Now, in the dry season, you won’t see the termites,’ Rector said. ‘They only come out in the rainy season and are eaten by the water monitor.’

A patch of buffalo dung prompted a lesson in mosquito control. When it’s dry, the local people use it to make a fire to smoke out mosquitoes from their houses.

Little bee-eater

Horseshoe Bend
We stopped at Horseshoe Bend, where elephants often come to drink. The afternoon before guests had seen at least a hundred, but there were none at 10.30 in the morning. They were still feeding in the bushes. Instead, we watched a darter and some reed cormorants. We saw where elephant had rubbed against the bark of trees and deposited their mud, how they had debarked a camel thorn tree. ‘The bark is like chocolate for them, they can’t resist it,’ said Rector. ‘But in time the tree will die.’

We stood in the shade of a jackalberry tree and discovered that jackalberry fruit smelled and tasted like green fig, but the aftertaste was very dry, leaving my mouth spitless, my teeth powdery.

Horseshoe Bend with ghost elephants

The thrill of sable and birds
Although we missed the elephants we’d been hoping to see at Horseshoe Bend, we did see a magnificent sable bull on the way back, which was possibly more exciting because we see them far less often than elephants. The mane on his neck stood at least 5 inches high, his horns were long and fully curved.

We were also chuffed with our bird sightings, including emerald-spotted wood-dove, African purple swamphen, African green-pigeon, brown snake eagle, lilac-breasted roller, doublebanded sandgrouse, wattled lapwing and Meyer’s parrot.

After thumping and walloping along the rough tracks all morning, we spent some time later that afternoon on the balcony of our room at Namushasha River Lodge. It overlooked the river where we could hear hippos snorting in the water, birds calling through the trees and from time to time a loud plop as a water monitor launched itself from its basking branch into the river. Sometimes it’s good just to sit and do nothing but soak up the setting.

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