A great game drive

Last night I went out for a game drive with seven guests. After intros and some orientation, the drive got going. Early on we saw a Red-necked Falcon. The Red-necked Falcon (yes, for you Americans, it really is the bird's name,) is uncommon throughout it's range, and so always a special bird to see. This specific bird sat right next to the vehicle perched on one of those typical desert trees - i.e. the only tree for miles.

We had a good look, and the my guests got good photos.

From there we moved on. Further along there was simply a stack of wildlife - including great views of Orxy, Springbok, Ostrich, and some distant Zebras. Then, as the light was getting amazing we rushed to a nearby hill to get pics of the red, red rocks and have some sundowners.

While driving around the rocks I did keep a lookout for any interesting wildlife, but didn't see much. We stopped for drinks and had a nice time until the area was already getting a little dark. I packed up the drinks, loaded guests and sundowner stuff into my game drive vehicle, and then moved on.

I got out the spotlight right away, and started to shine on the rocks. Within seconds we located a leopard, fairly high up on the hill. We only had about a minute to view it, before it slunk of into the dark rocky area. But we knew that it must have watched us throughout our sundowner time.

We soon also located an African Wildcat, and on the way home saw more Oryx and Springbok, as well as a few geckos. All in all, one of those really special experiences in the Namibian Desert!

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Geckos and Scorpions

The desert is always a great place to look at small thing, especially small reptiles and so on. However, as we approach winter the smaller wildlife component becomes a little harder to find. This is largely because most of them are cold blooded animals and so they are less active on the cooler nights.

Tonight on our night drive back to the lodge we were luck to see both a pair of fighting Giant Ground Geckos and a scorpion. The reason they were out is because of east winds. East wind is generated in the Namib after the air in the interior starts to become cooler than the air over the coast. This cold air starts to descend and warms as it increases the pressure over the desert. So it can mean strong winds, but usually also mean some warmer afternoons and the benefit of seeing wildlife usually confined to summer nights.

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