Caprivi Strip

This is also referred to as the Zambezi Region. It is a narrow (20 mile), long (280 miles) extension from the NE corner of the main body of Namibia, ending at the point where Zambia, Namibia and Botswana meet.

This was acquired by the Germans in 1890 to connect German South West Africa and German East Africa, as well as give access to the Zambezi River, and hopefully to the east coast of the continent. However, Victoria Falls defeated the latter goal.

We were used to seeing this landscape…

… but as we entered the Strip, we started seeing palm trees…

… and then Flamboyant trees in bloom -

Just the presence of trees, solid buildings and towns was quite new after weeks of sparsely populated desert. The “wildlife” along the road was pretty interesting…

… including that in the road -

Livestock obviously graze freely, and the only fences were around buildings…

… to keep out the local denizens -

(we never did see any elephants along the road or crossing, although there were plenty of signs warning of such)

We were directed on our itinerary to do another self-guided game drive in Mahango Game Reserve, near our lodgings on the Okavango River.

We saw a number of brilliantly colored birds…

Burchell’s Starling

Crimson-breasted Shrike

… and I added several butts to my collection -

Kudu

Common Impala

Warthog

The Warthog obliged by posing for a minute, before running off -

So this next video (as usual, click the link at the bottom of this post to open it in a browser) wasn’t this specific warthog, but this is what they look like when they run - (I had tried for days to capture this on video!)

As we continued driving along the river, we spied hippos and Red Lechwe…

… and cool for me, an African Spoonbill!

I couldn’t decide if this expression was sly, or coy -

(be sure to enlarge this and see what you think)

As we moved away from the river, a pair of ostriches was very close to the road…

… giving us a close up look at the creepy serpentine way their head and neck moves (video) -

The day ended on a high note for me. I had never thought we’d see one of these, but as we rounded a corner near the end of our drive, I spotted this gorgeous Sable Antelope browsing in the bushes. He was only there for less than a minute, but what a fantastic finish to the day!