FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX: Happy Birthday Elliot

Today’s blog post was written by young Jonah. The adult version follows on -

Happy birthday Elliot! Time to go to the Okonjima plains camp. When we arrived, we were all tired so we went straight in to our wonderful new homes and had a well-deserved rest. After resting we set out on our first adventure, leopard tracking. We got to see a mother and its 2 cubs feasting on a baby impala. We also got to see giraffes, warthogs, buffalo, water buck, kudu, oryx (with two babies (so cute!)), Mountain zebras, impalas, weaver birds and the ever so common Elliot. Our guide, Kavamba was very interesting and had razor sharp eyesight allowing him to see what we couldn’t. At first, he was a bit dull but once we got to know him we began to see the more exciting side of him. At first we didn’t know what the weird balls of grass on the trees were so we asked Kavamba who told us that it was giraffes’ way of storing food. It turned out to be bird nests after all. Elliots birthday dinner was nothing special or exciting although Elliot stated that when they sang happy birthday Namibian style he was very embarrassed. After that we went straight to bed unaware that we had to wake up at 5:00am.

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We began our drive back south towards Windhoek stopping at Okonjima overnight. Okonjima Nature Reserve is home to AfriCat. Straight from their website - ”Founded in 1991, The AfriCat Foundation is committed to the long-term conservation and survival of Namibia’s Large Carnivores in their natural habitat.” They rescue cheetahs, lions and leopards from farmlands and return over 85% to the wild. A rehabilitation programs exists for cats who are not able to be released back into the wild immediately, giving them an opportunity to return to their natural environment. Those we are not able to be released, such as the injured or those orphaned at a young age are fared for in a protected environment. Their ultimate goal is to turn their 22,000 hectares of land, which was once denuded farmland, back to its natural state, last seen 100 years ago. The lodge functions as a means to keep the projects sustainable including funding education for the locals and visitors.

We certainly learnt a lot! The leopards are the most elusive and secretive of the large cats. They are are opportunistic hunters and will kill even when not hungry. They are strong and powerful and are able to take prey twice their body weight vertically up into a tree to protect it from scavenging predators. Unless a female is accompanied by dependent offspring, they are usually solitary and actively defend their territories. In contrast, cheetahs are not opportunistic. They hunt only when hungry and only moderately protect their kill as their smaller structure make a win against larger predators unlikely. The currently estimated population of free-roaming Cheetahs in Africa in 2018 is 7000 in Africa and 100 in Asia.

The "Barn" the very large and airy common area at Okonjima Lodge. It was also nice and cool!

I wonder how cold it gets to have these around

One half the barn, the other half is the dining area

Our cabin/room

The view from the bed

Private balcony

We got there in time for lunch as well as the afternoon leopard tracking game drive. They had collared 12 leopards mainly to track their health and habits. As a side bonus, it was used as a way for visitors to see these highly elusive cats in their natural habitats. Kavamba, our guide, initially quiet had a rather quick sense of humour! He was also a wealth of information, helping us identify the various animals we had captured on camera, as well as teaching us how to tell the various types of antelopes apart. We were all awed by how we could drive, spot animals miles away as well as see tracks on the ground ALL at the same time.

Kavamba saw us taking photos of birds’ nests commenting on how perfectly round they seem. He then asked us if we knew what they really were. He proceeded to tell us that these neat piles of grass were not made by birds but rather by giraffes who use it for storage in case of drought. We fell for it hook, line and sinker. The story turned out to be the African version of the drop bear story….He asked us if we knew what giraffes ate. The children’s answer “They are fed carrots at the zoo”. We wanted to desperately to hide somewhere….Kavamba couldn’t stop laughing…

Leopard tracking was exhilarating! For a moment, we could see how people might have found hunting addictive. We followed 2 leopards for a while, but they just didn’t want to be seen. Kavamba persisted and we tracked a third leopard Lila and success! We got to see not one, not two…but three leopards! Lila had 2 cubs with her and they were content to be in the open and for us to watch them.

We returned to the lodge late. Thankfully dinner was quick, as well as being delicious. Elliot was given a small piece of cake with sparklers that came with a birthday song by the staff. He was still embarrassed despite it being round two! It was straight to bed after that as we had another early morning game drive the next day!