The Covid third wave was fast approaching and with climbing infection rates in early June, it seemed to be on a collision path with our June/July family road trip during the school holidays. Our 2020 jaunt had been shelved and it looked increasingly likely that the same would happen in 2021. Road trips are our favorite holidays as a family and we knew this may be the last one the six of us would enjoy together, with our oldest son heading to university in 2022 and the divergence of his holidays from his siblings’. We have honed our road-tripping skills to fine art and our time together is in general conflict-free, despite the close confines in a vehicle. Roadside picnics, sundowners, game drives, music playlists, and quizzes (carefully designed to make sure I win) are the perfect tonic to relieve the usual stresses of day-to-day life.
This time we decided to head for the open spaces of Namibia, one of our favorite destinations. It also seemed like a logical way to avoid Covid, given our isolation as a single unit and within a country that has such a low population density. The major problem, however, seemed to be the looming PCR tests that we would need before boarding the plane. Even more worrying was that Namibia was at the peak of its worst wave of infections and the chance of getting there was looking slimmer by the minute. We had all our accommodation booked and we controlled what we could with our self-inflicted quarantine to ensure negative test results. Against the odds, we received negative tests and boarded the plane to Windhoek.
Bu hikaye African Birdlife dergisinin January/February 2022 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye African Birdlife dergisinin January/February 2022 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
EXPLORING NEW HORIZONS
Keith Barnes, co-author of the new Field Guide to Birds of Greater Southern Africa, chats about the long-neglected birding regions just north of the Kunene and Zambezi, getting back to watching birds and the vulture that changed his life.
footloose IN FYNBOS
The Walker Bay Diversity Trail is a leisurely hike with a multitude of flowers, feathers and flavours along the way.
Living forwards
How photographing birds helps me face adversity
CAPE crusade
The Cape Bird Club/City of Cape Town Birding Big Year Challenge
water & WINGS
WATER IS LIFE. As wildlife photographer Greg du Toit knows better than most.
winter wanderer
as summer becomes a memory in the south, the skies are a little quieter as the migrants have returned to the warming north. But one bird endemic to the southern African region takes its own little winter journey.
when perfect isn't enough
Egg signatures and forgeries in the cuckoo-drongo arms race
Southern SIGHTINGS
The late summer period naturally started quietening down after the midsummer excitement, but there were still some classy rarities on offer for birders all over the subregion. As always, none of the records included here have been adjudicated by any of the subregion's Rarities Committees.
flood impact on wetland birds
One of the features of a warming planet is increasingly erratic rainfall; years of drought followed by devastating floods. Fortunately, many waterbirds are pre-adapted to cope with such extremes, especially in southern Africa where they have evolved to exploit episodic rainfall events in semi-arid and arid regions. But how do waterbirds respond to floods in areas where rainfall - and access to water - is more predictable? Peter Ryan explores the consequences of recent floods on the birds of the Western Cape's Olifants River valley.
a star is born
It’s every producer’s dream to plan a wildlife television series and pick the right characters before filming.
