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The openbill, a species of stork almost sixty centimetres tall, delicately wades through the shallow water. When it scoops up a sea snail it deftly pulls the animal out of its hard shell. If a mussel cannot be cracked, the openbill drops it in a sunny spot on the riverbank where it will open eventually. Mussels are always deposited in the same spot. Currently such accumulations are found at the Chobe River Camp in the eastern parts of the Zambezi Region where openbills take advantage of the Chobe River’s low water level to forage for their favourite food. 

In some years good rainfalls in the south bring about a rare and dazzling display of nature. Then a huge field of flowering lilies draws many visitors to Sandhof farm, some 40 km north of Maltahöhe, who spontaneously visit the usually dry clay pan.

Today, the German speaking first graders at the Delta School Windhoek tackled their first school day with a Zuckertüte in their arms and a schoolbag on their backs, just like their parents and grandparents many years before them. Not only at this government school but at all schools in the country where German speaking children start their first year, the “Zuckertüte” plays an essential role.

In 2015, the then 27 year old Namibian Götz Neef, a qualified botanist and entomologist, joined the research team of the Okavango Wilderness Project thanks to his professor. During their first expedition they travelled 2414 kilometres from the source of the Cuito in the Central Angolan Highlands, through Namibia, to the end of the waterway, south of the world-famous Okavango Delta in Botswana. 

Giant eagle owls, also known as Verreaux's eagle-owl or the milky eagle owl, not only use the old nests of secretary birds or eagles for breeding, but also the top of sociable weaver and hamerkop nests. They raise one chick, sometimes two of them, which stay with their parents until the next breeding season the following year. This owl species is the second-largest in the country.

Who would have thought that a rhino hunt in 1929 would result in the founding of one of Namibia’s most popular holiday resorts? The story of how Major Hentie van der Merwe discovered a deep valley of sand a few miles south of the Omaruru river mouth was first published on 29 April 1977 by the Brandwag magazine. It was a spot with more than enough fresh water and an abundance of game. Henties Bay was named after this Major. 

It stands there, silver-coloured, shimmering in the sunlight, a bit broad with a square rear end and that nice “Namibia2Go” logo on its doors. The car’s interior has lots of space for children, dogs and shopping bags, a nice city car. And on top of that it’s all-wheel drive? That is what the offer says. I am tasked to test the Duster in the Kalahari Desert. 

2017 brought Namibia a second year of economic difficulties and tight fiscal measures on the side of the government. Here a review of the past 12 months. 

Waterbird counts are conducted twice a year at various wetland sites on Namibia’s coast and in the interior as part of the International Waterbird Census (IWC). The numbers gathered during a count ultimately end up on the desk of Holger Kolberg, a nature conservation official with the research department of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, who is also Namibia’s IWC coordinator. The IWC is based in the Netherlands and operates in more than 100 countries.