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It is January 1677. At the tip of Africa, where a supply station has been established at the foot of Table Mountain, the Dutch ship “Bode” sets sails to explore the coastline north of the Gariep/Orange river mouth. In early March the “Bode” arrives at Sandwich Harbour. The crew goes ashore but is attacked by the Khoisan who live there. After a brief skirmish the sailors retreat back to their ship and leave the bay. This was the first resistance by the inhabitants of today’s Namibia against European intruders and resistance continued for more than three centuries.

In 1811, botanist, explorer and artist William John Burchell recorded finding a “curiously strange pebble”, which he discovered was a plant. This “living stone” or lithops has intrigued many people over the centuries. A real desert child, lithops favours arid or semi-arid areas although it is also found in more vegetated grasslands with higher rainfall. In the coastal areas of the Namib Desert, it depends on the mist to obtain moisture. 

Looking out over the Klein Windhoek valley, one notices the upmarket suburban houses surrounding St Paul’s College and its sports fields and the students walking jauntily down the road after a typical school day. What few people may realise however is that the valley, verdant in mid-summer bounty, was once covered by the sprawling vineyards of the Roman Catholic Mission.

Warthogs can be found in almost all Namibian regions, even in the isolated Namib Desert. Standing on their elbows, fore legs bent beneath them, they are within sight of the car drivers as they dig for roots and tubers with their hard noses. Grass, herbs and fresh shoots are also never spurned by animals that are considered to be herbivores. What most people do not know, however, is that warthogs also eat meat. 

Towering termite mounds reaching heavenwards from the savannah are a typical sight in many areas of Namibia. Giant mushrooms emerge from the base of the mounds during the rainy season adding to their striking visual impact. As the grass turns green and the clouds mass for summer downpours, the gargantuan fungi appear as if in celebration of the rains or as manna from the gods.

While a few dark clouds over Namibia’s economic downturn still prevail, there are silver linings as some mining companies and the tourism industry perform well. The Finance Ministry applied fiscal brakes on spending and demands that State-owned companies make profits. Welcome rains during February helped fill several dams and farmers are cautiously optimistic about beef and crop productions. Western parts of Namibia only received scattered rainfalls. Some nervousness prevails in the economy.

After the long summer break, political life in Namibia took off this month with the opening of Parliament and the first Cabinet meeting. The land issue dominated again with claims for ancestral land lost during colonisation. Claims were peppered with alleged tribalistic undertones in the view of the government. President Hage Geingob called for unity and warned against tribalism during a remarkable commemoration of the iconic Oukwanyama King Mandume Ya Ndemufayo, who died in combat against colonial troops 100 years ago. 

On 23 February 2017, the Hardap Dam, near Mariental’s sluices were opened for a second time in this rainy season, 2016/17. At first, only two sluices were opened at 8 o’clock for an hour, 1.2 metres and 224 cubic metres of water was drained per second. At 9 o’clock a third sluice was opened, 1.2 metres and 336m3/sec flowed into the Fish River below the dam wall.

Large elephant families swimming, with a bit of luck you may see large zebra, buffalo and antelope herds grazing in the flood plains... You are in Camp Chobe, in the extreme southeast of the Zambezi Region. This jewel for nature and bird lovers is the latest addition to the Gondwana Collection, as from 1 March 2017. 

A few old graves with weather-beaten crosses, two stone padrões (pillars crowned with a cross) and a cacophony of seals mark the place that was a hive of activity at the end of the 19th century. It’s difficult to believe that a windswept, desolate promontory could attract explorers, entrepreneurs and industry. Strangely, Cape Cross did. It also boasted the first railway line and water distillation plant in the country - and the first postal robbery.