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Wattled Cranes are rare. They can be found on the vast flood plains of the Okavango and Chobe, on the countless islands in the Kwando River, on the wetlands of the Linyanti and in some other areas. These usually shy birds are the largest and rarest cranes in Africa. They are around 1.5 m tall and weigh 8 kg. In Namibia they are classified as endangered.

The signboard east of Windhoek with the name “Otjivero” written on it might just direct travellers to another small settlement one would think. But Otjivero, as well as the adjacent Omitara, attracted international attention about ten years ago, when a unique pilot project took off. The names of these two tiny settlements have become household names on an international level in the true sense of the word when it comes to the debate about poverty reduction through a universal basic income. 

Count yourself lucky then if you do chance upon a leopard when visiting the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park. Internationally renowned wildlife management specialist Professor Koos Bothma has studied the leopards of the southern Kalahari for 19 years. His research has provided a rare and fascinating insight into these secretive cats. Now he has published a book, Written in the Sand, which was recently launched in Windhoek.

All travellers en route from Windhoek to Swakopmund or to the north via Otjiwarongo pass the town of Okahandja, and the first turnoff takes you to the well-known Okahandja woodcarvers’ market. With a wealth of handcrafted wood carvings, this is the place to stop for a touch of Africa.

He is nimble, clever, cheeky. A feisty little guy who nevertheless tries to keep safe as far as possible. Not much attention is paid to him, although he is endemic to southern Africa and our constant companion – in large cities as much as in remote grasslands. But Passer melanurus, the Cape Sparrow, perhaps better known as mossie, is a delight to watch and in a way has even come to fame.

Carl Julius List (1880 – 1959), a banker by profession, arrived in the German colony of South West Africa in 1905 to take charge of the finance division – later the banking division – of the Damara und Namaqua Trading Company. In 1920 he and Hermann Ohlthaver (1883 –1979) as the two partners of Ohlthaver & List entered the beer brewing business and invested a significant amount of money in the Felsenkeller-Brauerei.

The journey from Gondwana’s Delight hotel in Swakop up the famed Skeleton Coast to Palmwag and then northwards to Omarunga-Epupa Falls Camp provided a wealth of spectacular landscapes and fascinating stops, but - importantly - it also provided the opportunity to meet some of Namibia’s beautiful and colourful people. Sometimes, because of a lack of a common language, we had to use gestures and hand signals, but we still managed to communicate.

Namibia's Minister of Environment and Tourism, Pohamba Shifeta, visited a waterhole in the dried up Chobe River on the border with Botswana at the end of August 2019. 69 hippos were stranded in the waterhole that started to dry out. Next to it, the Ministry of the Environment had drilled a 29-metre borehole and pumped water into the waterhole for eight hours every day. The muddy pool once again turned into a large pond sheltering hippos from the scorching heat during the day.

Worker termites industriously carry dry plant material to a small hole in the ground. Others climb onto the few blades of grass and cut them into small pieces, ready to be taken into the subterranean nest of the colony. Two species of harvester termites occur in Namibia: a type of Microhodotermes is found only in the south, while Hodotermes mossambicus is spread across the rest of the country.

Climate change is a harsh reality particularly in southern Africa with extreme weather conditions as floods and droughts badly affect livelihoods. Natural resource management, bio-economy and climate smart agriculture have recently become popular buzzwords to build resilience. The Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF) in Windhoek organised a one-day conference on Namibia’s sustainable natural resources management and its bio-economic potential.