We saw 17 rhinos in one weekend…!

Until recently, the longest journey I’d ever had to make was 36 hours. That was how long it took to get to Brooks Falls in Alaska to see the bears catching salmon. My trip to Namibia ended up taking seven months!

I was supposed to go in March, but then the Covid lockdown came along, and I had to cancel my flights. I finally managed to go in October, but even then I couldn’t escape the virus.

To fly to Windhoek, I needed a negative Covid test no more than 72 hours in advance, but the lab I paid to do my test only guaranteed results within 70 hours, so I literally had to wait at Heathrow for the chance to fly!

It was worse than that, though, because my results were late, so I had to choose between flying to Frankfurt on the first leg of my journey and waiting for them there or turning round and going home.

I chose to catch my flight, but at Frankfurt airport I received an email from DocTap to say that they’d lost my sample!

What a disaster! That meant I couldn’t catch my flight to Windhoek, and I somehow had to get another test before catching the next flight out.

Fortunately, my girlfriend Miriam texted me to say that there was a testing facility at the airport itself, which was a real life-saver. She told me that it closed at seven, though, and it was already after six o’clock, so I had to make a mad dash in order to make it in time.

Lufthansa had told me that the next flight was the following day, and I needed to get my test done that evening so the results would be ready in time.

When I arrived, one of the soldiers spoke English, and he told me what I had to do, but it was a complicated process involving registering for the test online and then waiting for a confirmation email before finally booking the test online again.

My confirmation email took 10 minutes to arrive, and it was very stressful watching the minutes tick by towards closing time!

Eventually, I got the email and booked my test. I’d been told it would be free, but the website said it was going to cost €59, so I queried that with the soldier, who then told me I was in the wrong queue!

I’d been waiting with the passengers returning to Germany, not the passengers flying abroad. Nightmare!

I rushed across the hall, only to find that the other lab had already shut - and it was only quarter to seven!

Fortunately, one of the staff took pity on me and allowed me to take the test. I had a nervous moment when my Amex card and then my MasterCard were both refused, but the last card in my wallet did the trick.

I asked the lady when I would get the test results, and she told me it would be by 11 o’clock the following morning. When I explained that the last testing agency had lost my sample, she said, “Well, I don’t know how they do things in England, but that would never happen over here!”

My next problem was finding somewhere to stay. It was only a 24-hour wait, so I was toying with the idea of sleeping in the airport, but when I went to the Lufthansa service centre to rebook my flight, they told me the next flight wasn’t for two days!

This was getting worse and worse.

It was the only option I had, though, so I booked myself a seat and went to look for a hotel.

The ones in the airport were far too expensive at €179 a night, so I went outside to look for a taxi. Unfortunately, the driver of the only one there didn’t speak any English, and my German was very rusty. It took the help of two English businessmen and a bilingual passer-by to explain the situation and get some answers.

It turned out that the cheaper hotels were all in town, so I asked the taxi driver to find one for me. His way of doing that was to use his mobile phone to search the internet and call the hotel while he was driving!

My problems didn’t end there. I spoke to the receptionist at the Premier Inn, and she told me I needed a negative Covid test to book any hotel room in the city. Oh, my God! That was the whole reason I was in this mess in the first place. How was I going to find a place to stay if I didn’t have a negative test result?

Fortunately, I thought of telling her about the test I‘d taken at the airport, and - after a nervous wait while she checked with her manager - that did the trick.

Even then, I could only check in for one night and hope that I got my negative test result the following morning.

It was supposed to arrive by 11 o’clock, but it didn’t, of course. I called the Centogene testing lab, and they told me only 95% of test results arrived by the deadline, but that it would ‘definitely’ be there by midday.

Naturally, 12 o’clock came and went, and still no test results!

After another phone call (and being locked out of my room as I was supposed to have checked out!), I was promised that my sample would be given priority, and I eventually received an email at 1224. I didn’t have the virus. Phew…!

I was thinking of doing something with my time in Frankfurt, and Miriam suggested going to the zoo.

It wasn’t too far away, and I obviously had all my camera gear with me, but the weather was too miserable the first day, and then I just felt like I had too much to worry about already, so I stayed in my room the whole time apart from visiting the bakery for breakfast and a café serving Mexican food for lunch.

I didn’t mind spending a bit of time reading the English papers on my laptop and watching a few TV shows to pass the time, but everything changed when I tried to check in online for my flight to Windhoek.

It turned out I wasn’t on the passenger list!

I spent an hour on the phone trying to sort things out. Someone from Lufthansa said my flight was definitely booked, but someone from Eurowings (the aircraft operator) said they didn’t have my name down, so I eventually had to set up a conference call between the three of us.

In the end, I was told that everything would be fine, but I’d have to check in at the airport rather than online.

I just knew that I was still going to have problems and, sure enough, I was told I couldn’t check in.

I had to go upstairs to the same Lufthansa service centre, where, fortunately, the lady managed to make a few phone calls and issue my boarding pass.

However, when I told her I only had hand luggage, she asked me to lift up my camera bag and told me it was too heavy - which I knew it was.

“You’ll have to put it in the hold.”
“But I have expensive camera equipment in there, so I can’t do that.”
“Well, you’ll have to sort that out downstairs at the check-in desk.”

Fortunately, the lady at check-in was a lot more relaxed about all the rules and regulations.

She never even asked to weigh my camera bag, and when I asked her if I had to show her proof of my Covid test, my medical insurance and my flight itinerary, she just said, “Well, you wouldn’t be going all the way to Namibia if you didn’t have everything sorted out, would you?”

Finally, some good news…!

Gabus Game Ranch

During this whole process, I was texting Miriam, my friend Jason and also Harald, my host in Namibia, to keep everyone up-to-date with what was going on.

Harald had had to drive three-and-a-half hours to Windhoek and stay overnight at a hotel in order to meet my flight on Friday morning, so I felt very bad about making him wait another 48 hours.

I ended up buying him a bottle of duty free Laphroaig whisky as an apology, but when I finally arrived in Windhoek (where I didn’t even have to show my Covid test!), it turned out he didn’t drink alcohol! The best-laid plans…

Gabus Game Ranch is a 6,200-hectare farm near Otavi owned by the Kuehl family, which originally came from Germany and has lived in Namibia for five generations.

Harald lives at Gabus with his parents Heinz and Heidi and his sister Heike. They all have their appointed areas of responsibility and expertise, and they get on pretty well.

There are bungalows and campsites surrounding a central water hole, where chacma baboons, common impalas and waterbucks can often be seen.

There are various free activities on offer including game drives, horse riding safaris, hiking, birdwatching and excursions either to Etosha, to a local winery or to the Uiseb Stalactite Cave nearby.

There’s also a family of very cute goslings wandering about the place.

You don’t see the Big Five or many birds of prey at Gabus, but there are plenty of giraffe, black wildebeest, common impala, Hartmann’s mountain zebra and common warthogs.

The animals are very skittish, rarely allowing you to get closer than 50 yards or so, but the main selling point is that it’s only about a 90-minute drive from Etosha National Park. That was the reason why I emailed Gabus in the first place.

Etosha is one of the great safari destinations in Africa (along with the Serengeti, the Masai Mara, Kruger National Park and the Ngorongoro Crater), so I was very keen to visit.

I’d never been to Namibia before, and I desperately wanted to see the black and white rhino at Etosha and also perhaps the odd oryx on a sand dune in Damaraland or the Namib Desert.

After sending out a few dozen emails to safari lodges in Tanzania, Kenya, Botswana and Namibia, Gabus was the only place that invited me to visit, so the decision in the end was made for me.

When I originally approached Harald in March, I wanted to stay for at least a month to make it worthwhile, but he said he couldn’t afford to give me a room for that long during high season. We eventually agreed on two weeks, but then lockdown came along. The irony…

Our deal was similar to the one I did with &Beyond and Cottar’s in Tanzania and Kenya last year: I paid for my flights and provided Gabus with copies of all the pictures I took, and in exchange I got free board and lodging and daily game drives on the ranch.

I also specifically asked to be taken to Etosha, and Harald and I ended up spending the weekend there with Mégane and Aida, two French and Spanish women who were doing some volunteer jobs at Gabus as part of the Workaway programme.

Camp life

The general routine at the lodge was pretty relaxed. There weren’t many guests (due to numerous cancellations after the lockdown), so the family, the staff and I largely had the place to ourselves.

From my own point of view, I was there to take pictures, so I generally went on morning and evening game drives with Harald, the guide Devilliers or a couple of older men helping out called Frank and Philip.

I also sometimes sat in a ‘high seat’ (or hide) to photograph the wildlife around a waterhole.

I had a breakfast of fruit, yogurt, cold meats and cheeses when I got back from my morning game drives, then a light pasta salad or something for lunch and, finally, a three-course dinner in the evening.

I generally ate breakfast and dinner with the guests (if there were any), but I dined with the family and staff on the last couple of nights, which was nice.

The people were generally very friendly, and Harald, Devilliers, Mégane, Aida and I had a good laugh together. Mégane gave Harald a hard time about just about everything, so we were never lacking for entertainment!

Heike also wanted a few pictures of the staff doing typical activities such as going on game drives, enjoying drinks in the bar, lounging by the pool and having dinner, so I also did a few shoots with Mégane, Aida, Harald and Devilliers.

Etosha

I enjoyed my game drives at Gabus, but the highlight of my stay was the trip to Etosha. It’s one thing to take portrait shots of wildebeest, impala and giraffe, but it’s quite another to spend the whole day looking for lion, leopard, cheetah and the elusive rhino.

Etosha is different from all the other African national parks I’ve been to in that most of the action takes place at the waterholes. I did a bit of research beforehand, and these were supposed to be the best ones to visit:

• Okaukuejo's waterhole

• Okondeka

• Gemsbokvlakte

• Goas

• Groot and Klein Okevi

• Klein

• Namutoni

• Chudop

• Kalkheuwel

I mentioned them to Harald, but I was happy to leave the navigation to him and Mégane.

We were staying at Namutoni Camp on Saturday evening, so we could only really visit whichever places were on the way.

It was a very hit-and-miss affair. A couple of the waterholes had a lot of game around them, but quite a few were completely empty.

In the end, though, we ended up being very lucky indeed. We saw all the major safari animals (except the leopard), including Hartmann’s mountain zebra, southern giraffe, black-faced impala, elephant, cheetah and lion, but our biggest thrill came from seeing a total of 17 black and white rhino!

The rhino is usually one of the rarest animals to spot on a game drive, but we had 11 separate sightings. In fact, it got to the point where Harald didn’t even stop the car when we saw a couple of rhino in the distance!

The only downside was the amount of distance we had to cover.

We had to get up very early on the Saturday to arrive in time for the opening of the park at 0630, and our game drive lasted until sunset at 1900. We did pretty much the same thing on the Sunday before heading home. Harald heroically did all the driving himself, which meant he was at the wheel for a good 14 hours each day!

Coming home

Given all the dramas in getting to Namibia in the first place, I was hoping to extend my stay as long as possible.

I emailed a few lodges at Etosha and in Damaraland, and I received an invitation to run a photography workshop at Etendeka, but it had to be postponed to next year due to the lack of time (and guests).

I also spoke to all the staff to see if they had any connections at lodges nearby, and Philip told me that his brother was the General Manager at Sossusvlei Lodge in the Namib Desert. He called him for me, and we had a quick chat on the phone.

When I asked if I could stay for a week or two in order to take pictures for him and teach photography to his guests, he said yes, but that also had to be postponed due to the lack of guests. He asked me to stay in touch, though, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to visit both Etendeka and Sossusvlei next year.

If Covid lets me…!

Butcher's bill

1 x Apple headphones (they were in the pocket of my trousers when I washed them…!)

Species list:

This is a cumulative list of species I saw at Gabus Game Ranch and Etosha National Park. Normally after a trip to Africa, there’d be a lot more birds than animals on this list, but there were very few of the ‘usual’ medium-sized and big birds at Gabus such as lilac-breasted rollers and African fish eagles, and all the LBJs (‘Little Brown Jobs’) were hard for Harald to identify - in English, at least…!

Animals (29)

Black wildebeest 

Black-backed jackal

Black-faced impala

Black-tailed mongoose

Blue wildebeest 

Chacma baboon

Cheetah

Coke’s hartebeest 

Common impala

Common eland

Common warthog

Common waterbuck

Duiker

Greater kudu

Ground squirrel 

Hartmann’s mountain zebra

Kirk’s (Damara) dik-dik

Leopard tortoise

Lion

Plains zebra

South African oryx (gemsbok)

Red hartebeest

Rock hyrax (dassie)

Sable antelope

Southern giraffe

Spotted hyena

Springbok

Steenbok

Thomson’s gazelle

Birds (27)

African green-pigeon

Ant-eating chat

Cape glossy starling

Cape vulture 

Common ostrich 

Crimson-breasted shrike

Crowned lapwing

Dark chanting-goshawk

Fork-tailed drongo

Grey hornbill

Grey mousebird

Helmeted guineafowl

Kori bustard

Lilac-breasted roller 

Martial eagle

Namaqua dove

Pied crow

Red-billed hornbill

Red-billed spurfowl

Red-breasted shrike

Ring-necked dove

Rosy-faced lovebird

Southern red-billed hornbill

Southern yellow-billed hornbill

Speckled pigeon

Tawny eagle

White-browed sparrow-weaver

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