We came to Windhoek to do some end of trip birding at two places – Daan Viljoen Game Reserve and Avis Dam. They are both birding hotspots and we hoped to get some of the birds we have so far not seen on the trip. City Centre Windhoek is also a known place to see Bradfield’s Swift but as we managed to see that already earlier in the trip, we no longer needed to get that one. We had breakfast at the hotel and headed out to Daan Viljoen and got there just after 8:30am. It is only a 30 minute drive (20 km) out of the city.
It is not a big reserve and you can walk/hike but neither H nor I were kitted out for hiking. There is a self-drive route of 7km but on the map it was marked as 4×4 only. We asked the lady at reception whether we could do it in my car and she leaned over to check my car out and said ‘sure’. First mistake of the day made right there. About 0.5 km in we realised that a 4×4 would be much better. At one point H had to get out of the car and direct me through a particularly poor spot and she said my front right tyre didn’t touch the ground while navigating through it. There were a few times when H asked me to stop so she could identify a bird and I just said ‘no ways not right now’. I reckon if we had stopped it would have been permanently. We did make it to the end with no damage to the car. H summed it up when she said “I think that we just fully tested the limit of the car”. We did add 6 birds to the trip list at least though admittedly only one of them on the 4×4 route.
After the reserve we headed to Avis Dam. The bird life was significant there and probably the most number of Diederik Cuckoos I have ever seen at one time. Unfortunately not that many new birds for the trip as we only managed to add 2. One of those was sufficient though to take H over the 200 target we had for the trip. She is now on 201 which means I am on 196. I was hoping to close the gap by at least one today as both places we went to were known for the bee-eater that H saw and I didn’t. I will just have to try and sneak in some birds on our homeward drive over the next 2 days!
By the time we were finished birding at the dam, it was lunch time and we were hungry and thirsty (the sun was baking down on us at the dam). We had lunch at Olivia’s Kitchen (apparently a top 10 restaurant in Windhoek according to TripAdvisor). A thunderstorm started just after lunch and it has been raining constantly since then – I can hear the thunder and rain coming down as I type. We stayed in the room for the afternoon.
Dinner was at CTFM. We learnt our lesson and so we went straight after breakfast to book a table. Only to be met with an incredulous look and “It’s Friday night, we are fully booked already!” It seems you have to book well in advance for a Friday night – unclear how well in advance but definitely more than a day it seems. It turned out OK though as we still managed to get a table when we decided to go down for dinner. The food was pretty good last night and was again tonight.
Off to bed soon as the plan is for an early start tomorrow as we have a long drive ahead.
P & H
