1. Chapter: Farm Düsternbrook |
The journey to the Farm Düsternbrook, about 50km northwest of Windhoek,
already developed interesting, because we had to cross two ordinarily dry, now, however, water-leading riverbeds.
On the farm which calls itself the oldest guest farm of Namibia, cheetahs and leopards are held in enclosures of several hectares.
Their everyday feeding can be seen by farm guests from an open jeep. While the cheetahs left no especially wild impression
and moved with sighting of the jeep immediately to the feeding place, did the leopardess Geena justice of the name wildcat.
She let the jeep circle through her district until she agreed with the feeding place. She hissed menacingly if the meat supplies did not come
fast enough. We had great respect for this leopardess.
Beside the wild cats the farm offers some well signposted footpaths of different levels.
In addition on the farm area lived various wild animals, like kudus, ibexes, hartebeests, giraffes, zebras, rhinoceroses and warthogs.
These can be observed and photographed on a farm round trip.
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2. Chapter: Lodge Amani |
From Düsternbrook we went over Windhoek to the Lodge Amani, which is situated
at 2100m height on the copper mountain pass. The lodge had till recently the biggest amateur telescope of Namibia in the
Capella Observatory.
From the Lodge one has a fantastic view, in the north to Windhoek and in the south up to the Gamsberg. Also on Amani there is a big cats project.
There is an enclosure, many hectares wide, for a pair of lions, that got asylum on Amani and will stay there for their lifetime.
An enclosure of the same size shelters 5 young cheetahs, who lost their mother. Now they should learn the hunting behaviour in a small herd.
In the future they should returned to the wild on a farm of more than 10000 hectares size, as soon as the enclosing with wild fence is done.
The journey in the open cross-country jeep to the feeding of the lions and cheetahs was one of the highlights of our vacation.
At Amani exists a third enclosure with the leopards whom we did not see, however.
The lodgings at Amani are chalets on the southern slope with view at the lion's enclosure on the neighbouring hill and the Gamsberg at the horizon.
The meals were served in a glazed Lapa which offers a very elegant ambience like the whole Lodge.
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3. Chapter Farm Kuzikus |
The farm Kuzikus is situated 200km southeast of Windhoek close to the Kalahari desert.
The farm has the status of a private game reserve and accommodates sharp mouth rhinoceroses on her area, which unfortunately did not cross our way
during our 3 nights stay. Instead of them we saw a herd of more than 20 giraffes, several antelopes, like Elands, Kudus, springboks,
blesboks, stripe and white tail gnus and vast amounts of vultures.
We spent 2 days of our stay with a "wilderness course". In this course Dieter the farmer explained to us to read the tracks and latrines of the animals.
He gave us information to the behaviour of every animal species we saw, we learned about the different kinds of fences for fencing in ther farm,
the secret stalking on a watering hole (unsuccessfully with us two dudes) and we learned something about the vegetation on the farm.
We can recommend the wilderness course to every visitor of Kuzikus very warmly.
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4.Chapter: Guest farm Tivoli |
The Farm Tivoli, only about 80km away from Kuzikus,
became our home for the next 7 days. When we arrived about midday, we were greeted warmly by the owners Kirsten and Reinhold Schreiber.
After moving in to our nice room we went to arrange our equipment. Here special thanks to Rolf Scheffer, a friend of the family Schreiber,
who supported us energetic. He relieved with it Reinhold who was claimed heavy by his second source of income, the breed of Karakul sheeps.
My wife Annette got the 10"-Dobson put on the oberservation place and I was briefed in the C11 on an Atlux mount in one of the obversatories.
In addition, Rolf mounted my Rubinar 500mm, which photo thread was damaged, with a lot of ingenuity on a steel base plate parallel to the C11.
In the course of the day we got to know the other guests,
with those we exchanged experiences and spent in the following a nice time on Tivoli.
About 17 o'clock there is on Tivoli the dinner in an open Lapa, every evening another lusciousness, so that the astronights could begin from the 18Uhr30.
Unfortunately my Off-Axis-Guider did not work as intended, so that I could take photos only with the Rubinar 500mm and the camera lens.
So no galaxies, but nebulas and star clusters were announced from now on. I used the C11 only for guiding (Breaking a fly on the wheel)and observing.
Meanwhile, Annette had met an other "only-observer", Manfred, who used a C11 and an TMB-APO.
Because both observed neighbouring, they often viewed an object in all telescopes at the same time and compared the effect of different eyepieces
and filters.
On account of the cold - temperatures around and under the freezing point - we have stood it outdoors mostly only to midnight.
Nevertheless, I am contented with my photos and Annette with her observations.
For the astronomers who do not use the day for postsleeping Tivoli offers the following possibilities: Reading in the astronomical library,
Walking around the farm area including bird's observation (favorite employment of Manfred the birder), sightseeing flight with a Cessna
or a visit of the "neighbouring farm" Kiripotib (approx. 20 km away). At Kiripotib local employees process and color wool
and weave carpets of the wool. These carpets can be acquired as well as on the farm provided jewellery.
There is no time for boredom at Tivoli.
The hospitality of the Schreibers, the choice in telescopes and not least the comradeship with the other guests let us easily came to the conclusion:
Tivoli, we will come again !
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