The mammal highlight for me was this fantastic male cheetah, caught making its way to a bit of shade mid-morning. Career-best views for me of a species that had eluded me until last year.
Mammals always dominate proceedings in Africa - and we were pleased with our haul that included this superb leopard just three metres from the car. I have yet to miss leopard on this trip...A great trip with a lovely group of enthusiastic people, they found a lot of stuff themselves and stuck it out through the constant demands for pre-dawn breakfasts, early morning sessions and night work. We deserved everything we saw basically and did very well. The trip started badly for me though on the first full day when I was stung by two evil vespertid wasp and had a full-body attack of urticaria (no photos, too ugly). Itchy as all hell for two days, no sleep and opened up my stitches too! Nice! All part of the job though and I will certainly check for wasp nests when I duck under road bridges in future.
Early rains had produced a crop of flowering plants that we normally do not see and Palearctic migrants were in early as a result too. Birdwise it was rather an odd trip, we missed a lot of small passerines that we normally see (just over-looked in the mayhem I guess), but we got a handful of species that were Namibia ticks for me. No lifers as usual but I am not grumbling. Will post more photos soon from the Namibia trip.