Popa Falls

Much more basic and the electricity failed in the night. The river was close but no hippos.

The morning was spent in the grounds of the lodge and along the bank of the Kavango. We then left the Lodge and headed west along a dirt road to the “sewage” works although we probably never found the best pools and then on another 210km to Popa Falls.

Sarasunga

The grounds and banks of the river were excellent. Two Rufous-bellied Herons, a party of Black-winged Stilts and Wire-tailed Swallows, Rattling Cisticola, Grey-backed Camaroptera and African Yellow White-eye all gave good views along the river whilst the grounds produced Acacia Pied Barbet, Lesser Honeyguide, Kurrichane Thrush, a pair of African Paradise-flycatcher, six Arrow-marked Babblers and several family parties of Hartlaub’s Babbler, several pairs of Swamp Bou-bou, Burchell’s Starling and a pair of Holub’s Golden Weaver,

We then made the short drive to the sewage farm and although we saw we never made it to them as there were a couple of ponds alongside the road and we were a bit wary of leaving the car unattended. As everywhere, there were plenty of interesting birds with numerous Reed Cormorants, a Little Bittern, a pair of Hottentot Teal, a female Southern Pochard, an Osprey and Purple Swamphen calling from deep within the reeds, Waders were plentiful and included Black-winged Stilt, Ruff, four Curlew Sandpipers, a Little Stint, four Marsh Sandpiper and a Turnstone. A Giant Kingfisher and four Pied Kingfishers fed over one the ponds along with Little Bee-eater, Hoopoe, African Pipit and Wattled Starling,

Dragonflies included Orange Emperor, Banded Groundling

Drive

We then began our 210km drive to Popa Falls, Although we tried not to stop too often we still saw Brown Snake-eagle, Bateleur and African Harrier-hawk from the car whilst a stop for lunch about 30km out of Sarasunga was remarkably good, given the heat, with Striped Kingfisher, Bearded Woodpecker, Yellow-fronted Tinkerbird, Southern Black Tit, Amethyst Sunbird, Black-backed Puffback, White Helmet-shrike, African Golden Oriole, Red-headed Weaver and Golden-breasted Bunting all being seen, As we approached Divundu Yellow-billed Kite, Red-faced Mousebird Magpie Shrike were seen,

Popa Falls

We arrived at Popa falls at about 615 so we checked in, sorted out our equipment then walked and scrambled over various streams to the actual “falls”. After a couple of false starts we eventually got into a spot where we could watch the river where six Rock Pratincoles gave superb close up views, a party of three Wattled Cranes and an Osprey flew over. Five Terrestrial Bulbuls and five White-browed Robin-chats were running around our feet and four Yellow-bellied Bulbuls, two Red-breasted Swallows, a pair of African Pied Wagtail amongst the falls, a noisy, family party of Hartlaub’s Babbler and a flocks of African Yellow White-eye, After an excellent steak dinner we returned to our cabins and shortly after an African Wood-owl began calling over our heads. A look outside saw the bird fly off from an overhanging branch.