Thirty kilometers before Otjiwarongo, we turned onto the C 22, which led us towards Okakarara. We actually planned to hike on the Waterberg. But when we read that the NRW campsite is occupied by aggressive baboons, we changed our plans. (I hat baboons since they stole yoghurt and fruit from the breakfast table at a camp in Botswana twenty years ago!) Instead, we decided to visit the Farm Heimaterde, where Brigitta’s grandmother lived almost a hundred years ago. But it turned out differently …

We were driving at 70 km/h eastwards – on the left side of the road where you drive in Namibia – when I saw a large bird lying on the roadside, which seemed to be waving with one wing at us. (It looked like he was about to hitchhike!). I braked, turned and drove back – it was an owl lying there on the side of the road. Brigitta jumped out of the vehicle, grabbed a towel, and carefully wrapped the Barn Owl. What now?

We decided to turn back and see a vet. We found him – thanks to information from Namibian bird lovers over the phone – in Otjiwarongo, which was about a hundred kilometers away. An X-ray showed that the owl, which we baptized «Silence», could no longer be helped.

PS. Owls are my favorite birds. We’d been looking for one for months. Now that we finally found one, we had to have it euthanized by the vet. Rest in peace in bird’s heaven dear «Silence».