GAME RESERVES .There is nothing like an African sky. As soon as I stepped off the airplane outside of Windhoek, I was reminded of the beauty. But, I was surprised how near to Windhoek you could go to see animals. I went to two reserves. Okapuka was just a little ways outside of the city and Erindi was two hours away. Both felt like they were in remote corners of the planet, possibly because they were.

Okapuka Reserve, closer to the city, had many more guests and the animals were used to that fact. It provided amazing close up photographs. Erindi, a newly opened reserve, had a true feeling of the wild. Well, it was wild on the safari, but the lodge was nothing short of luxury. All the cottages faced a watering hole and you never knew what was going to be there. My favorite "guest" was a rhino and I was glad I missed when the wild dogs took down a wildebeest.

I wasn't kidding when I said wild. At one point on my personal safari, we were deep in the bush and a lion was fifty meters away. We didn't spot it but another vehicle had. And, we were so deep in the bramble that at one point the guide had to get out with a machete to hack away a thorn tree. He gave me his search light to keep an eye out for the lion. I was very glad I didn't see a lion that night.