Our New Safari Vehicle

We bought a new Land Rover Defender 130 Puma, which is currently converted into a comfortable and practical safari vehicle. There will be 3 doors each side for easy access to 6 window seats (1 for the driver and 5 for guests). Only on special request, like for a family with children, we can add 2 more centre seats. The design allows for easy configuration for each particular safari, like taking out or adding seats. Also fitted are 2 Engel 40 liter fridges, two 55 liter extra diesel tanks, and a 60 liter water tank. The other specific design details we shall keep for ourselves for now.

The conversion was done by Auto Fleiss near Swakopmund, who also did the conversion for our current vehicle. Dietmar and Dagmar Fleiss are supervising the work done on a daily basis to ensure top craftsmanship. Even the seats are manufactured and covered in their own workshop, as well as the professional spray painting on completion of the construction. They have already converted well over 100 vehicles with top craftsmanship.

Here are some pictures, as the work progressed:

Hobetere Lion Shot by Hunters

So many visitors to the Hobatere Lodge had taken so many photos of Xpl-20 the ‘Old Boy’, the alpha lion of the resident pride. He was radio-collared and monitored for years by Dr. Flip Stander of Desert Lion Conservation. He was not a problem lion, and did not leave the Hobatere Concession. Dieter took amazing photos of him on 03.10.10. He was shot on 06.10.10 after he could have been lured out of his safe haven. The hunting concessionaire Peter Thormählen, of Thormählen and Cochran Safaris, said that a radio-collar on a lion does not make him a holy animal. He had the permit to shoot 2 lion. This is now the third radio-collared alpha desert lion shot since November 2009, after the killing of Xpl-3 ‘Adolf’, and the illegal hunting of Xpl-44 ‘Leonardo’. According to Dr. Flip Stander this is a major blow to the lion population and for tourism in Namibia.