Last week at the arts club, John Archer-Thompson took us on a magical tour around Southern Namibia (writes A.D.).

On previous visits, John had travelled along the famous skeleton coast and in the oldest desert in the world. This trip focused on the Transfrontier National Park, straddling the borders of South Africa, Nambia and Botswana. With his wife and another couple, he hired a Landrover with a roof tent. The driving was hard as the roads were crescent shaped of gravel or soft sand.

They stayed first in a camping area called Bagatelle, where they had an adjacent hut with 'ensuite' bathroom. Sightings included the Kalahari Robin, Kudu, wildebeest, cheetah and an ostrich followed by several babies.

The group headed towards a site with quiver trees on the way to the Transnational park, crossing the South African border. There were southern yellow billed hornbill, African wildcat, springbok, goshawks, a cape cobra, ground squirrels, meercats, a spotted eagle owl and jackals.

At the next site, they saw a male and female lion eating a wildebeest, followed by a pack of jackals, then two different species of vultures. At this time, they realised the Landrover wouldn't start and had to get out (fortunately after the lions had left) to open the bonnet and fix it.

Beautiful shots followed of giraffe, steenbok, a secretary bird, yellow mongoose and a kori bustard.

The Nan Tib Biosphere Reserve was a farm with low impact on the fringe of the desert where they had an interesting encounter with a scorpion. The other campers were all German. Nambia was previously a German colony, but they politely spoke English for the benefit of our intrepid, but monoglot travellers.

One of the last stops was at the Isachub River camp which was filled with sculptures made from junk as if the owner could throw nothing away!

After seeing a fig forest, and a beautiful African sunset, the final drive to the airport was along a busy road another car at least every 20 minutes!

Once again, John Archer-Thompson took us on a amazing visual tour of a beautiful part of the world.

This week (February 15) there is no meeting. On February 22, at 8 pm, in St. Johns Church Hall, John Beynon will give a talk on 'Locals, incomers and visitors, glimpses of Victorian Tenby.'

Then on March 1, the arts club is holding a St. David's Day celebration.

Everyone is welcome to come along to our meetings, it is £2 for members and £4 for non-members, including light refreshments.