On the little stretch of Caprivi, where the colonial politics of the past have arbitrarily divided the land into Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, and Angola, wildlife knows no borders. The river here serves as the divide, and its name changes every hundred miles or so. Birds here are as colorful as I’ve ever seen. Carmine bee-eaters sunbathe on low branches, and I photograph them in all their magnificence as they let me get surprisingly close. Neither them nor the elephants that cross the river need passports. I wish I had the same kind of freedom. At dusk, when the light is still good, hippos and crocs peek out of the river, looking like they were chiseled out of fine black granite. Reeds and papyrus shelter shy buffaloes and aquatic antelopes.
