As this is written, I am less than 24 hours away from a very long airplane ride that will put me, with stops and layovers, in the fabled Caprivi Strip in Namibia three days from now. The rifle I am taking—the Kimber Caprivi—is named for that strip of land in Northeastern Namibia that linked what was formerly German South West Africa to the Zambezi River and Germany’s former colony on the East African coast, Tanganyika. Named for German diplomat Leo von Caprivi, who negotiated a deal with the British for the land in 1890, the Caprivizipfel in German remains one of the wildest parts of Africa, chocked full of African game, including those of the dangerous variety.
July 18, 2011