Vibrant pulse of the planet in Namibia

Robert Muyola has never seen this before. The purple heron, neck arched elegantly, has a tigerfish in its beak, red tail glinting ruby in the Namibian sun.

"Wow," the guide breathes, as we sit in his small boat on the Chobe River, Namibia on one bank, Botswana on the other.

"Yes, this is a brave bird," Ernest Sihope Sikanda agrees when we get back to Pride of the Zambezi houseboat, on which I am staying, being saturated in Africa and its many inhabitants.

Tigerfish are Africa's equivalent to South American piranhas - very aggressive and with razor-like interlocking teeth. A school of young tigerfish can kill and strip big animals that venture too far into the water, including humans.

They're in the Chobe and Zambezi rivers, which come together in this great confluence where Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana meet.

But the elegant heron seems unimpressed by the tigerfish's fearsome pedigree, flicks it tail-up, and swallows it down whole.

It is one small moment of life and death and danger in Namibia; in Africa, where there always seems to me this immediacy. This continent has less filter. You can hear the big pulse of the planet, of roots, of reality.

You don't even have to listen that closely.

The ideal cooler months for travel here, and being on the houseboats on the Chobe, are probably May, June and July. Although it's cooler, it's dry, and the wildlife compresses around water. But I am here late in the year, writing about it in good time for those who might wish to consider next season . . . and it's hot. There has already been some rain and with that, around November, the animals tend to spread. It's harder work for the guides to find everything visitors might want to see.

But not here on the river. Not today.

Elephants line the waterway like a parking lot full of grey cars. We leave the Pride of the Zambezi and motor over in a shaded aluminium boat with Robert.

This is a breeding herd and it's clear to see the dominant matriarch who is ruling the roost. But the younger mums have their toes in the water, and suck up to 14 litres with their snorkelling trunks before curling them and squirting it back in their mouths, or occasionally just over their chests to cool themselves.

The youngsters generally just gambol around and play.

Further out, hippos float like islands, eyes and pink nostrils up and ears twitching occasionally, until Robert's boat gets as close as they can tolerate and, then they let us know with big belly-echo-type grunts.

Hippo, seen on a (boat) game drive on the Chobe River. Picture: Stephen Scourfield

A huge crocodile does an impression of a Toblerone-crested log while a smaller one whisks into the water and three titches bask their cold-blooded bodies like plastic toys.

The birds are fantastic, in the true sense of the word, in being both fanciful and imaginative. The bottom of the African skimmer's beak is considerably longer than the top, so that it can more easily jag fish as it flies across the surface of the water.

The open-billed stork's beak is in two arcs, light in between, so that it can more easily crack open shells.

The smallish hamerkop with its massive nest of twigs.

The big sea eagles, like those sitting now as a pair on a gnarly tree, with their yellow hooked beaks and dramatic creamy white tops against their red-brown bottoms.

And then the red-billed ox peckers, endemic to sub-Saharan Africa and eating the ectoparasites - particularly ticks -off large animals.

In this case, off a very big herd of buffalo, with a forehead horn mantel as hard and heavy as a grey jarrah burl.

But look closely through a long lens, and they are as pretty as the kaleidoscopic starlings here (and you can't have a camera lens that's too long for African wildlife. I have my 100-400mm lens with 1.4x teleconverter pushing it up to 560mm and it's only just doing the job, close as I am).

Chobe National Park, which runs for 70km along this bank, is in Botswana - but because it is a conservation area, no boats are based there. To cruise the Chobe River and see this watery edge of the park, visitors must go through immigration out of Botswana and board the houseboats which are run from the Namibian side of the river.

This, of course, is floodplain Namibia in the east of the country.

But it is perhaps more famous both for the dry lands where Bushmen, Damara and Namaqua tribes have lived since early human times, and for the Kalahari Desert and the Namib Desert, thought to be the world's oldest desert region.

In a stable multi-party parliamentary democracy of just over two million people, these draw more than a million visitors a year.

There's mining for diamonds and precious metals but half of the world's second-least densely populated country (behind Mongolia) depends on mainly subsistence agriculture - growing, herding and fishing.

Ernest Sihope Sikanda comes from this Chobe floodplain and explains that local people have two villages; one for when the river is low, down on the flat, productive soil, and one on higher ground for when it rises perhaps more than 7m, completely covering the islands that they graze and grow on, replenishing them.

As people prepare to move, the land around the new village will be ploughed and maize planted as a quick, temporary crop.

Often, after the lower village has been abandoned, houses mostly of mud may be partially washed away and need rebuilding each year.

"That's how it has always been," he says simply.

There is, of course, the rub between wildlife and agriculture. And a few days ago, from the Botswanan side of the river, I could hear farmers at night trying to ward off the elephants which might have crossed the river from the national park.

But Ernest says farmers are compensated for any damage done, for instance, by a big herd of buffalo, like the one I am watching now.

As the light fades, the sky starts to look bruised. There is a momentary lacework of startling white lightning.

We retreat to the boat and another fine dinner.

Pride of the Zambezi has four cabins on the water-level deck. They are comfortable with big windows and ensuites.

The next floor has sitting, dining and bar areas, all open and with an outside deck for viewing, and a small plunge pool. It is a social lounge area, conducive to conversation and relaxation - from Durban, Birmingham, Paris and Perth, the atmosphere is warm and easy-going, and the friendly local crew contribute to this. They happily chat about the area, the wildlife, their lives, Namibia.

The Pride of Zambezi on a narrow channel of the Chobe River. Picture: Stephen Scourfield

The full-board arrangement includes all house wines, beers, soft drinks and mineral water, excellent meals and activities like the "boat game drives".

On the top deck there's one premium ensuite cabin with sliding doors opening on to a big deck area, and that big view.

That means a maximum of 10 guests, and there are six crew under the amiable and professional Ernest.

It's all a bit African Queen, although I can't imagine even Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart finding any reason to bicker on deck, as they did in the 1950s movie.

Not here, 70km upstream from the spectacle of Victoria Falls, with the water lapping against the houseboat, an orange almost-full African moon rising and two lions roaring mildly off in the dark.

FACT FILE

Stephen Scourfield was in Africa as a guest of Bench International. Bench International has itineraries throughout southern and east Africa, and can include a stay on houseboats like Pride of the Zambezi in itineraries which include Namibia and Botswana. Phone 1300 237 422, visit benchinternational.com.au or email info@benchinternational.com.au. Bench International is based at Level 4, 55 York Street, Sydney.

South African Airways flies seven days a week from Perth to Johannesburg and connects to the rest of Africa. SA281 leaves Perth for Johannesburg at 11.45pm and SA280 leaves Johannesburg at 9.20pm, and arriving in the following day at 12.55pm. See flysaa.com and travel agents.