When Claire Kolberg announced the previous year that the Ringers' Get-together was to be held at Augurabis I was immediately tempted to make the trip, both because it was considerably closer for those of us travelling from South Africa, but also because I had never seen the Fish River Canyon - and this would be only a short distance from the ringing site. So, at the end of April we set off on the long trip from the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast to Namibia stopping off at a freezing Middelburg and at Upington on the way. Once we entered Namibia through the Ariamsvlei Border Post, we liaised with Colin de Kock, my erstwhile ringing colleague from Gauteng and met to fill up at Grünau before the final leg to the ringing site. Driving along the track to Augurabis through the stark and sparsely vegetated surroundings it was difficult to envisage the lush river valley that we entered once we reached the ringing camp at Augurabis Canyon Outpost where we were met by Holger and Claire.