Willi is three months old now and is totally fixated on Lodge Manager Rodrik van Neel. Usually you can see the adolescent walking behind him. Rodrik took him in as an orphaned baby and raised him with a bottle. There he is now the substitute dad. And Willi is a family member, he gets on well with the other children. In the garden of the manager's house, jumping around with the other small children.
Willi is already the second springbok that Rodrik is raising. Last year Bocky grew up in the lodge. He excelled as a guardian of a flock of young ostriches before his conspecifics lured him into the Kalahari. The ostriches are now mature, defensive animals. Every now and then they show up at the water hole near the lodge and can then also be observed on the webcam.
In early September, the containers holding the gliders for the 2026/27 season were loaded in Waghäusel. Transported by trailer, truck, and cargo ship, the gliders are now on their long journey to Namibia, to the Bitterwasser Flying Lodge.
The Bitterwasser Flying Lodge was the main sponsor of the Junior World Gliding Championships, where from August 2 to 17, 2026, around 80 pilots from 22 nations competed for the titles in the Standard and Club classes. The grand prize for the JWGC winners was a one-week stay at the lodge, including travel and an airplane.