You never know what you will see at the water hole in Gondwana Namib Park in the middle of the Namib Desert in Namibia. At this moment (it’s nine in the morning in Maine and three in the afternoon there), three ostriches have shown up to drink. They have large fluffy bodies, ridiculously long legs, and comically long necks.

They drink three gulps at a time, bending their necks down to the water, jerking their heads forward to fill their mouths, and then stretching right back up to look for predators. No doubt they need a water stop: It’s 90 degrees, the earth is barren all around, and there is not a cloud in sight.

Now the ostriches have wandered off and what I think is a female Gemsbok antelope has shown up. There is a block of salt nearby, which the gorgeous creature with its two long, thin, almost straight-up horns, visits for five minutes or so, before washing it down with a long drink.

Namibia, by the way, is on the west coast of Africa, just above South Africa and to the west of Botswana. The water hole in question is man-made. It’s about eight feet across with a rock in the middle to allow birds to perch and drink. (Ostriches don’t use the rock, but stand at the side of the water.)

The waterhole doesn’t dry up, even though it’s in the middle of a barren desert. That’s because it’s connected by pipe to an underground reservoir. A float monitors the water level and activates a solar-powered pump when replenishing is needed.

A Springbok antelope arrives. It drinks long and deep, not too concerned with predators, should any show up. It’s one of the ten fastest mammals on the planet and can leap four feet into the air, making it difficult to catch. After a refreshing drink, it wanders over to the salt block, which it licks with nonchalance, keeping its head down, indifferent to its surroundings.

There are no lions, elephants, rhino, or hippos in this part of Namibia. There are, however, spotted hyenas, cheetahs, leopards, and jackals, plus some smaller predators.

How, you may ask, am I watching a waterhole in Namibia from my office in Maine? First of all, I’m not watching one waterhole, but two. The second is further north in Namibia’s Etosha National Park. It’s larger. Right now, four elephants are splashing around in it. I’m able to watch because Namibia has set up live camera feeds at both locations.

I have a dual-monitor setup on my desktop computer. I write on the main monitor and often keep live webcam feeds on the other. There is, for example, a hummingbird camera in California. A restaurant has set up multiple feeding stations on an upper balcony, and their camera catches the dozens of hummers that visit.

As for the Namibia waterhole cams, they are easy to find. Search YouTube for Namibia live stream, and they should be near the top of the list.