Etosha National Park, Namibia – More like Giraffes and Rhinos and Zebras, Oh my! We are just leaving Etosha National Park, a massive 22,000 square kilometre game reserve in Northern Namibia. It would take you a week to thoroughly explore all the roads in this park. We just had a day and a half. Don’t be confused by the word park. This isn’t a fenced in area where animals have been brought in to be observed like in a zoo. This is just an area of natural land, where animals roam free, that has been set aside for permenant natural conservation (I.e no buildings or human development allowed). Well, to a degree. At the main entrance there is a park complex of chalets, campsites, a shop, a swimming pool, toilets, the usual amenities to cater for the tourists who come here daily.
My favourite part of these facilities was a man made watering hole, where lights were kept on all night. After dinner each night, instead of plopping on the sofa to watch some TV with a glass of wine like you’d do back home , we headed down to the watering hole with a cup of hot chocolate to see what action was taking place. The first night there was quite a lot of ‘action’ between a male rhino trying to mate with a female. Bless him, his advances were unsuccessful, but amusing to watch none thee less. They were later joined by another rhino and two zebras. One was a very tiny baby. So adorably cute with its new tuff of black hair spiky on its head. Just as I was about to weary and head to bed, I could hear heavy, loud footsteps on the white rocks. Something big was approaching. I waited in anticipation and was rewarded with a herd of giraffes! Such tenative creatures, it took them almost an hour to finally reach the watering hole. At one point, they just stood off in the distance, frozen, not even trunking their heads for 15 minutes. I think they were unsure of the now two rhinos head fighting for the lone female nearby. Shortly after midnight, two hours after I had thought about heading to bed, they finally made it to the edge for a drink. At one point there were 10 giraffe in my sight, with three of those bending down, legs spread wide for a drink. Magical! The second night three elephants came by just at sunset. One even camed in, faced the crowd gathered, spread his ears wide and seemed to pose for us to take pictures with the pink and orange hues of the setting sun in the backdrop. Sadly, my camera battery was dead at this point, but the mental pictures of these moments will stay with me forever.
The real action though happened out in the park itself where we had both an evening 3 hour game drive and an all day game drive. For the evening drive, we abandoned our big truck for 9 seater 4x4s with open sides. It was nice to feel a little closer to the nature in these more airy vehicles. Always, more difficult to find animals in the dark with just the headlights of the truck and a red search light, we did manage to see seven endangered black rhino, three spotted hyenas with therir horrendously ugly bodies and faces, one rare brown hyena, lots of jackels, some wirh a fresh kill dangling from their mouths, and a porquine. The highlight though was our lone truck reaching a watering hole just as a herd of 20 elephants arrived. Each one walked closely right past our vehicle. With the full moon out, we were able to switch off the engine and our lights and just observe these magnificant creatures. Amongst the herd were three babies only a few months old, hobbling alongside their mothers leg. I was close enough to even see one suck on its mothers milk. So, so cute! Another adult makle with its large tusks, turned as it was walking in front of our truck about 10 feet away, and just starred at us. Remarkable to be so close to a wild beast. I have no idea how long we were there, but it felt like an hour. Very special to watch this large herd pass by us so close, then drink from the watering hole by the pale moon light. Once again, I didn’t have my camera, so will have to rely on my mental images t record this special moment.
The day game drive wasn’t quite as action packed. To start with. It began with the usual poletheric sightings of springbok. They were everywhere. Singly. In large herds. Their abundance made me feel less quilty about all the biltong, African beef jerky, I had been consuming. There were several sightings of ostrich. Usually two dark black feathered males with a light brown feathered female. The mightily buffalo like wildebeest and the long sharp horned Oryx also made their frequent apperances. We also never went far without seeing several dozen zebras, but I don’t tire of their sightings as easily. I fell in love with their individually distinctive black and white markings, making each new one I saw a unique sighting. I particularly wanted to take home one small baby I found. Still by mid morning, I was starting to doze off. I wanted to see some of the big five. I wanted to see some giraffes. Just when I was about to give up looking, we came upon a small watering hole. Whilst there still werent any new animals there, what we did find was a large gathering of springbok, wildebeest, ostrich, oryx and zebra. It was as if someone had decided to have a party and had invited everyone in the neighbourhood. Quite the sight to see hundreds of different types of animals all congregated in one small area. Just as we were snapping away at the spectacle on the right of our truck, someone shouted out ‘Rhino!’ And pointed out to the left of the bus. There in the distance, munching away on tall grass was was the more elusive white rhino. Different than its black cousin, the white rhino has a front horn that is three times longer than it’s back one and it has a wide mouth, not a more pointed mouth like the black one. They both have roughly the same skin colour. The term white a bastardisation of the word wide into white by the Germans. Shortly after leaving this area we rounded the corner to find two large adult elephants. Things were looking up!
Then the heat of the day set in. Although we are deep into Autumn here, we are still deep in the desert, and by mid day it was blisteringly hot outside. You could feel your skin start to scorch and burn if you stood out in the direct sunlight for a few seconds. I didn’t want to be out in it, and couldn’t imagine any animals would want to be either. Our guide most have known the same as we took a two hour break from our safari for lunch, a swim in a nearby camp pool, a cooing ice cream and a rest. When we headed back out around 14.00, nothing was out. Not even the springbok. The dusty, scraggly bush landscape was desolate. Then it became even more desolate. In the middle of Etosha is a large salt pan, 110km wide by 60km across. Our guide told us that during the wet season, the area was covered in a metre of water and teeming with pink flamingos getting nourishment from the shrimp and minerals harbouring in its temporary waters. There was none of that visible on our visit. The water had long vapourated away, and all that was left was a vast nothingness of cracked greyish, whitish salt as far as the eye could see. We all posed for a few silly pictures, but the searing heat cut our visit short. I also wasn’t into taking pictures as my camera battery was almost dead and I wanted to save any ounce I had left in case we came across giraffes, a herd of elephants, or one of the cats.
More monotonous safari driving ensued. The springbok were back out in force, but not much else. The sun was getting lower on the horizon. I started to loose hope of seeing anything particularly amazing before the days end. I knew we might see something at night around the watering hole, but I wanted some good pictures for my scrapbook too, so needed some daylight sightings. Just when all hope had vanished, we were grandly awarded for all of our patient waiting. Finally, two giraffe were spotted in the distance. The possibility of seeing a herd of elephants or one of the cats was slim, so I started snapping away, taking hoards of photos with my last remaining camera battery. They gradually got closer and closer, and I got more and more photos. There were two different colours, an older giraffe with its darker coloured markings, and a lighter marked younge giraffe. These oddly shaped, unergonomoical creatures mesmerise me with their grace and agility. They are by far my favourite.
Another kilometre later, and there was the herd of elephants I’d been hoping for. Possibly part of the same group we had seen the night before as there were three small babies amongst the group. Any sighting of elephants is spectular, but as a herd, it’s truly magical! At one point, they crossed the road in front of us. The young male sensed we were nearby. His long snout started sniffing wildly. Finally detecting our location, he veered away from his mum and the herd and trotted towards our truck. A few feet away he stopped, starred right at us and just posed. I’ve never seen anything like it. He was like, ‘Look at me. Take pictures of me.” He had his ears standing up and proud. He lifted his trunk and sorted as if to say, “Yep, I’m cool. I’m the man.” Once he had significantly shown off, he turned with a loud snort and walked back to his family. Such fascinating creatures with their human like behavouiors. (Earlier in the day, we passed an elephant graveyard. At that spot were the bones of a dead elephant. Our guide said that every few months the herd of that elephant passes by the graveyard, and stop for thirty or so minutes to sniff the bones. They come to visit their loved one gone.)
Well that was it. My camera battery was dead now. I hardly got any elephant shots, as it cut out part way through. We were only a half hour away from sunset. We weren’t going to spot any big cats today. But I was satisfied. We’d seen a lot. I stared out the window, thinking of nothing much, probably beginning to doze off. That’s when Peterson our driver slammed on the breaks. We started skidding sideways in the road. I jumped up. He had to have spotted something pretty special to stop with such a force. I glanced instinctively to my left, and there it was, the black spots and long tail of a leopard, running back into the undergrowth. Everyone jumped up and started snapping their cameras. Sadly, we didn’t spot him for long even afterwards to get a good photo as he was expertly camoflouged in the under growth. But we saw him none the less. As we left him hidden, we drove off into the bright pink sunset to the last watering hole, where we once again saw more black rhinos out for a sundowner. It was a very good day, and a very good game drive in the end.
Of the African big five, we didn’t see the lion or the buffalo, but did mangage the elephant, rhino, and leperord, Admittedly, the buffalo doesn’t live in this desert land as it prefers to wallow in mud to keep ticks and flies off it. So really, we saw everything but the lion. Pretty amazing for the short time we spent. And, for me anyway, I still have over three weeks and many more game drives to get that lion sighting in. Of which I’m told will be 100% guaranteed in the Serengeti.
