Etosha is the venue for some of the most unique game viewing experiences in Africa. The sparse grasslands allow great opportunities to see animals normally hidden in dense vegetation. You may even see some of the amazing animals crossing the road in front of your truck! We will go on various game drives and spend our evenings at the abundant waterholes for some excellent game photography.
Optional Activities: Night or dawn game drives in safari vehicles.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
3rd January 2014
Pretty much everyone was excited to be going to Etosha National Park, for some of the folks on this tour this will be their first real game drive so I can understand their excitement because I know I'm pretty happy to be doing a real game drive again as its been awhile. (the last one was on the last tour)
Our first stop was a small town for coffee, pee, wi-fi and a bank. (not necessarily in that order) We also caught up with the accommodated tourists on Peter Tosh (great reggae singer), when it was time to board Marilyn again I noticed the "Kenyan's" (Dipti and Needy) had cracked open some beers, normally this wouldn't rate a mention but it was 9am on the road to Etosha, the game park we were all looking forward too. I seriously don't get them!!!
Much excitement occurred when we pulled up to the gates of Etosha National Park, there was clapping, cheering and celebrating Zenzo's greatness for getting us there in great time. Then a brief stop for the newbies to read the park rules whilst I got my camera and lenses sorted.
The windows were down, cameras and binoculars were at the ready, minds focused on the task at hand, spotting Southern African wildlife, then it came "contact, right side, 2'Oclock" five minutes in the park we had spotted two lions under a tree, one big male and female. Now Dipti claims she was the spotter, but I suspect that the beers had taken effect. Dipti was in the middle of Marilyn but had a window seat on the left side and she was looking directly out her window...None the less we got the camera shutters going, an excellent first 5 minutes game drive.
Next was a Bushy Tailed Ground Squirrel, (it looks like a meerkat from a distance) and it even does the Meerkat lookout pose, but the easy distinguishing feature is the bushy tail when it runs. We the excited fired off plenty of shots, but the other Kenya / Australian (Needy) mocked everyone taking photo's because "she can see squirrels at home in Melbourne" and for the record in Australia we don't have Bushy Tailed Ground Squirrels... Once again I suspect the beers had kicked in...
We got to the main campsite in Etosha and it was my turn to help Shingi in kitchen, whilst I was helping I met a Namibian Park Ranger told us about a Lion v's Rhino fight!!! Basically 3 male lions tried to take down a Rhino, two of the Lions were injured and the third escaped without any damage, from all reports the Rhino was unscathed. Joram came running back from waterhole with the good news that one Lion was still by the waterhole, I was dismissed from my kitchen duties and bolted to the waterhole. Lisa was already there with my camera and big lens so all I had to do was point and shoot. Some time later the ranger came by and showed me where one of the injured lions was hiding / recuperating he was under different tree but he was really well camouflaged.
At 4:30pm we headed off on our afternoon game drive, Christoph has earned the new nickname "the Rhino spotter" he seems to be able to see them from Klm's away. We were really happy as we saw heaps of animals (antelope mainly) but as we say "it's a great day to be alive".
We arrived at our new campsite and got settled in, I did a quick reccie to the watering hole, when I got back to the camp it seemed that we had upset some other tourists by placing our collective tents to close to theirs. The dad came over and gave Shingi a serve and told him to move them and then called him some expletives because he wouldn't remove the offending tents and relocate Marilyn. The dad came back for a second crack at Shingi whilst I was there, big mistake on his part!!! He began to rant about the tents and Marilyn it was about that point I couldn't help myself, primarily because he was attempting to intimidated Shingi, (who is very polite and mild mannered) so I bluntly told him we "were not going to move the tents or Marilyn as it was a free country and there are no allocated campsites so get over it."
At that point he realised he was now dealing with the "Alpha Male" so he actually said "I guess we are not going to agree so the discussion is over."
I agreed, but he started up again, so I interrupted him to say "I thought you said we are not going to agree so the argument is is over, so why are you still standing here?"
With that he left picked up his tent and moved it about 50 meters away from us...
Whilst we were having dinner some called out there was a honey badger at the camp, I love the Honey badger, its rapidly becoming my favourite African animal. I couldn't get a decent photo, I think I was too excited. Honey Badger !!!
Later that night at water hole we saw a brown hyena, unfortunately that was the only animal we were lucky enough to see.
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| Black Faced Impala |
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| Red Heart Beast |
4th January 2014
Some of the crew were lucky enough to see Honey Badger and a baby Honey Badger!!! lucky buggers. We started off with an early morning game drive and the first animal was a Honey Badger !!! We saw more Black Rhinos thanks to the Rhino spotter Christoph, one of the sightings had three grazing together we watched them for a long time because we knew that they were going to cross the road in front of us and sure enough they did. We also saw a couple of giraffes eating at the road side, one was actually on the road. Priceless!!!
We stopped at the famous Etosha salt pan and got a few happy snaps, then we headed slowly for our new accommodation in Etosha's Okaukuejo campsite.
During the process of setting up his tent Joram put a hole in one of the water pipes around the camp. Now I wasn't there at the time but it was described to me by credible witnesses. they say it was like watching Thor wield his hammer as he drove the hapless tent peg in. the result was a huge waterhole in the middle of our campsite.
Lisa and I upgraded to a Waterhole chalet, it was 1800 Rand (which is about $180 Aus), cheap given the location and it included dinner and breakfast, it was an excellent decision given I needed to get away from stupid people by this stage. I have zero tolerance at this point, but the good thing is I'm not the crew, we had previously discussed voting the stupid one off the island. Lisa & Johanna had dinner in the restaurant whilst I had dinner with the group, over dinner we discussed the agenda for the Okavango Delta, Danny now thinks she will do Okavango, stupid.. not because its a must see in Southern Africa but because she doesn't want to be alone and the cost of upgrading from camping to accommodated might be the same, she has no idea what the Delta is let alone why it's significant.
So here is my tip for the day, if you're going to visit a country you might want to do some research and if all you want to do is skydive and bungee then just fly to those locations.
As I couldn't stand it any longer I bolted for the game viewing at the waterhole, the first animal was a Black Rhino, so I went and got Lisa. Great start, surely it can't get any better but alas I'm happy to say I was horribly wrong.
Johanna, Wanita and Craig joined us at the prime location I had staked out, I'm really happy that they did because firstly they are a great bunch of people (welcome relief) and secondly Johanna has the most unbelievable night vision.
Johanna spotted a herd of 10 elephants, I know you're thinking how hard could it be to spot 10 Elephants, let me tell you in the day it's hard enough but at night its almost impossible. Once I looked through Lisa's binoculars I could just barely see them, it's almost a ghostly sight just watching these figures emerging from the darkness. Once they got closer to the waterhole you could see them clearly, they all drank, the little ones played, it appeared one kept a look out or was not fully accepted in the group because it was always off to the side. The elephant that was primarily off to the side charged at something to our right, we couldn't see what it was but it was impressive to see the mock charge, the herd continued to drink with the occasional trumpeting and glance back to the numerous onlookers. The herd did half a lap of the waterhole so they walked directly in front of us we estimated that they were only about 10 to 15 meters away but eventually moved off.
I love this place, we were doing plenty of silent high 5's.
Next Johanna's amazing night vision eyes really came to the party, at about 80 meters directly in front of us Johanna spotted a lion moving really slowly towards us. I had a look through Lisa's binoculars, it was a little orange dot, I could barely see it. The tiny orange dot turned slightly and gave me the left side profile, it was a huge male lion, I relayed the information to the group without looking away. The big male lion crouched down and then sat down at about 75 meters, it was time to celebrate with silent high 5's, fist pumping!!! There was much excitement for the word had got around, nobody else could see him but our group, none the less the rest of the folks were now filled with anticipation.
Johanna's eyes then discovered the reason for the lion sitting down a long way from the waterhole.... there was a rhino heading for the waterhole from the right hand side and behind him was the ghostly figures of another 6 elephants moving slowly in tight formation.
They must have known there was a lion around because they kept looking around in his direction, fortunately for the lion rhinos have really poor eye sight. (not sure about how good the elephants eye sight is). Slowly but surely the rhino and elephants moved in to drink, the rhino made his way into the water and stood in the middle of waterhole, it was funny to see as I never knew that rhinos like to stand around in water like people at the beach. The elephants followed the same path as the previous herd, circle to the left side of the waterhole directly in front of us, good times.
The whole time we were watching the rhino and elephants at the waterhole the lion sat in the background, we constantly checked his movements via Lisa's binoculars as it was the only way you could really see him clearly. He was obviously waiting his turn, eventually the elephants departed and the rhino got out of the water, however he stood by the bank of the waterhole for a long time just doing the whole drip dry thing. There was a clearly visible waterline on the rhino, I'd seen the same sort of thing on another rhino earlier in the day and wondered how it had came about, now I knew.
Eventually the rhino moved on and the male lion moved in very slowly, we watched him through the binoculars and it appeared that he was injured as he was limping badly. The injury was to his back left leg, he could hardly put weight on it, we found it was hard to watch him in such obvious pain. At this point everyone wanted a piece of Lisa's binoculars simply because it really did give the best view in such low light. The lion eventually made the water and sat down and drank, he then rumbled more than roared but it was still such a intense moment, it was truly a privilege to be there to witness everything unfolding.
We assumed he was one of the lions injured by the rhino V's lion tussle a couple of nights back. He really did look in bad shape he could barely walk or stand, at the waters edge he just lay down, we all felt really sad as we collectively thought he wasn't going to make it. I was fortunate that I was using the binoculars because I could see his eyes open and shut as he lay there as well as when he stuck his tongue out for a drink.
It seemed like an eternity that he lay there, but I can say when he got up and walked back to his hideout in the bushes about 100 meters away we were all relieved. The whole evening at the waterhole was just a magical moment in time for all of us there, there were lots more silent high 5's, fist pumping and hugs... Wow seemed to be the word of the day, I guess we just couldn't any other way of describing what we were seeing or how we felt.
So here I have a confession to make, I had said to Lisa "don't bother about buying binoculars you won't need them or use them they are a waste of money and space"... I was wrong, horribly wrong and I'm really glad she ignored me. So next tip of the day, take good binoculars. For the record they are Vanguard Spirit XF 8 x 42, about $220 delivered - well worth it.
It's good to be alive
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| Shingi, Joram, Annabel (right to left) |
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| check the battle scar on rear leg |
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