Etosha - June 20th-21st

June 20th-21st, 2008:

Short: Errands in the early morning and then begin the drove to Etosha, successfully dodged warthogs, setup camp in Etosha, evening game drive, dinner with jackals, bed

Long: After a few errands and some email checking we began driving to Etosha this morning and I must say the drive was not all that eventful. Etosha is one of the largest national parks in Namibia and home to Namibia’s most diverse wildlife. Luckily the entire road from Swakopmund to Etosha was paved and we made great time. The landscape remained similar to the rest of Namibia (Arid with low brush) for most of the drive, but increasingly turned greener as we headed north, (But still very dry) with grasslands and trees. As we said before, many people had warned us about the animal hazards on the roads around Africa, and on this drive we saw this firsthand. There were a tremendous number of warthogs all over the road on the way up to Etosha, and a few times we had to dodge them. The problem with “dodging” anything is that Betsy is top heavy and we therefore can’t turn very hard. We’ve decided the best course of action when faced with an animal in the road will be to just plow through it, rather than risk flipping the car. Hopefully it will never come to this.

Upon arriving at Etosha’s western gate we paid all the entry fees and then drove to our campsite. The camp is run by the Namibian government and the accommodation varies from cheaper campsites to luxury bungalows. Each of the parks camps (There are currently three) offer various options and each is built around a game waterhole. They place viewing benches for sitting, and lights for viewing at night, around the outskirts of the waterhole and animal come and go throughout the day. Before heading to the main waterhole though, we decided to do our first game drive! With the sun setting we began driving aimlessly around the park and managed to see hundreds of Zebra and Springboks before heading back to camp after dark. After parking we headed straight for the camp waterhole and found it to be packed with Elephants. After some time watching the elephants we then walked back, setup the car, and cooked dinner. There were a number of jackals in camp and we had to be on our toes to ensure they didn’t steal any of our food. After dinner we walked back to the waterhole and found the elephants had left, but replaced by a group of Rhinos, which we again watched for a few minutes. It was then off to bed early…we will be up at 5:30 for the morning game drive.

While we are getting better at waking up early, this morning was rough because neither Niki nor I slept very well. It was cold and the jackals would howl in unison every hour or so waking up the entire camp. Despite this we managed to pack up and get into the park as the sun rose. We decided to head towards the central camp in Etosha, and were not disappointed. On the way we saw springboks, Onyx, Zebras, polar bears and Buffalo. At one point we noticed one of the park jeeps viewing something in a field to our left and it turned out to be a pride of lions. We unfortunately only saw them from a distance. However, once we arrived at the central camp a man came running up to me from a jeep that had been behind us on the road. I thought he was joking when he asked me if we had seen the two year old male lion that walked 15 meters behind our car. Such is life. Apparently a male lion passed directly behind our car and we drove off never seeing him. Not to worry though, we have another two drives to go!

A little frustrated for missing the lion, we drove to our campsite and then just relaxed by the pool for an hour or two. We left a little early for the afternoon game drive and headed to the Etosha pan. The pan is basically a large lake which remains dry for much of the year. However this year the rains have been above average and this became evident as we tried to drive to the pan’s lookout. The road to the lookout was extremely deceiving and completely inaccessible. As we drove down the road it looked solid, however we noticed large tire ruts from people who had previously tried to drive the road. In fact, the Dutch guy Niki Skydived with got stuck there the previous weekend and had to be rescued by an overland truck. We stopped and began walking to test the ground and found it to be similar to quicksand. Further, what looked to be solid ground on the sides of the road turned out to be an inch of thick, gel-like, mud, layered on top of the water. The pan however did make for some great pictures.

The afternoon game drive was also productive as we added Giraffes to the list of animals. Unfortunately we saw no lions. With little sleep, both Niki and I were in bad moods in the afternoon. We tried to remedy this with a little dinner and quite a bit of wine, which of course Nikolai did in full form. For those that know Nikolai this shouldn’t be too difficult to picture: Nikolai, after a few wines, grabs his I-pod, phone, wine glass, and bottle of white and walks to the central camp’s waterhole. Ten or so people were at the waterhole and everyone was dead silent. Most people were sitting quietly on the benches watching a mother Rhino with its young. It was a wonderfully serene environment. Not anymore! In true German tourist fashion Nikolai sauntered in and sat on one the benches playing his I-pod so loudly that other people could hear the music, while also sending and receiving text messages. Each time a text was received a loud bleep bleep would sound, inviting cold stares from all those around. He then accidently dropped his plastic wine glass, which loudly clinged on the rocks, finally settling a few feet away. I was convinced the crowd was about to turn on us and headed to bed. Nikolai stayed and somehow lived to the next day. That’s why we love him folks!