Etosha National Park 5 - 11 Oct

We spent six nights in the park, two at each camp. Within our first 15 minutes of arriving in the park we were taking photos of zebra. It was all very exciting – at that stage we didn’t realize that later that day and for the rest of the week it would become “it’s just another zebra”. On our way to the first water hole we also came across a lion and lioness hanging out by the side of the road and had to wait while they crossed. We thought the first water hole we parked at was pretty fantastic. There were zebra, gemsbok, springbok and impala wandering around, fighting (two zebra), and hanging out about 50m from the car… and then we arrived at the next waterhole to find even more (hundreds) of the same again as well as wildebeest. After several waterholes and heaps of photos we checked into the camp. All of the camps had a swimming pool so that ended up being the place we spent the hottest part of the day and Zane and I did school work in between swims. Each camp also has its own water hole that you could walk to, at any time, day or night, and there was always some sort of low fence or barricade between you and the animals. If they really wanted to get to our side I’m sure it wouldn’t be a problem for them. The jackals at the first camp used to jump up over the fence and wander amongst us.

Highlights of Etosha
The parade of 53 elephants that came to the camp water hole – there were continuous lines of them coming in from the bush.

The first family of giraffes we saw - before that it had only been one or two. Giraffes are very nervous drinkers and it can be frustratingly slow waiting for them to lean down to drink. There were several nearly there moments before they finally reached the water, without jumping back up.

Four black rhinos having a grunt off one night at the camp water hole – they would stand nearly nose to nose, bare their teeth and make this hideous noise that sounded like it came from the pit of their stomach. We only ever saw the rhinos at night so I didn’t get any decent photos of them.

A pride of lions just hanging out in the grass – there were at least three cubs, a couple of lionesses and a big daddy lion.

Seeing a lion kill – after watching the lion family for a while we drove over to another water hole close by. One of the lionesses strolled over to the water hole and jumped into the reeds between two parts of the water. She only waited about 15 minutes before zebra, springbok and wildebeest came to drink right beside her. She waited for them to settle in then she pounced. She jumped out of the reeds and chased and caught a wildebeest. Then we got to watch as she held it down with her jaws clamped around its neck for about 10 minutes, before dragging it under a tree to have a feast.

Night safari – we saw a cheetah and two cubs, right by the side of the road and they had two springbok hanging in a tree. The guide used a red spotlight so it wouldn’t disturb the animals. We also got to see four hyena stalking springbok. They didn’t get them but they did get within a couple of meters.