Halali - Okakuejo (Namibia) : Etosha National Park
S 19°02.169' E 016°28.221' - S 19°10.896' E 015°55.062’ (altitude: 1106 metres)
We almost ended up not going to the Etosha Pan as there were no cars available for hire and we didn’t feel up to being on any sort of tour (and having to pay lots of money for it as well). But then, surprise, surprise Avis had a Toyota for us (no, not a Land Cruiser), and teaming up with up with Tom the cyclist, we even had someone to share the costs with and an extra pair of eyes to spot game.
Giraffes on the road a few kilometers into the park had Annabella ecstatic and at the Namutoni Camp waterhole we got our first spectacle of various antelope and Zebra coming to drink. It is beautiful to watch as in silence they cautiously take their turn – a touch of nervousness and tension always in the air. An hour before sunset we had a stroke of luck: Lions, lying in the grass only a few metres from the road. Although we had seen the group of cars from a distance, it took us a while to spot the cats who seem to have chameleon camouflaging capacity. But then they got up and leisurely plodded along the road to the nearby waterhole giving us the odd piercing stare as if they knew the rules here: Tourists, be good and stay in your cars! The stage was stunning: As the Lions had their sundowner a few Springboks looked on from a safe distance an unperturbed rhino appeared out of the bush on the far side. We were forced to leave by the setting sun which turned orange as it approached the horizon and marks the time when the camp’s gates close. After our braai the show went on at the camp’s floodlit waterhole with two rhinos and their young one, a solitary elephant and a lone hyena in the scene. Less dramatic but just as beautiful are the large numbers of game grazing on the grass-covered plains. On our second night we again saw three rhinos, this time offering some suspense as two of them challenged an elephant for the exclusive use of the waterhole. Most entertaining for the tree of us however, were the ground squirrels scurrying around in search of food, standing on their hind legs, fanning out their bushy tail over their backs and doing their double-handed scratch.
With all the animals we had seen, briefly sighting a cheetah in our last hour in the park perhaps was to put our luck and impotence in the African wilderness into perspective. He took two more steps and ended our Etosha experience.
We almost ended up not going to the Etosha Pan as there were no cars available for hire and we didn’t feel up to being on any sort of tour (and having to pay lots of money for it as well). But then, surprise, surprise Avis had a Toyota for us (no, not a Land Cruiser), and teaming up with up with Tom the cyclist, we even had someone to share the costs with and an extra pair of eyes to spot game.
Giraffes on the road a few kilometers into the park had Annabella ecstatic and at the Namutoni Camp waterhole we got our first spectacle of various antelope and Zebra coming to drink. It is beautiful to watch as in silence they cautiously take their turn – a touch of nervousness and tension always in the air. An hour before sunset we had a stroke of luck: Lions, lying in the grass only a few metres from the road. Although we had seen the group of cars from a distance, it took us a while to spot the cats who seem to have chameleon camouflaging capacity. But then they got up and leisurely plodded along the road to the nearby waterhole giving us the odd piercing stare as if they knew the rules here: Tourists, be good and stay in your cars! The stage was stunning: As the Lions had their sundowner a few Springboks looked on from a safe distance an unperturbed rhino appeared out of the bush on the far side. We were forced to leave by the setting sun which turned orange as it approached the horizon and marks the time when the camp’s gates close. After our braai the show went on at the camp’s floodlit waterhole with two rhinos and their young one, a solitary elephant and a lone hyena in the scene. Less dramatic but just as beautiful are the large numbers of game grazing on the grass-covered plains. On our second night we again saw three rhinos, this time offering some suspense as two of them challenged an elephant for the exclusive use of the waterhole. Most entertaining for the tree of us however, were the ground squirrels scurrying around in search of food, standing on their hind legs, fanning out their bushy tail over their backs and doing their double-handed scratch.
With all the animals we had seen, briefly sighting a cheetah in our last hour in the park perhaps was to put our luck and impotence in the African wilderness into perspective. He took two more steps and ended our Etosha experience.
posted by Retobados at 1:26 AM
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