Trip to Etosha

Well, I've finally seen elephants, lions, zebras, giraffes, kudu, springboks, leopards... I'll be posting photos ASAP, but it may be a few weeks as I'll need to go into Grootfontein for this. Ben and I went to Etosha for the weekend and saw heaps of animals. We left Friday afternoon, but were a little delayed because we had to drive children and teachers to Den\Nui school. The school is located about 30KM from Tsumkwe along a sand track. In the end we were able to get 30 San children to the school in the Nissan Hardbody. I don't know how they all got in.

After this we picked up our camping gear and drove to Grootfontein to camp for the evening. We met up with Trine for pizza at the Meteor Hotel and went to bed early for our big drive to Etosha. After arriving in the park around noon we began to search desperately for animals. The first animal we saw was a giraffe and we frantically reverse the car to snap a few photos. After that we saw many antelope; zebra, gemsbok, springbok and kudu. Which was amazing, but we really wanted to see elephants, lions and hyenas! No more antelopes...unless they're being eaten. We planned to stay in the Halali camp that night and had to check in before the gates close at sundown. On our way to the camp we ran into a small troupe (correct?) of elephants and had a close encounter with a large one. He came from the right hand side and was less then 1 metre from our truck. It was amazing to be that close to an elephant and we were all a little scared. After that we continued our journey to the camp as saw a leopard cross the road. We're very lucky to have seen one, as most people don't. Later we checked into the camp, pitched our tent and had some dinner.

All of the camps have high fences and lighted watering whole nearby to view game at night. Shortly after arriving at the watering whole a rhino with a baby arrived. It was quite interesting to watch them drink, but they seemed a little suspicious and kept looking in the bushes. All of a sudden a huge troupe of elephants emerged from the darkness and the rhinos made a hasty exit. The rhino's looked quite small compared to the elephants, which is incredible as they're huge animals. The elephants proceeded to drink some water played around for a bit. After that we saw a few jackals, but were quite tired and decided it was bed time. In the middle of the night we could hear jackals in the camp and all sorts of weird noises. I tried hissing at them to scare them from our tent (it works on goats!), but this only seemed to agitate them. Oops. At one point Ben rolled over on the other side of the tent and I hissed at him...but he wouldn't leave either.

The next morning we went to the watering whole and saw a hyena. We then quickly packed our tents so we could leave the camp as soon as the gates opened. It was a very productive viewing morning, as we saw some more elephants, countless antelopes and a few lions! We were so excited about finding the lions as they were only about 3 metres from our truck. They're such amazing animals and we took heaps of photos. Being that close to a wild lion really gets your heart going! By this time it was getting quite late in the day so we drove out of the park towards Tsumeb. We arrived in Tsumeb just before dark and went to the Mousebird Backpackers to check in. The area around the town is full of minerals so there are many mines. We went to a local hotel for some dinner, then went to bed early as we had to pick up parts for donkey carts that Michael is having built and some food. The trip back was uneventful and we made had a safe 300 km drive into the Kalahari to Tsumkwe. So that was our trip, I promise to load the pics ASAP!

This Sunday there will be a going away party for Dirk, who's from Holland and is doing a masters in Wildlife-Human Conflict. Next week is the end of the school term and I'll be doing a little travelling. A few of us will be going to a San festival in Botswana August 19-21. After that Michael and I may do the Fish River Canyon hike, but no definite plans. Will let everyone know how it goes.

Jason