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  • Day 183

    Etosha Day 2

    March 16, 2020 in Namibia ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    We wake from a good night's sleep in the Elephant culling station. Today, we're heading across this vast park to the eastern sector.

    It's a long drive- it takes about 2 hours to get to the central section- but of course we see animals along the way. Near to the central section, we start to meet tour groups that have come out in their open air safari vehicles. It's quite useful, since the drivers are usually experienced guides and are good at spotting animals.

    They don't all seem to be completely on the ball, though, as we come across one guide whose jeep won't start up. His mate, the driver of their other jeep, has driven away, leaving the guide, and all his guests, stranded. Even though we're strictly told not to leave the vehicles, since there are dangerous animals camouflaged in the bush, Chris gets out to jump-start their jeep. Grateful, the guide and the guests drive away. We're not sure what would have happened had we not helped them- there aren't many vehicles in this section of the park, and phone signal is sketchy.

    We meet our Dutch friends- Jorieke and Bart- at the central section, entirely by chance. We decide to drive together to the eastern part of the park, since eight eyes are better than four.

    The game viewing is decent, but we get a little bored of seeing the same animals- springbok, zebra, ostrich, the occasional oryx and giraffe. We're here for rhinos and leopards!

    As we get closer and closer to the eastern campsite, we grow more and more pessimistic. But then, our luck dramatically changes, and we see two rhinos and a leopard, just outside the camp. We're absolutely buzzing. It's a strange thing- safaris: when you tell people that you saw rhinos and leopards, you shouldn't expect a huge reaction, but to us, it's a massive thrill.

    At the campsite, we enjoy a sundowner, watching the blazing African sun sink into the horizon, surrounded by dozens of huge insects, some two inches long and heavily armoured.

    After sundown, we enjoy our last meal in the bush, aware that we'll very soon by leaving Africa. We have a Braai, which is interrupted by two scorpions, one after the other, running across our Braai area. One is a yellow scorpion, which apparently is very deadly indeed. We frantically run away from them, and tuck our trousers into our socks.

    We sleep soundly, thankful for our sealed tent, raised off the ground on top of our 4x4.
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