Journey to Etosha National Park

I had the same issue as the previous night when I woke up in the early hours and the wheels of my mind started turning keeping me awake until i got up at 4am, packed away my tent, and waited for Jemma to arrive to unlock the truck so we could get our breakfast. I remained pre-occupied with the difficult emotions and thoughts of the previous day as we set off early at 6am as the dawn light began to give the river a morning glow. As we joined the main road, a stunning orange sun began to rise over the straight road behind us. At the same time a double rainbow appeared in the dark storm clouds ahead of us. It was another of those breathtaking scenes that Africa so often provides.
After a few hour's driving, we stopped at a shopping mall to buy lunch and exchange some money which was an interminable process in Namibia. We ploughed on through mile after mile of tree filled scrubland. After some time we turned off the main highway onto a long, dusty country road, passing through tree filled plains now interspersed with palm trees. We passed a school, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, where an exuberant group of teenage girls, then another group of boys waved and whooped at us on the truck.
We carried on through miles of scrubland dried and heated by a merciless sun. After travelling through the day we finally reached the 20000 square kilometre Etosha National park, renowned for its concentrations of animals around its huge salt pan and water holes.. it didn't take long after we entered through the gates of the park before we were seeing lots of animals. We saw wildebeest and zebra feeding on grasses in the distance. We saw several giraffe feeding in the trees. Herds of impala fed near the salt pan. Then, excitingly, we saw a large male lion resting under a tree that we watched for a while. We saw two red hartebeest standing erect and vigilant and later a herd of oryx. Suddenly, we stopped by a small corpse of trees and saw a female adult cheetah with three cubs lying relaxedly in the grass. We watched this wonderful scene for a long time as two of the cubs rose to join their mother. The mother eventually got up to walk languidly and purposefully across the grasses towards a herd of zebra. The other cub did not join them and only realised with some anxiety that it had been left behind and started to make a loud bird like call to try and alert its mother.. However, its mother was now far away across the plain. The poor cheetah cub grew more anxious by the minute and we had to leave without knowing the outcome of this wildlife drama. We drove on and saw another lion resting under a tree. We also saw kudu, a hyena, a vulture on a tree with outstretched wings, springbok, and the gloriously named glorious bastard bird which is a very large bird standing erect in the grasses. It had been a wonderful experience to see so many animals in this huge nature reserve.
We then arrived at our campsite, Halali Camp, within the park which had stony camping grounds and basic, but good, facilities. It also had a waterhole lit up with light to view the animals that visit it. We walked straight up to the waterhole and were rewarded by seeing a herd of elephants, including a young elephant, just leaving the waterhole and heading back out into the bush. We put up our tents, had dinner, and then headed back to the waterhole later in the evening. We were further rewarded by seeing an adult female rhinoceros with its young infant standing protected behind. The mother stood statuesque under the yellow lights for several minutes before slowly walking to the water to take a drink with her young infant following behind. A small herd of impala also fed around the waterhole and several of the male impala sized each other up by loudly locking horns. The rhino slowly walked away from the waterhole with her infant following behind. There was a majestic stillness to the whole scene. The waterhole at night created an evocative atmosphere with crickets chirping, birds flying over the water, and giant moths flying around the lights.
We returned to the campsite to pitch our tents and to eat some well needed dinner. After dinner, I returned to the waterhole to experience the deeply peaceful atmosphere once again, but only saw the impala readying themselves for sleep this. I had been joined at the waterhole by Lauren and English Brian and as we walked back to our tents we saw the great arc of the milky way over the clear night sky, ablaze with stars, and the Southern Cross constellation rising above the tree tops. I was very tired after a long day and fell asleep quickly after I returned to my tent.

Wildebeest, zebra, impala, giraffe, red hartebeest, lions, oryx, warthog, cheetah, rhino, eland, kudu, glorious bastard, hyena, springbok, Thompson's gazelle, vulture, honey badger,Read more