Etosha National Park - Day 3

I had to get up very early at 5am for a 6.30am game drive through the Etosha park, and the wine and late night had taken their toll on me and left me feeling very tired. I showered. packed up my tent, had breakfast and boarded the truck for another safari. The morning was cool and pleasant as the sun rose between bright orange edged clouds. We were hardly out of the campsite and one of the white sroned roads, when we came across a large pride of female lions with many cubs crossing the road ahead of us. We watched them walk and then lay down in the grass. Then on the other side of the truck we saw a pregnant female lion lying close to the road and occasionally looking up at the truck. She took up a classic 'sphinx' like pose and looked majestic in the early morning light. She began calling to her lioness companions across the road with that evocative low rumbling roar and was replied to in turn by the rest of her pride. It was wonderful to witness this low rumbling roar up close for the first time. A little further down the road, we saw two impressive male lions with big, thick, dark brown manes, walking together across the open plain to small stream where they drank together, heads down, for some time. They looked regal and magnificent in the yellow light of the early morning sun.
There were lots of animals out in the cool morning with zebra, wildebeest and springbok all on view. We saw two ostrich walking away through the grasslands. We visited several waterholes bit only one was populated with many zebra, wildebeest and oryx. We next came across a female jackal with two cubs running quickly by thr roadside and sniffing out morsels to eat. They found some meat which looked like the remains of a snake which they ate with a look of satisfaction and contentment on their thin jawed faces. The mother then quickly ran off with one of cubs who had been curiously investigating the sound of a nearby bird. The other cub seemed to wait behind and hid beneath some undergrowth.
We saw the capercaillie like bird again which may be the koha?. It took off noisily and clucked loudly when disturbed by the truck. We then came across a large black rhino heading directly for us as we parked on the roadside. He came within a few metres of the truck, stood still for a few seconds, and then suddenly mock charged the truck which was a genuinely frightening moment which made me instinctively step backwards even though I was on the 'beach' at the top of the truck and perfectly safe. After the mock charge, the rhino quickly backed away and ran around the back of the truck. It was quite something to experience what a rhino charge would be like for the first time. Further along the road we saw another black rhino a bit further away. It was time for our safari to end and as we returned to pass our campsite and leave the Etiosha Park through the nearby south gates, we all agreed that it had been an amazing final game drive in the park.
We travelled on through miles of brush and scrubland towards our next destination in Namibia. The sun became very hot again as we stopped to buy lunch and food for our cook group. We travelled on in baking heat and I started to feel very exhausted from a string of nights where I had gone to sleep quite late and got into an unfortunate pattern of waking up at 3am without being able to go back to sleep. Everything I tried to do started to go wrong and my rucksack fell of a ledge on the truck and my water bottle spilled all over the floor. I clearly needed to stop everything and get some rest. We stopped at a traditional village for a tourist tour, but I decided to rest on the truck instead which was a good decision. We then drove on to our campsite for the night, Cheetah Park (see next blog).

Animal list - Lions - pride and female, two males, walking female. Jackal - mother and two cubs. Koha? - pheasant like bird. Rhino charge. Second rhino.Read more