Etosha national park by Mel

Hello from Etosha,
On Sunday the 25/05, we picked up our car. It looked good but after a few days in it, there are some issues with it. Nothing dramatic yet, but lots of little things which make our trip a little bit less enjoyable. We laugh at ourselves a bit as we were complaining about the car we rented in Zambia, but the setting was much better than this one. You never know what you have until it is gone, they say!! And it is true!
Anyway, we picked up the car, did some shopping and drove all the way to Etosha in the North of the country. It took us around 5 hours and the roads were pretty nice. The landscapes are amazing in Namibia: massive plains with beautiful mountains in the background. It is a pleasure just seating in the car and enjoying the view.
As we are doing a lot of car trip in Africa, we started listening to audiobooks. We started the last 2 Harry Potter books as we have been reading the first 5 in Australia. Now we are listening to the last 2 on the road. The kids still read a lot by themselves (like a lot!!!) but Harry Potter is a family thing (despite it now being stained by the horrible person that JK Rowling became).
Anyway, we arrived at Etosha trading campsite and set the camp. This is a lovely setting with private toilet and bathroom, and I appreciate it!
The evening was spend watching at the stars, well me and Kevin, the kids wrestled! They spent a lot of time seating in the car, so they need exercise! Wrestling will do!
The next day we went to the Etosha National Park. We thought it opened at 6am, so we got up at 5am and we were at the entrance at 6am, but it was closed! It opens at 7.15am at this time of the year! Great! Went back to the camp, waited a bit while drinking a hot coffee and the kids reading their books. By the way, it is cold here!!! Like cold! Not Canada cold, but still! We have singlets, tshirt and big jumper on, long pants, socks and closed shoes! In Africa! I was not expecting that. It is winter here after all.
We got back to the entrance of the park and waited in line with the other cars (who knew the proper time to show up), did the paperwork to get in. We were told no plastic bags allowed in (all good), not firearm (no worries there), no drone (don’t have one) and you can get in with raw meat but you can’t leave the park with it! Okay… we have some raw meat as we have our fridge in the car (we can’t take it off). We will have to cook it inside the park! There are some fenced picnic areas where you are allowed to get out of your car, so at lunch time, Kev will cook all the meat we have. I know it is to not get animal disease out of the park: I don’t quite understand how it helps, but this is the rule and we’ll follow it.
By the way, let me tell you about Etosha National Park. The park is 22 270 square kilometres, and its main feature is a massive salt pan which cover 4 800 square kilometres. The pan was formed 100 000 years ago and around 16 000 years ago, the Kunene River which use to flowed into the pan changed direction due to tectonic plate movement. After that the plan slowly dried up and salt and mineral were the only thing left. During the rainy season, some water pool formed and if the rainy season is very wet the whole pan is once again a lake attracting thousand of migrating flamingos. The word Etosha means “great white place” in the language of the Ovambo tribe, who was the tribe living around Etosha when the first European arrived in the region.
Now it is one of the most visited areas in Namibia as it is very easy to see wildlife. The park has a lot of natural and human made water holes all around the park, which draw the animals and make it easy for tourists to admire the beauty of nature.
We saw so many animals that day. On the road to the park, we saw a tiny little spotted cat, we thought it was a kitten but it was a full adult small spotted cat and it was adorable. We saw zebras, a lot of them; it seems to be one of the main species in this park. They are beautiful, big and funny to watch. At some point we were following a dazzle of zebras: they were on the road and we were driving slowly next to them, we could almost touch them (which we didn’t obviously) when one of them started rolling in the dirt and all the other ones started copying that. It looked like they were truly enjoying that. I did a bit of research to find out why they do that: it is for self-grooming, getting rid of ticks and other parasites. I also came across some very interesting fact as well; zebras each year, roll around the same areas during the dry season but doesn’t come back to the same spot the following dry season. Where they choose to roll, they move the dirt and rock and leave a sandy ground and a depression in the ground. During the following rainy season, water stay in those holes and vegetation grow there better, including vegetation which struggle growing in dryer ground. Zebras help the diversity of vegetation in Namibia while having a ball rolling around! Nature is amazing!
It was one of the many moments that stood out to me for that day.
We saw springboks, wildebeests, lots of different birds (small and massive), ostriches (that was exciting!), elephants (not as many as in other parks but still), giraffes (majestic as always), South African ground squirrels (they are adorable and funny to watch, standing on their back legs a bit like a meerkat), oryx with ginormous straight horns, a yellow mongoose (this is a specie similar to ground squirrel and meerkat), some rhinoceros but from a distance.
We also saw lions. This was pretty special. It was in the first hours of the morning, we were driving on a road and saw several cars stopped (always a good sign!) and we saw one lioness. Awesome! Then after a few minutes, Emma said what is that behind that small bush. It was a male lion laying down! We stayed there watching them and then realised that it was a couple in one of their mating days. Lion and lioness go for a whole day apart from the pack and mate a lot of time during that day to ensure the lioness becoming pregnant. We stayed there watching as the lioness got up and went toward the male lion telling him it was time to do his part and he did; it was quick but impressive to watch. Then they rested next to each other for a bit and the same scene happen again. We stayed there watching the majestic animals for around 45 minutes. Also we notice one springbok standing at a relatively safe distance, but not moving, not grazing, just watching the lions. We assume it was a ‘sentinel’ springbok as there was a big herd of them not too far. Its job was probably to keep an eye on the lions and make a sound if they started to look hungry! Hard job! At some point another male lion arrived: he walked at a safe distance, but still close enough for the couple of lions to keep their eyes on him until he disappeared behind trees further back. It was a tense moment, and we are so lucky to have witness all that. The ‘sentinel’ springbok, when it saw the third lion went “nope!!!” and move a fair bit further! Smart animal! It was so very special. I am so grateful for those experiences.
Another thing that I loved during that day was the gigantic nests we saw in lots of trees. We drove next to one which was on a low tree and we could watch the birds flying in and out of it. Those were sociable weavers. They are tiny little birds who built incredibly complex nests with, it seems, a lot of little ‘apartments’ as I imagine them, glue to each others. You can hear the baby birds inside and you see the adults birds bring food to them. The entrances of the nest are under the whole structure and they hover under the nest for a bit before getting in. It is truly amazing to watch and I could have stayed there all day watching.
We stayed in the park from 7.15am to 6.30pm (closing time) and it went so fast! Etosha national park is one of the main attraction in Namibia and there is a reason for it. It is truly magical.
We went back to camp, had dinner and played some board games then to bed.
The next day, was our second and last day in the national park and we wanted to focus on smaller animals. Emma really wanted to see meerkats. We headed toward an area that we thought was more likely to see them. Unfortunately, we didn’t. Etosha is a giant park and the roads (which you have to stay on, off road is forbidden) are far apart. There are huge areas where you can not go and it is great for the animals, but it means that it is a lot harder to see the smaller animals. But in our search, we saw other amazing things!
Right at the beginning of the day, we saw a car stopped, so we stopped obviously, wondering what was there. After a few minutes of not seeing much, Kev said “There is something there”: it was pretty far away but we could see something cat like moving around. I tried to take some pictures but it is hard when the animals are far as I have a small lens. After zooming at the pictures on my camera we figure out it was either a cheetah or a leopard: the main difference between the 2, are leopard have bigger spots and cheetah have black lines on their faces. We think it was a cheetah. We were super excited as it was one of the animal we haven’t seen yet. So now we did!!!
We kept going and saw more zebras, springboks, a smaller species of ground squirrel. We saw a jacqual, which look like a cross between a fox and a dog maybe. It was pretty shy, so it run away fast but we saw it!
The night before at the camping we are staying, I bought a map of the park which also have a list of the animals you can find in the park. The kids really enjoyed finding the animal we could see and ticking them off the list.
We had several magical moments during that day. One of them was at a waterhole: we were watching the crowd of regular zebras, springboks and oryx when they all suddenly seemed more alert and looking in the same direction; that is when we saw it too, a male lion walking to get a drink. The walk of a lion is majestic; they know they are some of the strongest animals around and are not worried about who else is there. Just walking calmly toward the water hole and having a long drink. Then he stayed there for a while. He was still there when we kept going. On our way out of that water hole, Kev suddenly stopped the car. “What did you see?” “Another lion I think” And yes, just on the side of the road, hiding into long yellow grass was a lioness laying down having a rest. Only a few meters from us, strong and beautiful. After a few minutes, one of us (I can’t remember who) said “there is another one!” and yes, a couple of meters behind, was a smaller lioness. How many more is there around? We counted 4 (as far as we know). They were hiding well! It was amazing to see them so close. It has been a few times now that we are close to lions but it is always a wonderful moment.
During that day we had a couple of hours with not a lot of sighting as it happens when you are trying to spot wildlife. It was toward mid-afternoon, so we decided to go back to camp. The park had a few more surprises for us before we left.
We took a small detour to go toward the gate of the park, and it was a lucky decision. On the way back, we saw 2 more cheetahs; again for a bit far, but as they are very shy animals, this is pretty much the only way to see them! After that we drove behind an ostrich which was running on the road for a few minutes! And we saw 3 more lionesses walking on the road, getting ready, I imagine, for the night hunt. It was, with a beautiful sunset, the best way to finish that day.
Etosha is a marvellous place. If you come in Namibia, spent several days here, you’ll be sure to keep those memories for ever. We only had 2 days and I wish we booked for more.
But it is ok, we have more adventures waiting for us somewhere else! The following day, we were on the way to Henties Bay on the coast of Namibia.
See you then.
MelBaca lagi