Etosha National park by Kev

25.5.2025. Today's the day we go camping again! We got picked up out the front of the apartment complex and taken over to the rental place. It went way smoother than what we experienced in Zambia, though we not as happy with setup. Anyway, car picked up and off to do some shopping. We had hoped to buy a fair bit a fill the car right up, but the storage is pretty shit. The last car had a set of roller drawers under the fridge and we could put heaps in there. This one had a poxy little box, which held bugger all. We also have a much smaller fridge to work with, so we held back on buying quite a lot, hoping we will pick up fresh supplies as we go. Car loaded, somewhat, we set off. It took around 5 hours to get to our campsite, Etosha Trading Post Campsite. We saw some big Baboon looking things and some pumba’s on the way. We rolled into the campsite and were a little surprised. I had read about it before we left, but was not ready for what greeted us. Big, paved roads leading into a new looking fuel station. To the right of that, a tyre repair/replacement centre. Just past the fuel station, up a paved path was the restaurant/store. Stocked with almost everything we needed (beer), except matches or a bbq lighter. They had given us two boxes of matches with the car for the stove, both were almost empty. They also have wifi at the store and a pool if you want to go for a swim. We signed in and drove around to our campsite. Really nice set up. There's a counter and sink, our own toilet and shower with actual hot water(luxury) lights and power points. Most of it under cover, with a portion outside that and a grassed area, one of our spiffiest stays yet. We noticed later, just past our little grassed area was an electric fence, just past that was an artificial water hole with lights set up. Bloody hell, they're really catering to the tourist's here. There are even benches near the fence so you can sit and watch. I didn't, there was nothing to see and it was getting a bit cold. I made dinner, made more difficult because of the lousy pots they'd given us but we managed. After that we sat on our grassy area and watched the night sky, while the kids wrestled each other on a blanket I had spread out. Finished our drinks, and went to bed.
26.5.2025. We set the alarm for 5am, we wanted to be packed up and off to the park. I asked the guy who fueld up the car yesterday if the park opened at 6, he said yes. Maybe there was a communication breakdown, because when we turned up at the entrance just before 6, it was closed and dark. We saw a sign, saying it opens at 7:15. Bloody hell! Makes sense we figured, as that's when the sunrise was. We had no idea what to do, we went back to our campsite and parked near the fuel station. Used the wifi a bit then headed back when it was close to opening time. Our campsite is only 5-6klm from the entrance, so not that long a commute. We arrived back at the entrance and got in line, filled out some paperwork and waited to enter. We were told this is just the entry, we had to pay at another place 17klm into the park. Mel sorted everything out and paid for today and tomorrow, so we don't have to do this again. After that we were off to see what we could see. It didn't take long, we came across some zebra, then saw our first wildebeest. We saw a few tour vehicles parked up, what are they looking at? As we got closer we saw it, a lioness laying not far from the road. We pulled up and had a look. Before long we had seen the male lion laying not far from her. We then witnessed what many probably don't get too, we saw them mate. Not sure how long we were there, when another big male came from our right and strolled past them, disappearing in some bush beyond them. Wow! We set off again. We poked along some more, speed limit is 60 in the park and the roads are pretty good.
We kept going, turning off a small “detour”, straight into some giraffe. What a start to the day! We drove and drove, seeing lots of zebra and wildebeest, and our first Ostrich! Plus ground squirrels and lots of birds. We had a nice moment, when we drove slowly along side a big herd of zebra, almost as if we were part of it. They didn't seem to mind, and at one point we watched them start to have a roll around in the dust. Why we're not quite sure, but it was pretty fun to watch. The park is over 22,200 klm/2, and since you have to stick to the roads it limits your chances of seeing animals. They work around this by putting in waterholes, fed by bore pumps, near the roads. So at some point the animals will come close for a drink. We visited lots of waterholes that afternoon, with little luck. We were hoping to see some elephants or maybe even a rhinoceros. It was getting late and we had to be out of the park by 6:30pm, so we started heading back. We saw a car parked, and know what that means, they've seen something. We stopped near them and tried to see what they could. There! A Rhino! Where? There! It was 30-40 metres off the road and very hard to see through a lot of trees, and it was heading away from us. It was still pretty special. Alright we need to keep moving otherwise we'll be late. We were on the main road heading to the entrance when we saw vehicles parked up, you know what that means. Two more rhinos, slowly heading away from the road. Oh man if that's how we finish the day, what a day. Now we're wondering if we would make it to the gate in time, so off we went again. Oh look, elephants! 7 or 8 of them, some looked pretty young. The others looked bloody massive. The speed limit in the park is 60, I may have went over it by a touch. We arrived at the entrance at 6:29pm. We did the short drive back to the campsite, I made dinner and then we had a board game night. Absolute ripper of a day, goodnight.
27.5.2025. Had a bit of a sleep in, now that we know the park opens at 7:15 there's not such a rush. Once in the park, we took the first left, towards a water hole we wanted to check out yesterday but didn't have the time. We'd read that others had some success seeing animals here. No luck for us, nothing here. We went around and back onto the main road. Before long we saw a car pulled up on the side of the road. What have they seen? We saw what we thought was a lion at first, but was smaller. Mel got a photo from a distance, when zoomed in on the camera it looks like a leopard. Couldn't see the spots from a distance but could on the camera. Woo hoo a leopard! We headed off again. It didn't take long for Andrew to call out, Rhinos! 7 of them we think, a long way away, so no great pictures. We thought we'd head west into some grassy plains, we'd really like to see meerkats. We drove for a fair while, passing lots of zebra and wildebeest. We pulled into a waterhole for a look. There were lots of Springboks and an Oryx (big, grey with long horns). We sat there for a bit, just watching. The Oryx was lying down, looking around unfussed while Mel tried to get a good picture of it. We were looking around at everything around us, when I noticed the Oryx was standing, looking agitated. Then it took off. What's it seen thats made it take off? A big male lion was strolling towards the waterhole. It was pretty cool watching it walk in, all the other animals scattered. It went to the waters edge and drank for a long time. Afterwards it moved further around and looked to start eating something dead near the water. When I looked through the binoculars tho, what it was eating looked like elephant crap. Do they eat that? Apparently, but why? Something to google when we next have wifi, if I remember. We could have sat there all day watching this lion, but we had a thirst for more. We drove back out onto the road and continued on. We only got about 1klm when I spotted a lion head in the grass, right beside the road. I hit the brakes and turned around. What is it? What did you see? A big lioness right there! As we got closer she got bigger, lying in the grass no further than a metre off the road. Then we saw another, and another, and another! Four lionesses, right there. Three smaller than the one I first saw, and if she hadn't put her head up when she heard the car, we wouldn't have seen any. Once more time seemed to disappear, it felt like we were there for just a few minutes, but it was more like 30. Another car turned up, the lady asking what we saw. A lion we told, she pulled in behind us. Two more cars arrived after, and we decided to head off again. As we were leaving, the first lady that turned up had also turned around to get a better look. She thanked us, I asked how many lions she had seen. “I have seen one”, there's four I said, and her face lit up. They are hard to see, as you may notice from the photos Mel will post. We headed off again, we saw lots of ground squirrels. They are funny little things, you need to be careful because they will run straight in front of the car. They stand up on their hind legs, nibbling seeds or whatever they eat, looking adorable. We found a fenced area to have lunch. One of the big cricket things started to climb up my leg, made me jump. We started to head back towards the other side of the park, Mel had seen a road called Rhino drive. That's where we're headed. On the way we saw all the usual animals. Lots of zebra, wildebeest, squirrels, Springboks. We drove the whole length of rhino drive with no sight of a rhino, false advertising. It was getting late, the day had slipped away from us again, we started heading back towards the entrance. We stopped a few places, Mel took some photos of trees and the countryside. We found a different track back to the entrance, which should get us there a bit quicker. Well it would have if we hadn't seen two more leopards! A long way away, but there they were, heading away together. If we go now we should still make it time. Off we went. There's two more cars stopped there, what's this then? We saw something move in the bushes 20 metres away and something else around 40 metres away. We backed up, trying to get another look. We caught glimpses here and there, then Andrew called out, lion! A lady in another car had turned around and drove past us, they let us know there were 4 of them. She drove along looking for then and we backed up behind her. Then one lion came out and started walking along the road, wow. We turned around so we were facing the right way. Two more lions came out of the bush and started walking along the road. We followed for a bit, taking photos and video. We had to stop, we had to head to the gate. We won't make it on time now for sure. The road we had chosen was shorter than the main road, and I may have been going a little more than the speed limit but we turned up at the entrance at 18:29 again. We headed back to the campsite, fuelled up the car. We had done 650klm in two days in the park. We grabbed a magnet and some postcards, we'd had such a fantastic two days here we wanted something from here. Back to our campsite, a couple beers and dinner was had. Off to bed, up early to pack and head off to our next destination.
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