We said a sad farewell to Ian, Helen and Nat that morning at the hotel. What a shame we only had a few days together - I think we could have had a real laugh. So with our smaller group of 6 plus Drew we headed off on the drive towards the border at Mohembo. We stopped for lunch a short way up and realised that none of us had the keys. This included the keys to Frank, our safe, where our passports were held. Doh! Turned out later that Ian had stolen them deliberately in order to sabotage our trip... I'm kidding! Silly accidents do happen. Drew kindly broke into Frank in about 30 seconds, thus proving that no where is really that safe at all and continued to what turned out to be the quietest border crossing I have ever seen! No other people, no touts, no hawkers, no sellers of any kind. Only the border staff. It was therefore clean and beautiful. The Namibian side even had a luxurious wood carving frontage to its reception desk. Wow - this is what borders should look like!
We immediately pass through Bwabwata National Park after crossing into Namibia and during yet another free game drive we saw 2 saddle billed storks, 9 ostrich, 3 large antelope and 4 baboons.
We had two nights of bush camping at the side of the road ahead of us. The first time was just before Rundu. The site had rather a lot of broken glass which we were good citizens and swept up. The cars also raced by sounding rather like airplanes (good job there was only about 4 that passed us). We made a new and exciting 'Doug' signposted the way with loo roll and gazed at the beautiful sunset. We also realised that we'd forgotten to fill the jerry cans with water, so quickly changed our menu plans and whipped up a rather tasty chicken meal.
A day of driving again the next day with little excitement except when Carol thought she'd spotted a lion. After a quick brake and reverse up the road we discovered that it was actually a tan coloured cow resting in the shadows. After that we seemed to spot hundreds of 'lions'.
Our second bush camp was at the side of road a short drive outside the Etosha park entrance. This site was free from glass, but we had to dodge the odd cow pat. We agreed not to bother with a Doug here (primarily because it was very flat and shrubless so therefore a bit pointless). Instead we all just waited until dark and ran down the road until our little white bottoms could no longer be seen. It was good fun to bushcamp. And the stars here were incredible because there was zero light pollution from nearby towns.
We set off early the next day for Etosha, our next National Park. Like in the Mara we entered this park in the truck. This turned out to be a huge advantage for us at this time of year as we were able to see through the tall grasses. This game drive was brilliant. Shortly after passing through the gate we saw that many animals that it was right up there with my most exciting game drive to date (South Luangwa is currently holding first place). In the morning we saw black backed jackals, giraffe, zebra, a herd of wildebeast running through the water in scenes that I'm sure wouldn't be out of place in the Great Migration, vultures (Cape and Lapett Faced), blue stork, a tawny eagle perched on top of a tree, several lilac breasted rollers, springboks (our first sighting of these animals) and of course impalas. Here's a collage for you:
However, our crowning glory was our lion encounters. We saw a female lying in the grasses and were excited enough. But upon closer inspection (again with the aid of our tall truck!) we saw that she was accompanied by not one, but four young cubs. We watched for ages as the cubs climbed all over her and played. It was beautiful. Further on that morning we saw another huge female walk out under a tree for shade and then later our truck drove past a red lion standing that we caught off guard (unfortunately by the time we stopped and reversed she'd hidden herself in the grasses).
We stopped in a resort in the centre of the park called Halali for lunch. After more than 48 hours of bush camping we were all very grateful for these amazingly beautiful and hot showers it provided and we relaxed by the pool waiting for the heat of midday to subside before we headed back out into the park.
We saw less animals that evening but it didn't matter. We got to marvel at Etosha's stunning landscapes and were still on a high from our lion and cub sighting. We did however see Ostrich, springbok and cory bustards.
That night was to be spent at Okuelhela, another in park resort. This place was incredible. It is definitely somewhere I'd like to go back to with wads of cash in my wallet. There were chalets there that overlooked a waterhole in the park that they had lit up and placed benches around for animals watchers to gaze at all through the night. Sean and I even spotted an elephant drinking there after dinner. It was an awesome sight!
Our dinner of fishcakes was beautiful, something I must do more of at home and we washed them down with cold German beer out of glasses with a handle! We even had black-back jackals scavenging around the camp site - funny to think how earlier in the day we'd been in awe of seeing them and now they were around us like pets!
Since this was Drew's last trip, he'd managed to wangle a few extra hours on our park entry permit with the lady at our entrance gate. So we were really lucky to get another quick game drive in the next morning. It started off being a little short of animals with only a few springbok and oryx. But then we saw a black rhino in the distance. Hoorah!
With campsites fit for royalty, landscapes like scenes out of Star Wars and animal sightings like we had, Etosha was a fabulous experience. So far, Namibia is holding its own. On our way to our next destination, Otjitatjongwe (pronounced Che-ta-chong-way), we stopped in Outjo where we sampled pastries from a German bakery, gorged on amazing breads and cheese sticks. Namibia is really growing on me! We even saw Himba and Harara women. The Himba are a local tribe to northern Namibia. Harara are ladies that still walk around in Victorian dress. Both fantastic to see (Photos are courtesy of Jay - thank you!):
But Otjitatjongwe awaits us - and Cheetah Park!
Other things Jennie Will Remember:
1) That giraffe have the same number of vertebrae in their necks as we do!
2) That a giraffe will stand down wind so that the defensive pheromones let off by the tree it is attacking (eating) does not pass up to the trees in the direction of which he's heading
3) Meeting nut sellers for the first time - they carve safari scenes out of what look like conkers in record time and (forgive the pun) sell them to you for peanuts.
Here are the photos:
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