Etosha

To Etosha Park, 25 september
This morning Tammy says goodbye to us personally. We set out for Etosha. Beforehand we thought that this would be the highlight of our vacation, but we already had so much special experiences that nothing can disappoint us anymore. Our accommodation in Etosha has been arranged. The first night we will stay in Halali Restcamp, where we have reservations for a camping site since all the bungalows are taken.

After entering the park we immediately meet an elephant, a large herd of zebras and giraffes. How wonderful, driving in your own car through the bush along all these animals. We have to pinch ourselves to believe that this is not a dream.

In Halali we already have put up our tent, when it appears that a bungalow comes vacant. We weigh the pros and cons and decide to take the bungalow so we wrap up the tent again. In the afternoon we make a game drive but, in contrast to the great entrance, we don't see much wildlife this time. At one point we see a truck, containing another Dutch group. A couple of people stand on the roof. We cannot reach that high so we can barely see over the bushes. Vaguely we discern a group of lions, scavenging on the carcass of a giraffe. We hear more than we see, since the lions combat their bites audible.

After diner we walk to the night lit waterhole. This is sort of a natural amphitheater that lies so high that the animals can't reach it. The "play" we watch at this theater is magnificent. When we arrive, three rhinoceroses are present. One is a single male, the other two are mother and child. Every time the male wants to drink he is scared away by the female. While they are busy doing that, a jackal, hyena and dik-dik's make their appearance.
Suddenly a large elephant family of about twenty comes dashing in. Both rhino's are scared away by the elephants and they start drinking so much water that we get the impression that soon there will be nothing left. The sound of drinking elephants is like a sewer-pipe that is pumped dry with a lot of noise. It goes on and on. It's getting later and later but we stay put until all the elephants are gone..

In Etosha, 26 september
When the gates open at 7.00 AM we start our first game drive of today. On the way to waterhole Goas we pass by a herd of kudu, impala's, giraffes and springboks. At Goas gathers a herd of zebra's just now. They keep on flocking in and because they all walk over the same path, it takes a very long time before they all have arrived.

At 9.00 we collect our stuff at Halali and we leave for Okaukuejo where we've booked a bungalow. Around noon we arrive at our destination, what's nice since we can now lunch in the bungalow and make a few calls home.

At the camp's waterhole are two elephants and some other game. We take our folding chairs and lunch with a view on the African wildlife. Marvelous, what a jolly life!

In the afternoon we drive to waterhole Gemsbokvlakte. There gathered a huge herd of zebras oryxes, springboks and ostriches. It is clearly mating season because a lot of fighting is going on among the zebras and oryxes, what leads to large dust clouds. It is a miracle that no animals run into the cars.

So the name Gemsbokvlakte does the place credit and so does Olifantsbad. When we arrive a family of elephants is just approaching the waterhole. Most of them treat themselves with a trunk-shower.

When the sun starts setting it is time to go back to Okaukuejo, if we want to make it on time before the gates close. After dinner from our grill, we obviously go to watch the night lit waterhole. And here too appears that elephants and rhino's don't like each other. One of the rhino's makes an attempt to drink something but he is immediately attacked by the elephants and pushed into the water. At first the rhino stays in the middle of the waterhole, accompanied by loud trumpeter. Finally he decides to go away. It is a grand hubbub for the many spectators.

In Etosha, 27 september
We make an attempt to see something spectacular again at the waterhole of Okaukuejo but without result. So we leave for Namutoni. This camp lies 95 miles to the east at the other side of Etosha.

At the end of the morning we arrive at waterhole Homob, that lies somewhat in a basin. We see hundreds of herd-animals standing on the surrounding hills and looking at the water. There is no doubt in our mind that there must be a predator somewhere. In the first instance we see nothing, but by using our binoculars we discover a lion in the shadow of a tree. He walks around sometimes, clearly looking for something to eat. We keep on waiting and hoping that we can watch a kill, but realize ourselves that it usually is a group of females that take care for the food. Unfortunately the lion doesn't attack. The herds are slowly moving on to the waterhole to drink, watched by the lion, but nothing happens. Finally it is much to hot for a kill so we set out for Halali to lunch.

We have no expectations of seeing something in the heat of the day so it is all astonishment as I spot something in the corner of my eye. At first we think it's a cheetah and turn the car. On the shoulder, against the road, lies a leopard. It is our second leopard this vacation! Out of enthusiasm I scream: "It's a leopard!" after which the leopard takes to his heels. Shit! But he doesn't run away very fast so we can watch him for a couple of minutes.

After we see some giraffes and elephants at Kalkheuwel we reach Namutoni. We bring our luggage to the large room and rush to make another game drive before it gets dark. At Chudob we arrive just in time to see four hyena's coming in. We have a perfect view but want it to be more perfect so Hans crawls out of the window and hangs on the horn by accident. Bye hyenas. We don't know where to hide for shame and quickly drive away.

Finally we go to Groot Okavi. According to the guidebook it is regularly visited by lions, rhino's and leopards. We wait there for half an hour until it is high time to go back and we see.....one dove. The waterhole at Namutoni lives up to its reputation. We hardly see a sign of life so we can go read a book for a change.

Via Tsintsabis to Rundu, 28 september
This morning we decide to go to Groot Okevi one more time and this time we have more luck. A lot more! A group of eleven lions has just arrived. There are two mature males. One of them goes drinking immediately and than disappears forever. Next to that there are eight cubs and one female. The cubs want to play with mamma but with growl and grumble she makes clear that she is not in for that. They have more luck with dad, who plays with his kids for a little while, before he goes drinking and lying behind a shrub. After that the cubs play with each other.

After an hour we have to leave unfortunately, since we have to make it to Rundu before dark. We drive to Chudob for a little more and it is also very busy there. This time we see an eland and a couple of warthogs. We can't help ourselves and drive back to both Okevi's one more time but the lions are gone. So we were very lucky to be at the right place at the right time. On the way to the exit we see some dik-dik's and a couple of fighting giraffes. They beat their heads at each other very hard. It is weird to watch.

We decide to drive to Rundu via Tsintsabis. When we arrive at Tsintsabis we make a stop because we still failed to make a phone call to Kees. Kees is a friend of our sister (-in-law) who happens to live in Rundu, so we arranged to spend a night at his house. But we never set a date and we have to let him know that we are on our way. Because of dysfunctional phone booths and the working hours of Kees, this didn't succeed for days now.

In Tsintsabis the phone booths also fail to work, which is not surprising since the fact that there are no wires on the telephone poles. In Tsintsabis we are an attraction. It is very likely that no white people ever visit Tsintsabis since it is way out of any tourist route. We hope for a chat and order a cola in the local shop/bar. We immediately have priority and everybody stares at us. We take our cola and go sit under a tree near a group of youngsters. They speak English perfectly. The first question is: "Are you lost?" Well of course... Who wants to come here on purpose? We tell them that we come from Etosha and that we make a detour to go to Rundu.

Oh yes, they know about Etosha since they have been there on a school outing, and we are glad to hear that the children here visit Etosha too. If they understand that we come from the Netherlands they ask if we know Ingeborg, with the addition: "That is not a place name, that is how someone is called!" Ingeborg is a formal teacher in their village. We tell them that 15 million people live in the Netherlands but they can't see that. How can a teenager that grows up in this less populated country of Africa imagine how many people that must be. But apparently they think it is much to busy even up here, because when we ask how many people live in Tsintsabis the answer is: "Far too many."
They ask us if we work here somewhere. Apparently they are more used to whites that work in Namibia, than to tourists. They ask us to sing our National Anthem. We don't get very far but they sing the Namibian Anthem together at the top of their voice.

After we have left Tsintsabis we probably miss an exit. We decide to take a short cut. It is just 20 miles. But on every mile there is a gate that we have to open and close again before we can go on. It takes us one and a half hour and we loose precious time. We have to be in Rundu before it gets dark.

After we pass the cattle fence, that divides Namibia's white and black population (although officially it is not meant for that) we enter the Kavango region. We leave the huge white farms behind and find ourselves in "dark Africa". It is teeming with little huts and hundreds of people walk on the road. Along the road are children playing with self-made cars of iron wire and cans. And we tear through that with 75 miles per hour. Bizarre!

We try some more phone booths but none of them is working. At the last crack of light we enter Rundu so we are just in time. We have no idea where Kees lives and find it a bit awkward to call Kees at the last moment. But we do it still and he finds it nice that we are here. We meet at the Omashare River Lodge for dinner. We can eat good food at last so we order an entree too. But our stomach has shrunk and after the soup we are already full.

Thankfully we can stay at Kees. He has a second house in his garden and there is a bed with mosquito-net. That is great since there are lots of spiders present in all kind of sizes. In the garden sits a guard on a white plastic chair with his rifle on hand. We find that a bit weird. You drive through your gate and there is a man with a rifle. You greet him hasty since you don't know him and than you go to bed. And the whole night this man sits in your garden. But it is obviously normal here. He is paid by Kees his work.

Next: Kavango region