One of the places I had watched on the Discovery Channel and National Geographic with fascination for many years was Etosha National Park. This was something that I expected to be one of the highlights of my year. As we had travelled through Namibia many people we had spoken to, tourists and locals alike, had really made us think Etosha was not all it was cracked up to be! They had told us about the lack of wildlife, the poor attitude of the people who worked there, the accommodation and pretty much most things in the reserve. This, understandably, made Angela very nervous as she knew how much I had been looking forward to going to Etosha!
Our journey from Twyfelfontain to Etosha was 347 kilometres, with only 96 on gravel! Once we landed on tar roads again, we stopped at a place called Outjo to buy our groceries, etc. As we were leaving the town one of the local police officers, who was suffering a particularly bad case of SPS (small person syndrome), decided to pull us over and fine us for not having a "ZA" sticker on the back of our car! We explained it was a hire-car and that we were told, by Avis, that we didn't need one, although we would now go and get one immediately, but he was having none of it (SPS power-trip)! So after returning to the Police Station in Outjo to pay our Namibian $100 fine, we set off again!
I think the easiest way to sum up what we thought of Etosha is like this:
"What the hell were those muppets we met moaning about? It's one of the most amazing game reserves we have ever been to! Where were they looking? Did they drive round with their eyes closed? Did they go to bed at like 5:00pm each night? HELLO!"
Ok, non-animal stuff first! We saw the sun, no the moon, no the sun, no it really is the moon rising at sunset one evening! The reason for our confusion? It was the fact that the moon was bright red and rose from the east just like the sun does, ok so it was 6:00pm, but it still threw you momentarily! It was only because we could see the man in the moon we knew for certain that it really was the moon! Incredible! Spooky, but incredible!
Also, the accommodation was great. Yes the staff could do with a rocket up their pants, but you have very little interaction with them anyway!
We stayed in three places within the reserve, all of which had their plus points. Okaukuejo and Halali both had the most amazing waterholes, whilst Namutoni gave you great access to some really interesting parts of the reserve. Angela got the fright of her life in Namutoni, I was just about to get in the shower and she screamed her head off! A bat had got into the room at some point before we arrived and must have been sleeping under Angela's bed. As it was now dark it must have decided it was time to leave and flew out from under the bed! Luckily it was extremely docile and we managed to gently help it outside! Snakes and bats - what's next in our room!
So, Etosha is a game reserve and you go there to see animals. As I have mentioned, we were told that the game viewing was terrible by several different people. Well, we arrived late one afternoon and drove around for an hour. We stayed for five nights and went out into the reserve between 6:30am and 11:30am each morning, apart from the final morning where we slowly drove for one hour as we left the reserve, we drove a total of 658 kilometres in the park whilst we were there. We spent roughly sixteen hours in total at the waterholes at Okaukuejo and Halali spread over four nights! It is also the sounds of Africa that are amazing as we sat at one waterhole listening to three separate prides of Lions all roaring through the night.
Sitting at the Halali Waterhole and having the opportunity to watch several different herds of Elephants doing their natural thing was amazing. We have never in all our time in Africa had the opportunity to watch so intimately the natural behaviour of elephants in such huge numbers and for so long, it was a true blessing of a lifetime. At the waterhole we got to watch them for hours whilst they were drinking, feeding, playing, making out, chasing off Rhinos and Hyenas and other herds of elephants who tried to drink at the same waterhole.
Also seeing the pride of Lions like we did was incredible. We have seen prides of lions before, but they were either at kills or just lazing around. We have seen other natural behaviour from them before which I cannot mention as this is a family show, but we followed this pride for an hour and a half as they made their way across the plain.
Merging all the above together, here is a summary of what we saw in a few short days:
95+ Elephants
10 Black Rhino
7 Lions, 8 Lionesses & 2 cubs
Thousands of Zebras & Springboks
Hundreds of Gemsboks & Guinea Fowls
Dozens of Kori Bustards, Ground Squirrels, Giraffes, Blue Wildebeests, Black-Faced Impalas & Ostriches
Lots of Black-Backed Jackals, Red Hartebeests, Female Kudus, Banded Mongeese, Yellow Mongeese & Warthogs
5 Spotted Hyenas
5 Damara Dik-Diks
4 Steenboks
3 Secretary Birds
2 Dwarf Mongeese
2 Male Kudus
1 Water Monitor
1 Stick Insect 30 cm long!
1 Snake
Hundreds of Birds (Some we even found interesting!)
So, the wildlife was really hard to spot as you can see! Doh!
Our journey from Twyfelfontain to Etosha was 347 kilometres, with only 96 on gravel! Once we landed on tar roads again, we stopped at a place called Outjo to buy our groceries, etc. As we were leaving the town one of the local police officers, who was suffering a particularly bad case of SPS (small person syndrome), decided to pull us over and fine us for not having a "ZA" sticker on the back of our car! We explained it was a hire-car and that we were told, by Avis, that we didn't need one, although we would now go and get one immediately, but he was having none of it (SPS power-trip)! So after returning to the Police Station in Outjo to pay our Namibian $100 fine, we set off again!
I think the easiest way to sum up what we thought of Etosha is like this:
"What the hell were those muppets we met moaning about? It's one of the most amazing game reserves we have ever been to! Where were they looking? Did they drive round with their eyes closed? Did they go to bed at like 5:00pm each night? HELLO!"
Ok, non-animal stuff first! We saw the sun, no the moon, no the sun, no it really is the moon rising at sunset one evening! The reason for our confusion? It was the fact that the moon was bright red and rose from the east just like the sun does, ok so it was 6:00pm, but it still threw you momentarily! It was only because we could see the man in the moon we knew for certain that it really was the moon! Incredible! Spooky, but incredible!
Also, the accommodation was great. Yes the staff could do with a rocket up their pants, but you have very little interaction with them anyway!
We stayed in three places within the reserve, all of which had their plus points. Okaukuejo and Halali both had the most amazing waterholes, whilst Namutoni gave you great access to some really interesting parts of the reserve. Angela got the fright of her life in Namutoni, I was just about to get in the shower and she screamed her head off! A bat had got into the room at some point before we arrived and must have been sleeping under Angela's bed. As it was now dark it must have decided it was time to leave and flew out from under the bed! Luckily it was extremely docile and we managed to gently help it outside! Snakes and bats - what's next in our room!
So, Etosha is a game reserve and you go there to see animals. As I have mentioned, we were told that the game viewing was terrible by several different people. Well, we arrived late one afternoon and drove around for an hour. We stayed for five nights and went out into the reserve between 6:30am and 11:30am each morning, apart from the final morning where we slowly drove for one hour as we left the reserve, we drove a total of 658 kilometres in the park whilst we were there. We spent roughly sixteen hours in total at the waterholes at Okaukuejo and Halali spread over four nights! It is also the sounds of Africa that are amazing as we sat at one waterhole listening to three separate prides of Lions all roaring through the night.
Sitting at the Halali Waterhole and having the opportunity to watch several different herds of Elephants doing their natural thing was amazing. We have never in all our time in Africa had the opportunity to watch so intimately the natural behaviour of elephants in such huge numbers and for so long, it was a true blessing of a lifetime. At the waterhole we got to watch them for hours whilst they were drinking, feeding, playing, making out, chasing off Rhinos and Hyenas and other herds of elephants who tried to drink at the same waterhole.
Also seeing the pride of Lions like we did was incredible. We have seen prides of lions before, but they were either at kills or just lazing around. We have seen other natural behaviour from them before which I cannot mention as this is a family show, but we followed this pride for an hour and a half as they made their way across the plain.
Merging all the above together, here is a summary of what we saw in a few short days:
95+ Elephants
10 Black Rhino
7 Lions, 8 Lionesses & 2 cubs
Thousands of Zebras & Springboks
Hundreds of Gemsboks & Guinea Fowls
Dozens of Kori Bustards, Ground Squirrels, Giraffes, Blue Wildebeests, Black-Faced Impalas & Ostriches
Lots of Black-Backed Jackals, Red Hartebeests, Female Kudus, Banded Mongeese, Yellow Mongeese & Warthogs
5 Spotted Hyenas
5 Damara Dik-Diks
4 Steenboks
3 Secretary Birds
2 Dwarf Mongeese
2 Male Kudus
1 Water Monitor
1 Stick Insect 30 cm long!
1 Snake
Hundreds of Birds (Some we even found interesting!)
So, the wildlife was really hard to spot as you can see! Doh!
