Etosha 4 - 8 August

4 August   After a short drive we reached Outjo.  This is marked as a town on the map but it was no larger than a small English village, apart from a liberal dosing of fuel stations and internet cafes and two small supermarkets.  Outjo is on a cross roads and is also the last stop before Etosha and we quickly realised its small size belied its importance.  White German farmers in pickups with black farm workers perched precariously in the back, tourists of all hues in hired Japanese 4x4 twincabs with roof tents, old buses crammed with locals and overland trucks filled with expectant youngsters came and went all day.  We joined the masses at the internet cafes to send our emails out and ate German ‘café and Kucken’ in a local restaurant.  I walked around the town looking for a hardware shop to replace our leaking gas regulator and re-filled the gas bottle at a local garage.  Then it was off to a local campsite run by a South African for the night.  That evening Nigel lost a filling in one of his teeth and a few phone calls later, found an obliging dentist some 60 kms away who promised to replace it the next morning.

5 August   Alice (my daughter) phoned my mobile as we were packing up to go.  I sat on a rock nearby to chat to her.  As we spoke together a slim four foot brown snake appeared near me and calmly slithered past into a rocky cleft, mobbed by several birds.  I could not identify it and, as it just might have been a spitting cobra (we are told cobras come in several hues of brown in this part of the world) I left it well alone.  After an hour’s drive we reached the entrance to Etosha National Park and paid our fees to go in. Nearby was a waterhole and we watched a large old bull elephant drinking and covering himself in mud to cool down.  Then we slowly drove 80km along a well made dirt road to Halali rest camp where we plan to base ourselves so we can spend the next four days exploring the Park.  That evening we spent several hours at the waterhole by the camp.  To our delight, a striped hyaena and two black rhino came down to drink before we returned to our tents to sleep.

6 August - Etosha   We were up at dawn for a game drive and more time by the waterhole.  We also explored the salt pans for which Etosha is so famous.  Nigel found a cow herd of elephant and we saw kudu, zebra, springbok, giraffe and a lilac breasted roller.  A goshawk chased and devoured a small bird in front of us.  As the sun rose higher in the sky, the chill night air gave way to the heat of a 35 degree centigrade day.  The wind gusted and dust rose in small whirlwinds.  Everything is so dry.  Ian is feeling unwell so we have put him to bed with a couple of aspirins and a cup of coffee.  Tony (our doctor) says it is too early to know if it is the sun or an infection.  We shall leave him to sleep for a while and see what happens.  In the afternoon we returned to the waterhole and were rewarded by seeing a cowherd of elephant come to drink and as the evening shadows lengthened, a female leopard.

7 August - Etosha   We were up at dawn again to take advantage of the cool morning air. This is the best time to see wildlife before they seek out the shade to avoid the heat of the day.  Ian is feeling much better so he joined us for the day’s activities.  For a change, we decided to drive to another waterhole some 10 km away.  A pride of lion were resting near the water’s edge in the morning sun and the bird life was abundant.  Later in the morning we found another herd of elephant, black faced impala, zebra, wildebeest, ostrich, black shouldered kite, a bee eater, a tawny eagle and a black backed jackal.  We returned to our campsite at 1030 am to eat a late breakfast of hot porridge and honey washed down with coffee.  In the afternoon some of the party went back to the waterhole near our camp and saw a black rhino coming down to drink and bath!  Tomorrow we leave Etosha for Grootfontein. 

We hear that Khaudum, the next park we had planned to visit, has had a massive bush fire and most of the animals have left. The party will therefore split up after Grootfontein.  We will continue on alone along the Caprivi Strip to see if we can get into Mudumu National Park and Nigel Stitt and his party in the second Landrover will head east to Bushmanland for a few days before heading back south to Windhoek to fly back to England.