Etosha National Park !!!!!

Betsy: While working as a relief vet this past spring, I met a vet who spent 5 months traveling through Namibia and South Africa. One of his very favorite places was Etosha National Park, because it had these water holes that became floodlit at night. His description of large numbers of animals coming to the water holes, night after night, completely unaffected by the lights and the humans staring at them, seemed to good to be true. Well, thankfully it is true and our two days and two nights at Etosha were the absolute highlight of our trip so far. We had a couple of game drives where we saw a lot of animals, some we've seen before, and some new, like the hyena:





During our game drives we got to see lots of springbok run, as well as pronk, which is when they jump straight up, as if their legs are springs, getting some good air. This is one of our favorite sights. One great game drive moment was when one of the guys in our group, Jack, said he saw something under a tree. Hugh said to me "It's probably a springbok" since they were everywhere. So we backed up our big truck about 200 meters and found a lion there! And then two more lions walked up and joined. Jack instantly became everyone's hero.


Both nights were spent at the Okaukuejo campsite. This was a fenced in area that we had to arrive at before sunset when they locked the gates, to keep the people in and the animals out (except the jackals, who weren't bothered by the fences and were all over the campground). At the edge of the campsite was the watering hole that the animals would come to drink at. It was an amazing viewpoint and we spent most of both nights curled up in warm clothes and/or sleeping bags, sitting on benches and watching the animals. It was great to see the behaviors of the different animals: giraffe being very apprehensive, going step by step, one drinking while the others kept a lookout; herds of elephants just barging in and tustling with each other over access to the favorite drinking spot; zebra, springbok and oryx (gemsbok) generally arriving in groups, keeping an eye out in all directions for any predators, who also came to drink at times. We were very excited to see all the animals, but honesty admit that we REALLY wanted to see lions most of all. We also got to see our first rhinos. They made their appearance at night, but were generally more of the loner type. Of course, a lot of action occurred at night and therefore was not captured by camera.








The first night we were up till just past 1 am, and had seen a lot, particularly our first rhinos, but did not see a lion. We found out the next day that some lions appeared about 3 am. The second night Hugh was trying to push Betsy to get there after dinner but she can't always be rushed. We arrived 5 minutes after a lion had left. Two hours later, we were ready to leave for a break when Betsy suggested we stay for just 5 more minutes. Just then, three lions came to drink and hang out. At one point, the elephants were ready to leave, but the lions were on their intended exit path. The big elephant went ahead and bullied the lions to clear the way. It was National Geographic coming to life! Sometimes, when we weren't looking at the big animals, some of the smaller creatures came to us.

Location:Northern Namibia