Etosha National Park

On of Deon’s trip highlights was an 80km stretch of road en route to Etosha National Park where we counted 56 lilac breasted rollers on the telephone wires. The most photographed bird in Africa!!

One of the magical experiences of camping in Etosha is that the campsites have an on site waterhole that gets floodlit at night. On arrival at both Okaukeujo and Halali Campsites, we had an elephant quenching his thirst by the gallon at the waterhole and spraying water all over him. Every now and then their trunks would slowly scan the air as they took in the smells of the onlookers. Nights at the waterhole are like being at a theatre. You have front row seating to one of the greatest shows. We watched a bull elephant peacefully drinking to be charged away by two other bull elephants that couldn’t share the waterhole with him. We could hear the noise of loud crunching against the rocks on the path as 7 more elephants arrived…an outing for the nursery of two mothers and 5 little ones ranging in sizes. An unbelievable sight was the brazenness of the little ones marching up to the two bulls to go to drink. Elephants drinking sound like the noise of a boat engine being started out of the water. Our second night we were entertained at the waterhole by 6 black rhino that were so mischievous and aggressively locking horns with one another, charging and chasing each other through the bush. After all the excitement, they’d come back for a drink. A hyena kept trying to come for a drink and as soon as a rhino spotted him he was charged away too. Glad we didn’t see black rhino on the horse safari!

At Etosha you can do the self-drive safari and navigate your way around via the waterholes in search for that elusive lion. Tracker Kirsty spotted the rare sight of what appeared to be a mating ritual of the black rhino. They actually were not mating however he climbed onto her back and appeared to go to sleep until after about 30 minutes she started to grunt and eventually dislodged him off of her. She then spun around and growled at him and then carried on grazing. Amazing encounter. I finally got my giraffe drinking photos as we saw 4 giraffe bend down to drink. We also saw zebra, elephant, springbok, oryx, impala, guinea fowl, warthog, kudu, red hartebeest and wildebeest. We never got the visual of the lion but heard his thunderous roar in the night that bolts you out of bed. The campsite is fenced in so we were protected but what an incredible and powerful sound he makes.