A Visit to Etosha National Park with World Teach Volunteers h3>
Wow! Animals at Every Turn
August, 2014
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Wow!
We were done teaching,
so no lesson plans to worry about.
Our in-country director, Bret McSpadden,
met us at Backpacker Unite with a small van.
We ferried gear we wouldn't need for the next week to his apartment for storage,
then piled in our personal camping gear for the week.
There were nine of us -- eight summer volunteers, Bret, and Damaras.
Bret was doing the driving and Damaras, a 2012 volunteer, was doing most of the navigating,
so we didn't need to pay too close attention to where we were going.
We could sit back and relax and enjoy the countryside.
I settled in with my camera and my nose to the window.
Dona passed out chocolate chip cookies she had baked just before we left Ohangwena.
We headed north and soon left Windhoek behind.
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| Dona handing out Cookies in the Van |
On the way north we spotted some Springbok, Kudu, and lots of Warthogs alongside the road.
We got to Etosha National Park about sunset,
and as we drove to our campsite at Hilali we saw Burchell's Zebras, Giraffes, Black Faced Impala, Ostrich, and an Augur Buzzard.
Then, as we were nearing camp, a Rhino and Elephants greeted us.
Not bad for just getting to camp!
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| Rhino |
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| Etosha Sunset |
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| Elephant |
It was dark when we got to camp.
Campsites at Hilali are first-come, first-served,
and most were taken.
We had a little trouble finding a place,
then figuring out how to pitch the tents which we weren't familiar with.
We had cooking groups set up,
so four of us went to work while the rest sat back and enjoyed a cold brew and snacks.
It was a perfect temperature, with no biting bugs.
Braai (barbcue) is a bigger pasttime in Namibia than it is even in the U.S.,
and we indulged.
Yum! Lamb and Boerewurst, Taters and Onions, Salad, Fruit Salad, rolls ...
We were full.
Full-full.
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| Waiting For Dinner |
Fixing Dinner; Diane, Dona and Fletcher |
Dona Fixing Dinner |
Man, was that dinner good!
My stomach is growling just thinking about now, four months later!
Yum!
I don't have the barbcue gene, so we don't do it a lot at home.
Bret has it big-time, so we did it a lot on this short trip.
Thanks, dude!
Yum!
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| Dinner |
Hilali campground is located adjacent to a prominent waterhole.
Since it was the dry season,
we could pretty much count on animals of all sorts showing up at some time.
It's too commercialized for my taste,
with some seats and a roof set up on some rocks above the waterhole,
and the area is lit up at night for easy viewing.
We wandered over there after dinner and were treated to a big Rhino that came down to drink.
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| Rhino at Night at the Water Hole |
At sunrise the next morning,
there wasn't a lot of activity other than a few birds.
But someone said there had been lions there during the night.
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| Waterhole in the Morning |
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| Familiar Chat |
Cinnamon Breasted Bunting |
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| Guinea Fowl |
After a bit some Kudu and Black-Faced Impala showed up,
along with some Banded Mongeese.
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| Kudu |
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| Banded Mongoose |
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| Banded Mongoose |
Then we headed out in the combi to see what we could find elsewhere.
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| Giraffe |
We saw this small brown fuzzball alongside the road, but it disappeared as soon as we drove up.
I'm still not sure what it was.
At first we thought it might be a Honeybear,
but they are nocturnal and the coloring wasn't right.
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| Xxx |
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| Namaqua Dove |
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| Burchell's Zebras |
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| Burchell's Zebras |
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| Burchell's Zebra Backs |
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| Burchell's Zebra Backs |
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| Springbok |
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| Giraffes |
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| Giraffe |
Giraffe Eating Thorns |
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| Bird Xxx |
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| Wart Hog |
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| African Red Eyed Bulbul |
Namaqua Sand Grouse |
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| Black Backed Jackal |
We saw some Kori Bustards,
the largest (heaviest) bird that can still fly.
But I have yet to see one actually fly.
They have a really cool courtship display,
where the males puff up their neck feathers like a big cold-weather neck-warmer.
We didn't see them do that on this trip,
but Dona and I saw some do it in February in Tanzania.
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| Pied Crow |
Xxx Dove |
We spent some time around mid-day at the Okakujeo Water Hole.
Not a particularly good time for game observation,
but we saw a few birds and the usual larger animals.
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| Shaft Tailed Whydah |
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| Young Elephant and Springbok |
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| Young Elephant |
... Cooling Off |
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| Oryx |
Then we drove around to check out a few other waterholes.
It wasn't a particularly good time to be out and about,
but there is so much wildlife in the park and
it is so concentrated around the waterholes
that you can't help but see stuff.
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| Elephants under the big Namibian Sky |
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| Elephant |
We found a few sunbirds and Secretarybirds out in the grass between waterholes.
Secretarybirds are renouned as snake-eaters,
killing even adders and cobras.
I was hoping to see a match between a Secretarybird and a snake, but no such luck.
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| Secretarybird |
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| Xxx Sunbird |
As evening settled back in,
we headed again to the waterhole at Hilali.
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| Bird Xxx |
Blacksmith Lapwing |
After a while a rhino showed up, and then another.
They appeared to have some sort of courtship going.
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| Rhino at the Waterhole |
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| Rhino at the Waterhole |
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| Rhinos Getting Acquainted |
Touching Horns |
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| Rhinos Touching Horns |
There's a pretty nice grandstand on the Kopje at the Hilali waterhole,
and unfortunately I felt sort of like I was at the zoo.
But with the number of people who visit it's a pretty effective way of doing crowd control.
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| People at the Waterhole |
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| Rhinos |
Just after dinner a Honeybear showed up,
looking for leftovers in the rubbish bins.
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| Honeybear |
Dona and I decided to spend the night at the waterhole,
so we hauled our pads and sleeping bags up there.
We didn't stay awake all night, but we were awake for a lot of it.
After dark two lionesses showed up and pretty much scared everything else away,
except for a larger solitary rhino.
The rhino and the lionesses seemed to have come to some kind of Mexican standoff type agreement.
Just before daylight I saw a Caracal, but it was too dark to get a picture.
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| Lioness at the Waterhole |
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| Rhino |
Rhinos and Lion at the Waterhole |
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| Sunrise at the Waterhole |
I never tired of the birds hanging around the campground.
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| Pale Winged Starling |
Southern Red Billed Hornbill |
I'm still not used to seeing flowers and only tiny remnants of leaves dwarfed by huge thorns on the shrubs.
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| Flower On Thorny Shrub |
We packed up and headed out, on our way through Damaraland to Swakopmund.
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| Rhino |
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| Dusky Sunbird (Female) |
We found a male lion at a waterhole on the way;
everything else gave him lots of room,
and all the water he wanted.
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| Lion |
It's difficult to imaging the landscape of the Etosha Salt Pan;
I find it's easiest to think of a barren planet and modify that by adding grass and a hot sun.
It's a cool place, but a hard place to survive.
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| Etosha Salt Pan |
