Etosha

March 1st, 2009

Our next stop was Etosha, one of Namibia’s National Parks. We woke up early and were the first to arrive at the gates. The park definitely lived up to its reputation of beauty. We saw huge herds of springbok, giraffe and zebra. The zebra were especially amazing as they moved around nodding their heads up and down and occasionally baring their teeth. They also snuggled each other by placing their heads on the dip of the other’s back, almost like hugging one another.

In the afternoon we saw a large group of lions. There were supposedly fourteen in the group, but we only saw twelve- all lionesses and cubs. They didn’t stay around for long and basically just crossed the road and heading out for a hunt. We were lucky enough to see them the next morning as well. This time they were closer to the road, resting after a busy night and we were able to watch them for 30 minutes.

The most memorable moment of the park was meeting an elephant. Taking Rhino Drive, one of the few side roads open (again due to massive rainfalls), we drove. Tracking the elephant due to its massive fresh poo we drove along. At last we spotted him. He didn’t look super excited to see us and just looked at us for a few moments before continuing his feeding. He peed a few times (which strongly smells of the circus interestingly enough) and moved forward. As did we. He stopped, looked at us, I told Karel we needed to go, Karel responded by snapping more pics, then the elephant stepped towards us a few times and we reversed the car in a hurry. It was a total adrenaline moment with us having heart rates higher than ever before.