Tag Archives: Etosha

1,001 Namibian Nights

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Tomorrow we drive into Kgalagadi, a nature park in Botswana and South Africa. That means we’ll be officially leaving Namibia, but not entering South Africa.

Namibia was our home for 26 nights. We stayed eight places, the longest being in Swakopmund (nine nights). Our shortest stay in one place was at Onguma Bush Camp, right outside of Etosha. We celebrated three major milestones in Namibia: Day 100 (September 28), my thirteenth birthday (October 14), and One-Third of the Way Through (October 20).

We visited two major places of interest: Etosha National Park and Sossusvlei. Cape Cross, where the Cape fur seals are, is also a major landmark. It’s on the Skeleton Coast.

Our first place to stay was Weaver’s Rock. Ethan finally had friends in the form of Dominick and his older brother after being little boy-deprived for three-and-a-quarter months. There were five dogs: Choc, Nala, Lilly, Tasso, and Bonzo. (Those were my favorites, from first to fifth.) The food was good, and our showers, like here at Kalahari Farmstall, were fire-heated.

The next night was spent at on Onguma, a kilometer or so from Etosha, and there I went on my first night game drive. We saw bush babies, kori bustards, a bat-eared fox, springbok, and zebras.

In Etosha we saw the first leopard for any of us. It was promptly a female in the minds of Mom and me. She had killed a kudu and was eating it by the Nuamses waterhole. We also saw 134 elephants, 90 giraffes, 17 lions, 12 rhinos, and five spotted hyenas, along with many, many springbok, black-faced impala, gemsbok, ostriches, kudu, zebras, blue wildebeeste, and red hartebeest. We found one dead snake on the road.

Next we stayed at Dinosaur Tracks Guest Farm (the farm’s official name is Otjihaenamaparero). We visited the tracks multiple times, mainly because of the cell service. The dog, Bella, was sweet but fat.

After stopping at AiAiba and playing with the meerkat, Mitjie, we arrived in chilly Swakopmund. There I had my birthday and we lived in a real house, perfect in every way except for the need of a heater and quieter neighbors.

Two nights ago, we were enjoying the good food and company of Wilheim, Hannetjie, Olf, and the three dogs (Coco, thirteen-year-old Polly, and three-year-old Lucky), and enjoying the not so good company of the cold-shouldered meerkat.

Finally, we stayed at Kalahari Farmstall. This stay was mostly to get near the Kgalagadi border and to rest up for the long, long days ahead. So I need to get some sleep.

Ciao!

An Amount of Animals

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The total animal count at Etosha was (approximately) as follows:

881 springbok
379 Burchell’s zebras
132 elephants
84 giraffes
39 ostriches
17 lions (including one cub)
12 black rhinos
5 spotted hyenas
1 leopard
0 cheetahs

Most of these animals were seen at the 20 waterholes (Wolfsnes, Okaukuejo, Chudop, Ngobib, Kalkheuwel, Batia, Springbokfontein, Goas, Nuamses, Moringa, Rietfontein, Charitsaub, Salvadora, Sueda, Aus, Olifantsbad, Gemsbokvlakte, Ombika, Newbrownii, and Okondeka) we visited. Besides the ten species mentioned above, we also saw greater kudu, gemsbok, blue wildebeest, black-backed jackals, black-faced impala, red hartebeest, Damara dik-diks, steenbok, warthogs, and banded mongoose.

We saw many birds besides ostriches, the most common being guineafowl, Gabar goshawks, and francolin. However, we also saw secretarybirds, kori bustards, a Ludwig’s bustard, pale chanting goshawks, cattle egrets, a marabou stork, blacksmith lapwings, doves, double-banded coursers, hornbills, a Verreaux’s eagle owl, an African hoopoe, crows, crimson-breasted shrikes, violet-eared waxbills, and weaver birds. Of reptiles, we saw little lizards in and around camp and, most significantly, a dead snake on the road.

Ciao!

Ways of the Waterholes

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We went on two drives today. The first one was in the morning, starting at 6:30. On this drive, we went to four waterholes: Newbrownii, Gemsbokvlakte, Olifantsbad, and Aus. At Newbrownii, we saw kori bustards, gemsbok, guineafowl, springbok, and jackals. At the next stop, Gemsbokvlakte, we saw first a lot of jackals, then a hyena, then vultures, and then the dead zebra.

At Olifantsbad and Aus, we saw red hartebeest, kudu, impala, and more guineafowl. We returned to the camp for breakfast, and then we paid a visit to the Okaukeujo waterhole, where we saw zebra, kudu, wildebeeste, springbok, gemsbok, and 29 elephants.

We returned to the Okaukeujo waterhole after a drive up to Wolfsnes and Okendeka waterholes where we saw lions and a cub, ostriches, and a gemsbok with a curly horn, a birthday call to Mirinda, a dip in the pools, and supper. We all enjoyed our Magnums (Death by Chocolate for Dad and Ethan, Mint for Mom, and Chocolatier Collection: Biscotti for me) and watched 16 giraffes come and go. There were also the typical jackals and a handful of springbok.

One of these antelopes almost died when the lion pounced. In its place died a wildebeest. Mom, Dad, and I snuck off to see how long it would take Ethan to notice our absence. It was a new record: eight minutes. We’re now quenching our thirst with refrigerator-chilled, good-tasting, bottled water.

Ciao!

On Okaukeujo

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We could have seen the leopard again today, but we arrived ten minutes too late. We visited the Nuamses waterhole at around 11 am and saw the dead kudu and a hyena hovering over it.

Before Nuamses, however, we’d visited four waterholes.

We left the house at 6:30 am so we could be out the gate as soon as possible. We passed a sign, and Mom said, “Isn’t that where we’re staying tonight? Okaukeujo?”

“Yes, but it’s oh-kah-kwee-oh, not oh-cocky-joe.” We went east to Rietfontein, where we saw a male lion. Then, at Salvadora, we saw birdwatchers drinking their coffee. We scanned the trees for leopards but found none.

At Charitsaub, we saw a group of five lionesses. They were covered in blood, signs of a recent feast. They became alarmed when a hyena walked into the area to share the food, but it realized that it was outnumbered. At the last waterhole on our early morning drive, we saw a lone black-backed jackal.

Back at Halali, we had breakfast and finished packing. We were on the road again by 10:30. We visited Goas, hoping to see a dead gemsbok and lions feasting on it, but all the animals were alive and healthy. Darn.

We had to stop on the road to let a herd of 60 elephants go by, and then we continued on our way to Rietfontein, where we saw only springbok and elephants, Salvadora, where we saw cattle egrets, and Charitsaub, where we saw two of the five lionesses of before. There was also a lone bull elephant.

At the next waterhole, Newbrownii, we watched the elephants, ostriches, zebras, gemsbok, and springbok be “feisty,” as Mom puts it. And then they all ran to the left side of the car. A lion was on the move.

Even though we watched for the better part of an hour, the lion didn’t kill anything, which was disappointing.

Ciao!

A Lazy Leopard or Uno Unicorn

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Dad says that she wasn’t that lazy, but how hard is it to move a kudu fifteen feet? I could do it.

Okay, that’s because I stand on two feet, not four, and would pull with my hands, not my teeth.

But on the bright side: we saw a LEOPARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She was at the Nuamses waterhole, which is five kilometers off the main road. I was surprised at how few cars were there, although there were six nonetheless. She had just killed a kudu and it was lying dead with its back feet in the water.

She tried pulling it several times to no avail. She eventually bit the kudu’s tail off and ate it. Finally, after an hour, she pulled it behind a clump of twelve-foot trees. Then she walked off, which seems very risky because a lion or a group of hyenas could easily walk in and say, “Hey, I want some kudu!” and then eat it.

We saw four more giraffes and a herd of 23 elephants at the Goas waterhole. We also saw a gemsbok with a broken leg. We returned after seeing the leopard, and, too our great surprise, the gemsbok was still there and alive!

Yesterday we saw a real live unicorn. How awesome is that???

Ciao!

A to Zebra

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Between today and yesterday, we have seen no fewer than 27 giraffes and two lions, both adult males. We’ve also seen two bush babies, a whole troop of mongoose, starlings, a few ostriches, and a million trillion each of zebra, springbok, rooibok (a.k.a. impala), gemsbok, and kudu. We saw most of these animals at the Chudop waterhole.

We visited several other waterholes and saw nothing of interest. In between two, we saw two elephants trying to hide in the shade.

Once at Halali Camp, Ethan and I swam and then Dad bought all four of us Magnums.

At the waterhole, we saw two rhinos, a few jackals, and two springbok, plus lots of little birds. We could hear the lions roar but left at around 10:00, before they got to the waterhole.

Ciao!