May 20: Etosha in Pictures Day 2, and I'm an idiot

Today was not a great day, memory-wise. Karen forgot to charge one of her camera batteries, and I left the lodge this morning leaving my buttpouch (with my passport and a significant amount of cash) in the lodge -- a lodge we were not supposed to return to.

We were out on a game drive (having just seen some lions) when another Nomad truck pulled up; the cleaning staff found my buttpouch, and had contacted our partner truck because they couldn’t get a hold of us. So everyone in our truck laughed all the way back to the lodge -- where we found someone else had left their wallet in the lodge, too. I felt less like an idiot, but only slightly.

The day wasn’t as “gamey” as yesterday (is “gamey” a word?). We did see two lions, but Etosha is known for its lions and cheetahs, so seeing only 2 lions wasn’t that impressive (well, it was to us, but not to our guides). In addition to the list we saw yesterday, we also saw another 6 rhino, more elephants, a honey badger not in the campground (but jackals who were) and bat eared fox. I was at the waterhole tonight and a black rhino came within 5 feet of me, which was pretty cool, too.

Dawn at the waterhole 

Zebra

More zebra 

Black rhino 

Hyena 

Wildebeast 

Yellow billed hornbill or "banana bird" 

Rhino butt

Tall giraffe 

Zebra in the savanah 

Plains of nothing 

Resting but wary lioness

Interested in the wildebeasts 

Two lions 

Getting bored 

Stalking something 

Slinking up on... 

...an unaware wildebeast 

Not this time 

Watching dinner get away 

The clay of the Etosha pan 

Oryx 

Giraffe 

Springbok 

The wildebeest herd appears 

Beasties 

Lots of beasties 

Oryx & spingbok 

Kudu 

A napping white rhino 

Oblivious to the world, he rests 

Zzzzzzzz.... 

Easy to be carefree when you're invulnerable to attack 

Not even a lion will try 

Black-backed jackal 

Jackals at play 

Our home for night 2 

Oryx at the local waterhole 

Kudu arriving 

Oryx & springbok 

And kudu, too 

An afternoon swim 

The plain around the local waterhole 

Warthog 

Giraffe. Took him 45 min to get to the waterhole from here 

Springboks arguing 

Maybe... 

Slurpin' it up 

I hope they know elephants poop in this water 

More jackals playing 

The western end of the pan

Classis Africa 

Ground squirrels 

Wildebeast, springbok, kudu & oryx 

Where there is water... 

Honey badger. Nasty things 

Giraffes at sunset 

Large on a barren plain 

Bat eared foxes 

Bat eared fox 

Sunset on the pan 

A sprinbok in the afternoon glow 

The sun sets on the waterhole 

Mom and baby arrive 

Feeling "reflective" 

Mom drinks. The baby is still nursing 

That spread eagle pose 

The oranges of sunset 

Hefalumps at night 

4 giraffe, 1 elephant and a rhino just out of frame

Here's the rhino 

Coming for a visit 

Getting closer

5' from me 

Slow moving elephants 

Elephant & rhino 

Yet another nocturnal giraffe 

Always wary

As usual, the accommodations here were NWR awesome.

Our room 

The kitchen area is over there 

The resort from the tower. Waterhole in the distance on the left

Tomorrow, we head to Windhoek. Of the 16 people now on the truck, 7 are finishing their safari there; 9 of us are continuing on to Vic Falls or beyond (4 are going all the way to Mozambique) and we are gaining 2 new people. It’s another driving day with another early start as we putter out of Etosha looking for critters, but we must be out of the park gate by 8:20 AM.

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Today’s Africa Travel Tip: Animal Jams

Where I live, animal jams are a pain and not usually good for the animals. In Etosha, the opposite is true. There are signs reminding you to go slowly past wildlife and be patient with traffic stopped for wildlife viewing. In Africa, drivers stop for wildlife to cross the road, because here, people come for the wildlife. No one drives through Etosha to get somewhere; there’s nowhere to go. There are strict rules in Etosha that you can’t get out of your car (the place is crawling with beasts that can do you great harm, after all), nor let stuff dangle from open windows. In Etosha, the animals seem to understand that cars won’t chase them or hurt them, so they mostly ignore them and just go about their daily business.

Not at all like Banff.