We drove up from Outjo, puttered the park, saw critters; went to a few waterholes, saw critters; went to our lodge, visited that waterhole & saw critters; went out on a game drive, and saw critters; came back, had dinner, went to the waterhole and saw critters. What did we see?
- 6 black rhino;
- A leopard;
- 2 elephant herds including babies less than a week old;
- Zebra herds including babies;
- A bunch of giraffe;
- All sorts of members of the antelope family: Orxy, impala, red heartbeast, springbok, kudu, wildebeast & eland;
- Jackals
- A honey badger in the campground;
- Ground squirrels & tree squirrels
Let the photos begin.
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| The entrance gate |
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| Springbok eating rocks |
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| The rare three-headed giraffe |
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| What a lot of Etosha looks like |
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| Oryx |
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| Elephant herd 1 |
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| 1 week old elephant and mom |
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| Hiding in the shade |
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| Warthogs |
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| The communal waterhole |
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| A total of 16 animals in this herd |
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| Kudu |
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| Giraffe |
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| One of a herd of 10 |
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| More of what Etosha really looks like |
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| LEOPARD!!!! |
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| What a face! |
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| Bored kitty |
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| Lickin' his butt, like all kitties do |
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| Something caught his attention |
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| Off he goes, under our truck |
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| Red Heartbeasts |
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| More elephant babies |
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| Herd #2 |
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| Kids in the water |
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| At the waterhole |
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| Not a standoff |
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| Impala and zebra |
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| Plains zebra |
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| Nursing baby |
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| And so they leave |
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| Curious giraffe |
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| A 15' long, recently fed, rock python |
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| Warily approaching the water hole |
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| Looking out for predators |
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| One last look, then... |
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| ...assume the position, and risk attack |
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| Zebra herd |
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| Black rhino |
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| Giraffe in the late afternoon sun |
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| Small herd |
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| 26 ostriches |
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| Omnipresent springbok near sunset |
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| Sunset. Time to get back |
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| Black rhino near camp |
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| I have 1,000 photos of animal assess |
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| Rhino at the waterhole |
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| Make that 2 rhino at the waterhole |
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| They move slower at night |
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| I like the bathtub ring |
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| Sniffing something |
- Giraffe are scaredy-cats at a waterhole. From the moment they show up to the time they actually drink can be up to 45 minutes. Really wary, and always with their head on a swivel.
- At night, nothing moves quickly near the waterholes. Every animal including elephants take their own sweet time to move, constantly on the lookout for predators.
- For a vast expanse of dirt, Etosha has a lot of animals, MUCH higher animal density than the comparatively food-rich environment where I live. We don't see herds of 500 deer standing next to herds of 500 elk within a herd of 100 bighorn sheep and 50 mountain goats, all less than 2 km from the last herd of 500 deer. That's kinda commonplace in Etosha.
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Today’s Travel Tip: NWR
NWR stands for Namibian Wildlife Resorts, and they run the government owned bush camps in the country. Hard to call them bush camps. The two we are staying in at Etosha were built in 1957 and 1967 and are both gorgeous. Huge rooms, lovely appointments, obvious upgrades, great pools, beautiful restaurants, excellent amenities, nice campgrounds – the list goes on. Pictures of our rooms on the next post.
NWR operates the 6 lodges in Etosha, plus the one we stayed at in /’Ai-/Ais, and dozens more. Great value and well managed properties that would probably rank at 4-star. If you can stay at an NWR resort, do so.
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