Head South: day 1: etosha national park (namibia)

Here comes part one of a long series of blog posts full of pictures of our road trip north to Namibia! We had an absolutely amazing time, and can't wait to share the whole trip. We drove from Windhoek (after a short flight from Cape Town) north to Etosha National Park, where we spent three nights. We then went to a region called Damaraland, west of Etosha, between the park and the coast, for two nights. Then on to the Skeleton Coast for one night in the bustling vacation town of Swakopmund, and back into the desert for three nights in the Naukluft mountains to do some hiking. We finished the trip with two nights in Sesriem to see the sand dunes at Sossussvlei. We got to watch the sun rise on Christmas morning over the dunes.

More on that later! Here's a description of what we did and what we saw on our first day.

We flew to Windhoek, the capital, picked up our rental car (a "4x4" - pickup with 4-wheel drive, equipped with a rooftop tent and camping gear) and braved the shopping mall in the center of town on the last Saturday morning before Christmas to buy groceries before heading up the road to Etosha.

We drove north on the B1, one of only a handful of paved roads in the country, to Okakuejo (oh-kah-kwey-yo), a camp and lodge just inside the southeastern gate of Etosha National Park. We had pretty high expectations for our Etosha trip - we'd heard it is in the same range of parks as Kruger National Park - and we weren't disappointed.

The park is oriented around a giant (mostly) dry lake bed called the Etosha Pan. Once a year (or every few years) this pan fills with a few inches of water, and giant flocks of flamingos come to visit. We didn't see that, although we were there during rainy season, but we did see lots of heat shimmers that looked like water! And tons of other wildlife.

We got into the park and were pleasantly surprised to see a bull (male) elephant near the side of the road. After setting up camp and cooking dinner, we spent about two hours at the floodlit water hole where we saw lots of action: jackal, owl, two male lions, another bull elephant, and a black rhinoceros.

The next morning, we got up and took our first game drive. We were so excited to see the many grazing animals and some bigger guys too.

We had our first big animal sighting (aside from 5 warthogs, goats and cows on the highway, and a red hartebeest and two giraffe on the road from the airport) just a few minutes after we got into the park! A big bull (male) elephant with half a tusk missing.

After watching a jackal chase an owl for about 15 minutes at the water hole, we were thrilled to see this guy and his friend come in, drink, and play for about ten minutes. If you can't quite make him out yet, check the next picture.

Yep, a male lion. Young males sometimes roam around together. We watched them lay around at the water hole, then get up and slowly stalk away. One turned and let out a low roar, which was truly amazing to hear.

The excitement at the waterhole continued that night: the two lions moved off with a roar (literally, so cool!) and a minute or two later, this guy moved in. Our second bull elephant!

And THEN we saw this guy! A black rhino! Really. It was a big night.

The elephant moves off under the full moon.

We set off on our morning game drive the next day and saw giraffe barely out of the gate.

A jackal's den! We counted four pups. Can you pick out this one?

Herds of springbok (the namesake of South Africa's rugby team) grazed on this flat landscape.

A mongoose.

We stopped the car on the side of the road to go to the bathroom. I got out of the car and asked Jim, what's that black spot over there? When we realized it definitely wasn't a wildebeest, we hopped in the car pretty darn quick.

It was a group of hyenas!

This young giraffe didn't do so well. It was probably five miles from "giraffe country" with tall trees and bushes; we guessed that it was separated from its parents and had run for its life across the empty plain before being killed here on the edge of the desert.

A group of zebra came over to the car to check us out.

Supposedly you can identify males by thinner stripes on their butts. I'm not convinced.

These giant birds nests are made by social weavers - tiny birds that live together in groups of maybe 50 to 100 birds per nest. They spend their days alternating between repairing and adding onto their nests, one twig at a time, and eating small berries and insects.