April 18, 2016
Etosha National Park was founded in 1907, and covers about 8,600 square miles, or a little larger than the state of New Jersey. It is known for the Etosha Pan, or dry salt lake, which is 75 miles long. It’s also known as one of the best places in Southern Africa to see wildlife. Of the “Big Five” game animals, Etosha has four of them, missing only the buffalo.
I spent the last three days on an organized safari tour of Etosha National Park. This was necessary due to the restrictions of most game parks in Africa prohibiting motorcycles (which is probably a good thing, as it only takes one near-sighted lion to mistake me and my XT for an impala or a kudu, both of which probably have better acceleration than the XT and still lose out to the lion).
You’ll notice the 3rd “No” symbol from the left at the bottom of the Welcome to Etosha sign says no motorbikes or quadbikes. Thus, I spent three days in a safari truck.
The Etosha Pan.
The 4×4 truck looks a bit like a cross between a box van and a bus, and carries 15 passengers and two guides. It was full for my trip; I was the only American, along with 9 Germans, two Dutch, a Thai woman and a couple from Singapore. I was picked up at my hostel in Windhoek Saturday morning, and we drove nearly nine hours, arriving at the southern entrance to Etosha just before dark, where we immediately set up camp and walked to a nearby watering hole to watch elephants at sunset.
Not something I want to wake up to in my tent during the night….
The next morning we packed up and spent the full day driving across Etosha, stopping at various watering holes and along the road to observe the wildlife. I’ll let the photos tell the story of the day.
Three lionesses at a watering hole.
A gnu (wildebeest) came along, but spotted the lions and kept his distance.
Spotted hyena lying in the riverbed.
This one zebra looked like some of the problems I’ve had with the copier at work. He’s considered an albino zebra, even though he’s mostly black.
Female Impala.
Male impala
I liked this shot because of the one giraffe sitting down.
When your mouth is 15 feet off the ground, it takes some work to get a drink. These guys have two methods that I saw…the more graceful kneeling method as shown here.
And the less graceful “splits”.
Then there was the really wild animal at lunch.
And the even more wild animals at breakfast. This British family spent the last seven months driving south from England. When they get to Cape Town they plan to sell the 4×4 and fly home. I walked up and said to Dad, “Your kids are so cute. Can I take their photo?” and he said, “You can take the kids.” Seven months in a camper will do that to you.
Blurry photo. These jackals were always around the camp sites. They were skittish, but would walk right into camp and up to the table looking for food. Clearly people had been feeding them.
It was a long three days of driving (or riding along in a truck actually), but worth it for the scenery. Although I found myself thinking that as anti-social as I was before I left on this trip, I’ve become even more so now that I’ve been traveling alone for so long. It was difficult to travel with a group, and I’m ready to get back on the bike and ride and camp alone again.
One nice side effect of the past several days has been the total lack of access to the outside world. It was nice to have no wifi, no cell service, no connection whatsoever, and not be concerned with responding to the expectations of others via email, etc. For the first time in eight months of what I expected to be a remote, somewhat isolated adventure, I finally found that isolation. While the world has become a much smaller place with wifi and cellular, it comes at the price of peace and serenity. It took Africa to show me that it can still exist.
And that concludes my anti-social rant for today.
Fabulous!!! Did the three days include accommodations??
This explains the out from Windhoek & back!!
I’m a French cafe in Tucson AZ of all places and I see this post. The photos were the frosting on a beautifully written piece of cake. Those photos were breathtaking! The world will never be the same for you. Bon voyage’!
Dear anti-social ranter:
You are just like your brother and sister. When I was in Africa, however, I didn’t get to hold trunks with an elephant so you might be more social than I am. Also, scorpions there are the size of your hand so be careful and keep the tent zipped tight.
I know those scorpions are out there waiting for me. So far I’ve been lucky. The only snakes I’ve seen have been on the road, and the only baboons have been crossing the road. It’s coming though. I can feel it.
Cool
Great pictures and comments, Pat.
Spot any leopards?
Did you sleep in tents?
Unfortunately no leopards seen while in Etosha. That was the one of the “Big 4” that Etosha has that I missed.
Yes, slept in tents. I had my own tent, though it was easily big enough for four people. And I could stand up in the tent! That was a new experience. The tour company told us we needed to bring our own sleeping bag and pillow; they would supply everything else. So I brought my little backpack that wads up into the palm of my hand with a spare shirt, toiletries, sleeping bag and pillow. Everybody else had multiple roller bags per person, giant frame backpacks, you name it. You’d think they were going on a 3 month safari, not 3 days.
The theme from “The Lion King” keeps running through my head.
They probably took those large backpacks to look like on a authentic safari in da pics.