Etosha Park was actually the main and most interesting place of our stay in Namibia, not only for me and my brother (nature enthusiasts), but also for the rest of the tour. Girls endured the side effects of Malarone particularly badly. They were afraid of literally everything, people, altitude, speed and space, not to mention the wild animals. Fortunately, beauty of nature, curiosity and desire to follow the new species prevailed.
Etosha Park covers an area of 22270 km² (area similar to the size of Netherlands!). It is unique in the world because it is possible to move freely in its territory. It has nothing to do with safari, which is popular in the rest of Africa (pre-defined route, guides). Here we can decide by ourselves where and when to “look” for animals. Night is also a good time for observation, which is possible thanks to lit up waterholes. Good binoculars are essential. Etosha Park truly deserves to be called the Sanctuary of wildlife.
The heart of the park is Etosha Pan (a place of dry water) – a vast, devoid of vegetation, flat depression with area of over 4000 km², which is a home to large herds of animals. It’s 130 km long and 50 km wide. For most of the year it is a dehydrated salt pan. During the dry season large numbers of animals gather at the waterholes located on the outskirts of Etosha Pan, which is a good “target” for wildlife watchers.
We moved in to the Park from the east. The first camp site where we stayed was Namutoni. An old German fort with white walls reminiscent of the colonial history of Namibia. It is one of the youngest countries in Africa. Since the late nineteenth century to First World War it was a German colony, known as German South-West Africa. During the First World War it was occupied by the Union of South Africa (now South Africa) and the United Kingdom. After the war it was placed under control of the Association by the League of Nations.
Then, in 1966, the United Nations took away the mandate of South Africa and established the office of the UN High Commissioner for the South-West Africa (name Namibia was introduced in 1968). Namibia was annexed by South Africa despite numerous resolutions calling for the return of this territory. In 1988 an agreement was adopted on Namibia’s independence, in exchange for the withdrawal of Cuban forces from Angola. Namibia attained independence on 21 March 1990.
It was not our first night spent in Africa, but for the first time we felt where we really are. We slept in tents on the roof of our rented Toyota. We were separated from savanna and wildlife with a fence, which was not intended to protect us from them, but rather to inform tourists where is the boundary of camping. Frankly, in some places there wasn’t even a fence, but only a sign with inscription “Enter at own risk”.
Finally, we were far from the noise of the city, evening parties or bothersome noises of civilization, we feel asleep listening to Africa.
Wake up in the morning before dawn, a quick breakfast, folding tents and set off on the route. We have never before been in such a place, so everyone imagined the park in their own way. What we saw while leaving on a completely white road that lead to our next campsite – Halali, exceeded our expectations. It immediately reminded us of a scene from the movie Jurassic Park, where scientists saw wild dinosaurs for the first time. A vast valley with herds of various animals stretched before us. Sprinkboks, zebra, wildebeest and oryxes grazed upon the savannah, and in the air and on the branches we saw all sorts of birds.
Animals were not afraid of the car, and you could easily photograph them if they were nearer or watch them through binoculars when they were far away. The only rule that everyone abided was prohibition on opening the door and exiting the vehicle.
After five hours of tearing out the binoculars from one another and “sweeping” the brushes, around eleven it became too hot for both us and animals, so we slowly headed toward the Halali.
We rested and prepared a dinner out of supplies brought from the capital. We had no problem with resupplying everything, except fuel. One should always remember to refill the fuel whenever an opportunity arises. Despite the 140 liter tank, there were times when we drove on the reserve. This was due either to errors in our navigation or route estimation, or to mislabeled fuel stations (a station marked on the map did not really exist).
Around fifteen we left again. The park has many ponds, connected by a network of well-marked gravel roads. We could not decide what to see first. Passing tourists helped us in making a decision. They were kind enough that on their way back, they stopped us, and reported what can be seen at each waterhole.
Without hesitation, we chose a place where they saw a rhinoceros. The pond was extremely crowded not only be various animals but observers as well.
Black rhino was the main attraction of afternoon departure, but not the only one. Along the way we saw a Kori Bustard , Secretary Bird, European Roller, a lot of birds of prey, and of terrestrial animals – ostriches, giraffes, impalas, jackals and caracal, also known as desert lynx. Satisfied about the bloodless hunt, with a full card after a day of photographing, we returned at sunset.
Before we parked and settled the tents it was completely dark already. We ate a hearty supper because it was early – a nighttime observation of lit waterhole awaited us at nineteen. To achieve a place prepared about 300 meters outside of the campsite you must walk through a steep and poorly lit path. At the top there were few benches set under a roof, most of them already occupied by observers. Not far from us and slightly below was a small lit pond and with a pair of rhinos. Most people behaved quietly, but every talk and movement within the “lookout” caused noise anyway. We wondered why those animals didn’t sense us. After a while we realized that a sound of a stream of water coming out of the speakers was jamming us. It was so effective that animals have not heard either shouts of excited children or loud talking on a cell phone like “I’m in Africa, drinking beer right now, and watching the big rhino jumping on a small one”.
After the couple of rhinos, to the delight of everybody a leopard came out of the bushes. A rare cat that is hard to follow, appeared literally for a moment, just to wet his mouth and after a while it was gone.
People were slowly coming back to the campsite because nothing happened. A herd of elephants came around midnight. The adults drank while the younger played with each other and the water supply hose. Eventually, one of them unfortunately dragged it from behind the covering stones and teared it off. Leaking water splashed against the rocks with high pressure, causing an unnatural sound. In an instant, the whole herd spooked and we knew that it’s the end of the show.
The next day brought no less interest. In the morning, after less than an hour, we spotted five lionesses with their prey. We were hoping that males would also appear, but we weren’t so lucky. Only at the end of the morning tour we stopped next to two cars. We tried to figure out what do they see and we didn’t right away. It is very hard to spot a lion if it does not raise its head or tail. Males that showed up on the horizon were by far the most distant of all the animals we observed, but we were able to photograph them though.
In the afternoon, along with my brother, we decided to visit the hunting grounds of lionesses. We were hoping for either males or some scavengers. We drove up in a familiar place and found out that the situation had not changed, we only saw lionesses resting. We waited 40 minutes and were about to go back, but… we just couldn’t. Very cleverly, for our convenience, we left the air conditioning turned on and the battery discharged in less than an hour. We had no cell coverage (even though the provider was local), so we couldn’t contact the girls. We had a long night with lions in our perspective, and girls lack of supper and night on chairs under the open sky (at night it was below 10 degrees cold). Fortunately, just before sunset we stopped German tourists on their way back to campsite, and asked them to inform the girls and reception of the park.
The “rescue team” was not especially in a hurry. After 2 hours we noticed a light behind us, but honestly, we first heard music and it wasn’t African but a club music. A pickup drove near us with four dudes and two chicks who were painting their nails! They didn’t look like park employees, they were wearing t-shirts and their car had no logo. We couldn’t find out who informed them or from what campsite did they come. They left the car, walked up to us, and when we told them about lurking lions less than 50 meters away, they started laughing. Now the best part – they “suggested” that we got out of the car and handed them the keys, and they would fix it. It reminded me of a friend of Mrs. Dorothy, with whom we stayed at Windhouk. Henry comes from Soweto. He told us many interesting stories and at then he always warned “this is Africa”. So we had to be very careful, but at that time we gave them the keys to the rental car with our inventory, supplies and someone’s luggage. After a superficial examination they assumed that we have to push. I decided to help them, while staying at the passenger seat, and pushed with open door, holding the front bar. Unfortunately, the new driver said that I can’t because it’s too dangerous. It would be definitely safer to go out and wait for them in the darkness, with lions. We came up with an idea that we could always take comfort in their car, so I and my brother moved closer to their pickup. Just in case, we could always hijack their car along with their women, and then do an exchange. Girls were still painting their nails, music was pounding, and our car moved away into the darkness. After a while, the lights turned on and the engine rattled, the guys ran another 20 meters, returned and gave back the keys. What is the moral of this trip? Local people repel wildlife with European music.
Speaking of interesting events, I missed one of Namutoni. I didn’t describe the local watering hole where we were going in our way. We parked at the end of campsite near the road, which we thought was leading to the pond. We were glad that it’s close to us. Since we arrived late, we didn’t really visit the old fort. However, soon after eating, we went on the nearest path, still hungry for animals. It wasn’t lit, but we were lucky enough to have a full moon that made everything visible.
After ten minutes we experienced a sudden realization – maybe it’s not the correct path. We walked a few more meters and then we heard a low grunt in a nearby bush, very low and loud. It is rumored that you mustn’t run if you encounter a lion, because this is what its victims do, but we dared to make first few steps back of calm retreat. The rest of it was a run in wild panic. In this way we found a road, on which guard go on night patrols or observation. There aren’t fences or signs everywhere, and we were quite a distance away from campsite, at night.
We moved from Halali to our last stop in Etosha Park – Okaukuejo. We tried to reach the Dolomiti Camp, but there is a limited number of lodges and no campsite. We might have swallowed the staggering prices for German pensioners, but the waiting time for a free loggia was too long for us. We had a whole country to drive through.
The morning trip was very selective. We recognized the shapes of familiar animals from afar. This time we drove faster and observed either new species or particularly endearing situations.
We decided to laze around a little in new campsite. Finally a lunch in a bar by the pool and relax in the water. In menu steaks from impalas and elands, local antelopes, salad and sweet potatoes. For the whole trip a standard of our menu was meat, either in form of braii, which means grill, or a stew from a pot meal, prepared in a cast iron pot. We got the recipes, technique, spices and of course the vessel from a previously mentioned Henry. Naturally we diversified our menu with not specifically African dishes, like pancakes with nutella, or a soup with dried fruit and addition of jelly, but only occasionally.
The last day look similarly. At the end we were a bit unsatisfied due to the fact that we failed to notice the elephant in the day, during our own research, but only during the evening observation. After a while we stumbled upon a big male walking down the middle of the road. We pulled over on the side, but he still passed around us in a big arc, walking through the thicket. Full of impressions and fully satisfied (we saw the big five except the buffalo, because it’s not an area of its habitat), we leave Etosha Park and now head to the north toward Opuwo.