Tuesday morning, we
headed to the lodge for a great buffet breakfast, then loaded up and headed
into Etosha. We entered via the Anderson
Gate and Oukaukenjo, an old Afrikaans-era outpost with a lot of fun old
stonework and rustic charm. After paying
$20 for two days worth of park entrance fees (!), we entered and headed East on
gravel roads.
The day was glorious
– we saw hundreds of zebra and springbok, oryx, wildebeest, ostrich, giraffe,
jackals, and assorted colorful birds. We really enjoyed watching a "zebra fight" for a few minutes and a springbok horn locking fight as well. The sky continued to be spectacular and the savannah-like expanses and
big sky were otherworldly – it felt like an idyllic garden of Eden. Even Bri, the native Oregonian, couldn’t put
the camera down as I drove to avoid car sickness, trying endlessly to capture these
images we didn’t want to forget.
We saw a big Tom lion
within the first hour and a half, who was napping underneath a tree near a
waterhole with several nervous zebra staring at him the whole time. He was good enough to get up and stretch,
turn around, and pose for us before laying back down under his tree and going
back to sleep.
We also saw one of
the most elusive of the big five game animals – a leopard in a tree a hundred
yards off the road. He was well-hidden
and we wouldn’t have seen him if there weren’t several other cars and a few
game guides pointing him out. We were yards away, of course in the car, and it was very dark under the tree, so the picture is a little blurry.
We saw an elephant a
long way off but didn’t see him again all day.
We went to Halili, an in-the-park lodge, in search of rhino, but didn’t
see any of them where they were reported to be.
We did, however, come across three giraffes right next to the road, one
of whom let us get a good look from twenty feet away as she leaned down to
drink from a small water puddle.
We also saw about thirty
enormous carrion birds feasting on what appeared to be a still-alive zebra, who
occasionally struggled to get up but was unable to. We saw these packs of vultures several times
over our two days in the park, and called their gatherings “Thanksgiving
dinner.”
Unfortunately, Rhea had a fever on
this first day and slept most of the time except when we woke her to check out
the animals we found; Savvy’s mothering/big sister instincts kicked in and Rhea
spent most of the time laying her head in Savvy’s lap as we toured the park.
The second day, Thomas started feeling under the weather as well and it
started hitting Savannah near the end of the safari as well. Luckily we
rented the van so they wouldn't fight over space, but it also worked out well
to serve as a rehabilitation center for the kids. :)
These days were actually perfect for the kids to be sick since we spent so many hours confined inside a car anyway, and they could sleep if they felt bad. We would wake them to see the animals that we found or they could help look for them as well since that didn't require a lot of energy. By late afternoon, we headed back – the rule
is you can only enter the park at sunrise and you have to be out by sunset, or
they lock the doors and you’re stuck inside over night; our concierge at
Toshari told us that a bus full of tourists had been locked in the week before,
and she had to go to Anderson Gate and bargain/bribe for their release. The park is enormous with four gates hundreds
of miles apart and lots of different roads and routes, so you really have to
watch your time and how far you can get to make sure you can get back out on
time. We made it out of the park, car totally dirty, and headed
back to Toshari, and hit one of their outdoor pools and then down to the lodge
for dinner.
The night before there had
been about forty people with us; however, that second night we had the place
just about to ourselves. With the lack
of other guests, we had a five course fixed meal that was wonderful – tomatoes
with cream cheese and basil, lemon sorbet, vegetable soup, main course of Oryx steak/fish and pasta, and
chocolate cake with a cream custard sauce.
The kids trooped through most of it; this was the first
time they had experienced a multi-course meal, and Savvy and Rhea commented
that they were hungry and didn’t understand why they didn’t just bring us all
of the food at one time! Again, it was funny to Bri and me that they were
excited about the Oryx but didn’t want to eat the tomatoes. : )
After dinner, we headed up to our cabin, got ready for bed and read our family
read aloud book, Anne of Green Gables.
On our second day in the park, we again had our great
gourmet breakfast (including fresh bacon!!!) and headed in. Our goal
for the day was to find elephant and rhino, both of which had eluded us the day
before. We almost immediately saw elephant – first, a lone male at a
watering hole, and then a whole herd of about forty elephants at a watering
hole called (in Afrikaans) “Oliphantsbad.” It was surreal and
wonderful to see these elephants in the wild, frolicking in the water and
obviously enjoying being in the refreshing water.
We also saw warthogs come down to this hole, as well as kudu, springbok, and the ubiquitous zebra.
After a half-hour (and hundreds of pictures – thank goodness we’re in the digital age) of watching these elephants, we headed out in search of rhino. We never did find them, but enjoyed the ambience and getting close to the “pan.” Etosha park is situated around a giant inland dry lake bed called the pan. It is a sandy plant-less expanse that the animals roam in the wetter season, and while we were at the edge of the pan we saw a couple of big magnificent oryx (the close cousin of Angola’s palanca negra) come in off the pan desert floor. What are they doing out there and why???
Eventually, we headed back to Anderson gate and decided to pack it in. On our way out, we saw our first hyena and a few giraffe just before the gate.
We loved our time staying at the Toshari Lodge which was
amazingly affordable (that's what Namibia is known for, especially compared to
Angola!) and our time in Etosha and everything we were able to see. This safari was everything we hoped it
would be and we loved it. We
counted twenty-one different varieties of animals and birds that we had seen
over the two days; a successful safari for sure. The next morning, we
again had our great breakfast, settled up our bill (which was amazingly low –
thanks strong dollar!), and packed up for our drive to Windhoek, the city from
which we were flying out. I
loved being in this place – peaceful, surrounded by an incredible abundance of
nature, and quiet time together as a family.
We felt very at home in this Southern Africa country – it
reminded us of home in so many ways. The countryside continued to remind
us of the desert southwest, except substituting the leafy African trees for
scrub cedar. We passed through pretty little towns that were developed
five generations back by Afrikaans pioneers, again reminding us of Utah and
Idaho and the little towns started by Mormon pioneers that dot the
intermountain West. What was very different was the wildlife.
Shortly into our drive we saw another troop of baboons crossing the road.
We stopped and managed to squeeze off a few pictures before they
disappeared. They definitely were not domesticated, and when we showed
them any attention they vanished.
We arrived in Windhoek in the early afternoon and made our
way to our accommodations and Indian food that was around the corner– Bri found
a hostel with a guest house, and thought the price was right and the kids would
find it interesting (It was only $50 for our whole family, including breakfast
which we missed out on because we had to leave at 5:30am for the airport).
The hostel was full of single adults so we were the only
family there, but the girls still got to have a little time in the communal
pool (Thomas was rehabilitating), Briant bought batteries to take back with us,
and I cleaned out the rental bus to return the next morning. The
kids showered and we settled in with a little more Anne of Green Gables –
we can’t get enough of her exploits! After a couple of chapters,
Rhea confessed that at first she hated the book but now she loves
it. :)
We had a little bit of a long night, this time with a
ceiling fan and no ac : ( It’s not entirely clear, but Thomas apparently
was being forced to do something he didn’t want to do in his dreams and
whimpered and resisted all night. : ) At 5 a.m., we woke up, loaded
the car, and made our way to the airport. After checking in and getting
situated at the gate (and having a Thrifty rent-a-car guy return Bri’s wallet
that he forgot minus the $300 he had in it!), our Chevron friends showed up to
board the same flight. The kids continued to catch up and we all
reflected on our time in Namibia. This was the break that we all needed
to reset our attitude and relax. We ate amazing food, drove on first
world quality roads, walked on first world quality sidewalks, had access to
public services such as parks, grocery stores, etc., had the freedom to walk
outdoors without threat to our safety, and enjoyed a higher level of
cleanliness and calm in a less populated country. And as I’m writing this
with the power flickering, I’m reminded that we experienced a stable,
dependable supply of electricity that never faltered, even once! All of
these things we took for granted before our move here to Angola, but never
again! We have another couple of months before our summer break, and with
this breather outside of Luanda we’ll make it just fine. Our time in
Namibia was wonderful and will be fondly treasured among our travels!
Yet again, another beautiful sky in Namibia to capture on
camera. The sunrise on our way to the airport.
0 comments: