Etosha at last.
23,000km2 of desert National Park (about the size of Scotland). The salt pan itself is 4,700km2.
Everywhere in Namibia is remote – this place even more so than most.
The country is the size of the UK and France combined, with a population of 2.6m.
It hasn’t rained here in the north for about 8 months. The heat is intense. Dust fills the car every day.
It makes you wonder how any animals survive out here – given that there are currently only a handful of waterholes that aren’t dry.
Amazingly, Ostrich seem to drink briefly and then head back out onto the pan itself.
Not everything makes it. And this Black-backed Jackal realises that shade is shade – wherever you find it.
He’s a beautiful animal though.
There are many Wildebeest on the plains, though it’s not really possible to photo them en-mass when everything is so flat.
Fortunately for us, one of the best waterholes is 20 metres from our campsite at Okaukuejo.
The camps are gated for security (from animals, not people) and you must be back in camp by sunset or you have to leave the park completely.
We arrived back from 50km away on the plains with about 10 minutes to spare and took a cold bottle of wine and our camp chairs down to the waterhole.
At that time of day, everybody needs a drink.
The animals arrived in a steady stream…..
…..until the place started getting a bit crowded…..
As the dusk fell, the pecking order at the water’s edge changed…..
….. until the big guys arrived…..
There were 3 White Rhino drinking around the pool in the shot below but one dominated it and claimed the middle for himself.
Once they’d had their fill, they left it to the Giraffe.
By 10.45 pm, we’d forgotten about dinner completely and thought it was just the Giraffe, an Eagle-Owl and us left (this bad-boy had a 1.5m wingspan).
We were wrong. In the gloom we watched 5 lions stalk one of the Giraffe – 2 of them herding it towards the other 3.
Amazingly somehow it evaded them and escaped at pace – making the most of it’s 5 metre stride – while the other 7 took off in the opposite direction.
No photos since it was too dark, but 15 minutes of the hairs standing up on the back of my neck that I will never forget.