We Win the Wildlife Lottery

Well, I'm well overdue to do a blog post. If you thought my other posts were long, brace yourself. I'm telling you now that there won't be any photos on this post as our current internet isn't brilliant, but I promise they're coming. So let's get to the real stuff.

I'm going to skip a whole heap of uninteresting stuff that you probably don't need (or want) to hear about, and go straight to our days in Etosha National Park. This park is 22,000 km squared of protected land, fille with elephants, rhinos, lions, giraffes, zebras, impala, gazelle, kudu, and about a billion other animals that I'm not going to name. As a little background information of safaris, it is not uncommon to drive for hours and see nothing except the occasional herd of zebra, or springbok.

We entered the park for the first time on the 4th of July. First we took a look at a waterhole near the entrance, although we only saw zebras, kudu, impala, and a jackal or two. We drove through the miles and miles of nothingness, inhabited by only endless springbok, plenty of zebras, and an ostrich or two, to get to another waterhole.

This one was man-made, a sure source of water that would attract many animals (hopefully). As we neared it, we saw herds of zebra and springbok, groups of ostriches, even some oryx, but yet nothing went within 100m of the water's edge. We came into the car park, and immediately saw why. A large, heavily pregnant lioness was drinking. Needless to say, we were very excited and took a lot of pictures. After she left, the rest of the animals came in for a drink. We were swarmed by somewhere around 60 zebras, and yet more springbok.

After leaving to another waterhole, then returning, as the waterhole had nothing interesting at it, we watched a herd of giraffes drinking. They really do look quite ridiculous.

The next day (Yes, there's more, even after this), was the day we won the wildlife lottery. We started once again at the waterhole near the entrance, but I can't remember much about what was there, so probably nothing of note (although her was one springbok who walked into the middle and was in so deep you could only see his head).

We went to a new waterhole, and before we pulled into the carpark, we spotted four lionesses hiding in the long grass, looking for their lunch. We watched them for a while, but they didn't catch anything.

As there was (yet again) nothing of note, we moved onto the next waterhole. While we were driving there, Torin noticed a grey blob in the bushes. Upon closer inspection (That may or may not have involved climbing out the window and standing on the car door) we concluded it was a white rhino.

The next waterhole was phenomenal even before we got there. It was the one we went to yesterday that had nothing in it. As we drove towards it, mum yelled, and pointed out the window. There were two elephants beside the road, a mother and calf. We watched in awe as they crossed in front of us, until mum asked if any of us had looked behind the car. We all did, and lo and behold, another elephant was behind us, this one much bigger. We had to be very careful now, otherwise we could get charged, but luckily nothing happened.

Our excitement levels rose to impossibly high as we pulled into the carpark, for, drinking casually from the previously deserted waterhole, was a magnificent herd of even more elephants, complete with a tiny baby. We sat and gawked for aeons until they left.

The next waterhole was just as exciting. As we pulled up to it, a rhino wandered out of the bushes, smack-bang into the middle of the clearing. We couldn't stay long here though, as we needed to get to our next campsite before dark. Much to our surprise, as we left, we spotted two male lions lounging under a tree. They weren't really doing anything, just lying there, but it was still pretty amazing.

Now I'm going to skip ahead to that evening, at a new campsite next to a waterhole.

Nothing really happened until about a minute before we were going to leave. The sun set quite beautifully, and then suddenly, out of nowhere, a herd of fourteen elephants appeared! Needless to say, we stayed a lot longer than intended.

After dinner, we returned, to wait patiently for anything else. We didn't have to wait very long, as pretty soon a rhino wandered over. He stayed for a while, and then left the same way he came. Not much longer after that, a mother rhino and her calf came, which is very, very rare. To add to the rarity, another male came (I think), and then another mother and calf, and then another male! Just so you know, rhinos are SOLITARY creatures. 

The next day (I promise this is the last), we went to the waterhole again at night. This time we didn't quite see as much, but still two male rhinos. One chased the other away, which looked frankly hilarious. 

Compared to those few days, everything else had been rather bland in comparison, but still very fun. We're just about to leave Namibia now, and enter Botswana, so this'll be the last you'll hear of me from Namibia!