Another day , another early morning. Today was spent entirely in Etosha National Park with the intention of exploring several physical environments and observing the rich diversity of wildlife found in the park. Because the wildlife is most active at dawn and dusk, that meant that we also had be most active at those times. With that in mind, we didn’t mind at all when the alarm sounded at 5:30 am – I am speaking for myself when I make that statement; Andrew rolled out of bed more reluctantly at a little after 6:00 am.
We had an excellent breakfast, buffet style, in the camp’s dining hall, and then hit the road at about 7:10 am, staying out until shortly before sunset (which was at 5:25 pm). The day was photographically superb, with crystal clear blue skies, transparent clean air and temperatures in the mid 20s.
I know that the place names will not mean anything to anyone who has never visited Etosha, but from our campsite at Okaukuejo, we drove north to the waterhole at Okondeka, then south-west to the waterhole at Leeubron, and then back through Okaukuejo and east past waterholes at Nebrowni, Gemsbokvlakte, Olifantsbad and Aus before driving further east to the campsite and waterhole at Halali. Our driver told us that he had studied the typical movements of animals in Etosha and that we could expect to see a herd of elephants at Halali. Sadly, the elephants hadn’t bothered to check their arrangements with our driver, and the only animal at Halali was a sole oryx. We had a picnic lunch in the shade overlooking the waterhole, and then started heading back to Okaukuejo via waterholes at Nuamses and Rietfontein, the latter waterhole containing a pride of eight lions. We reached Okaukuejo about half an hour before sunset, which gave us the opportunity to watch a small herd of seven elephants come and drink from the waterhole near our cabin in the golden glow of the late afternoon sunlight.
During the day, we managed to see a vast range of wildlife; Etosha is simply teeming with animals. Among the notable animals we managed to see and photograph were giraffes, Burchell’s zebra, blue wildebeest, ostrich, lions, pied crows, springbok, kudu, oryx, black rhinoceros, warthog, a rare spotted hyene, red hartebeest, steenbok, impala, kori bustards, hornbills, secretary birds, and of course, elephants. I took a total of 443 photographs today, and the photos on this page are just a small sample of the images captured.
