… oh and a group of giraffes is called a journey of giraffes if they are walking and a tower of giraffes if they are standing. And those are just a few of the things I have learnt these past few days which will come in handy when I go on the TV game show Pointless. (Jamie, don’t forget you’re coming with me!!! 😉)
I left Windhoek Tuesday morning together with a lovely group of people – two Finnish ladies, a Russian girl, an Italian girl, a man from the Philippines and our two guides from Chameleon Safaris, Alvin & Gideon. Although we have different backgrounds and ages I thought we had a really wonderful time together – one of the things I really enjoy by joining group activities like this is that you meet so many interesting people…
Anyway, it was a rather long and dull drive to get to Etosha National Park, no scenery as such and the main highlight was Alvin’s story about two hills lying right next to each other which were called the local word (which I cannot remember of course!) for buttocks…. I guess because they looked a bit like a bum, although a little uneven I must say! Apparently women used to walk in between the two hills in the hope of gaining larger buttocks – made me chuckle!
Etosha is a huge national park, with lots of different wildlife but because of the vastness the concentration of animals is not great and since it’s rainy season it was going to be even more difficult to see lots of animals because they don’t seek to the waterholes as much.
But over the two days I think we were pretty lucky with our sightings… here are my personal highlights.
More than one kind of zebra – who knew??
Well, I actually feel that I should have known this, but alas I learnt something else. These zebras were not just black and white, they were black, white and brown or more like bronze I think… so beautiful. Actually used to discard the zebra a bit on safaris, but have now become quite the zebra fan! When you really look, you see just how fantastic they are… and this type even more so, I think.
Leopard!
I have only seen a leopard in the wild once before – and that was on my very first safari in 2004 in Zambia, so it was a real treat to see one again… Alvin saw it sleeping behind some bushes by the roadside…amazing spot – so amazing that I forgave him for calling me Beti…! He told us that it was just his third leopard spot in two years, so we were very lucky indeed.
Black rhinoceros
I’ve waited thirteen years to complete the Big Five (Elephant, Buffalo, Leopard, Lion & Rhino) and had started to think it wasn’t going to happen… but it turns out rhinos for me are like London buses…wait forever for one and then several turn up at the same time. After the first day of safari we arrived at the Halali camp and I quickly bought a cold beer and headed to the watering hole, which was empty when I got there. So I focused on trying to take photos of the many wonderfully beautiful butterflies here (I failed!) when a rhino casually walked up to the water. I couldn’t actually believe it – just like that the search was over…. got quite emotional and shed a few tears.
After a while a second rhino arrived – I have no idea if they were male or female (apparently something to do with the size of their behind…seemed there was a lot of bum talk on our trip!) but they were amazing! What a privilege to be able to just sit there for over an hour and observe their behaviours. I in particular enjoyed the cute rubbing of their horns on the dead trees around the water hole and the way that they don’t just pee allowing gravity to immediately take over, but instead spray their pee behind them with the force of a water gun! Amusing!
And later that evening – after dinner and after being reminded to wear closed shoes after dark because of the scorpions (eeek 😳) – we quickly walked to the watering hole again and saw three rhinos just hanging out and seemingly getting ready to sleep… mesmerising!
Gourmet breakfast for lions
Wednesday morning bright and early… we missed the kill, but came across a pride of lions eating a zebra. Heartwarming in some weird way to see the rest of the zebra group (dazzle!) still standing around to mourn the death of their ‘brother/sister’… As a contrast it was rather exciting to see a bit of a kafuffle (is that the right spelling?) between two of the male lions – the roars were impressive!
Great white space
Is the meaning of Etosha and it is no surprise that this park is named after the vast ‘pan’ which is at the centre of it. It’s just barren land for as far as you can see…apparently this area was created during the ice age… Oh and the reason that the ground is so white is that there’s loads of calcium in it. Very impressive…I felt quite small and insignificant – actuallin the entire park…not just there!
And as another safari comes to an end, I think about how lovely it is that safaris can be special for so many different reasons… the types and numbers of animals you see, of course, but also the landscape and the setting, the knowledge you acquire and the people you meet… and this one had a bit of everything and I’ll of course never forget where I saw my first rhino!
BETINA IN AFRICA 