4 September

The last two days have been quite thrilling. After we left Outjo we drove north for a few hours until we reached the Andersson Gate of Etosha National Park. Etosha is a 22,000 Km² wilderness centred around a huge dried up lake attracting vast herds of animal. I visited last year in the wet season with memories of baby antelope frolicking about in the lush green grass. This year, I return to a barren rocky wasteland where the grass is brown and the trees have lost their leaves. All the water has dried up and remains in only a handful of small waterholes which are guarded jealously by lions and elephants.

This may be too poetic to be realistic but the things I have seen today and yesterday convince me of its truth. Last night we spent the night with blankets at the waterhole near the Okaukuejo camp. The scene that we witnessed:

A large of about 15 giraffe hovers near the edge of the water looking around anxiously. Each time they approach a small group of lions appears out of the darkness and runs after them. This repeats for about 4 hours until the lions (and us) decide to move off. In the meantime about 5 different bull elephants have trundled solitarily to the water, squared up to the previous elephant and pushed him off. 5 separate black rhino’s also have appeared at the water, occasionally sparring, one moving to attack the lions when they got too close. Also, we spotted a genet; a small cat-like mammal hunting in the grass before us.

This morning we left at first light and spent the day driving between these rare areas of water. Every single one of them had herds of zebra, wildebeest and springbok (among other) queuing up for their turn at the water. At three separate waterholes this was complicated by the presence of lion prides. Just sitting beneath a nearby bush was enough to discourage a herd of 50 zebras from quenching their thirst. At the final waterhole, Rietfontein, 4 hyenas made matters worse and a herd of about 200 zebras was left standing anxiously at the side. We watched for about an hour as they painfully slowly inched up before being panicked.  One springbok was foolish enough to be separated from its herd and ran in the directions of the lions, they leapt to attention and began to chase but were too late.

Other than the drama, it was very interesting seeing the social interactions between animals as well as between species. One male oryx seemed to fight off any other’s trying to drink his water. Elephants stood head-to-head and spread their ears, estimating the opponent’s strength.  Surprisingly, an ostrich seemed to be given a respectful distance by all the other antelope as it approached the water. Giraffe are very vulnerable when drinking as they have to stretch down their neck so they are very nervous; this seems to mean that they will never drink if a predator is nearby while other species will happily take the risk.

As we drove east through the park, from Okaukuejo to my current location of Halali, the flat landscape and grasslands became noticeably denser and more forested with occasional hills. This led to an immediate change in the types of animals in the area with springbok, oryx and wildebeest being replaced by kudu, hartebeest and impala.

We haven’t had any trouble with baboons here, but lions continued to roar throughout the night and jackals scoured through the trash cans at Okaukuejo. Here at Halali, Ive heard that we should be looking out for honey badgers.

Last night we met some Italians who have driven from Italy to here through Africa. They had this fantastically high definition camera in a mini case attached to the front of their truck and showed us some amazing videos recorded of them driving the roads in Ethiopia and Kenya. I have decided that I will also occasionally film the driving and the roads.

I think we will spend the evening at the Moringa water hole.