As we prepared to leave Namibia without having made any decisions on buying a farm we needed to clear our heads and get some perspective. And what better way to do that than to spend a day surrounded by beautiful, peaceful animals whose simple lives always make things feel a lot easier.
We spent the night before entering Etosha at a lovely campsite where we could start to breath again and get our minds back into travelling mode.
Although the local wildlife was not always what we might have hoped for!
The wonder of Etosha is not just the high density of cats and other headline species but simply the stunning scenery
And the sheer numbers of animals quietly going about their business
Unlike last time we were here, we saw lots of elephant – they had come back from the west during the dry season to find water in the main part of the Park where the waterholes are more plentiful
And they had brought a new crop of little ones with them – some of whom really were tiny
Although meeting elephants on the road is not always a good thing! It may seem exciting at first if an elephant suddenly walks into you when you´re on a guided safari in someone else´s truck
But they are dangerous animals, not aggressive for the sake of it but perfectly capable of knocking a bus down that gets a bit too close when they´re trying to eat
This bus had to sit and wait for a very long time before the elephant gave enough ground for them to carefully skirt around her.
But a bus is rather larger than Henry so when it was our turn to try and get past
We decided a staring match was not in our best interests and made a hasty retreat back the way we came!
It was a gorgeous day packed full of everything we came to see.
The stately Kudu
The serene Oryx
The small but perfectly formed Springbok in their thousands, crossing the roads in front of us
As well as Impala always keeping close to other animals for safety
The ubiquitous Zebra
Whose whinney is often the first alert for other animals when danger is around
We were lucky enough to see a rhino suddenly appear by the road and dash across into the bushes on the other side
And I cannot possibly forget to mention the five lions we saw in two seperate sitings. Although neither particularly close but for a day trip we were thrilled
But lions and rhinos aside, Etosha never fails to impress
At the end of the day we made our way out of the Park and to our new campsite 100m outside the gates. It was another beautiful place although spoilt a little by rude staff when we arrived.
But we weren´t particularly bothered by the human population here, we were distracted by the resident mongoose
They had stolen a sausage from some campers and were busy trying to eat it before it got taken off them.
But soon enough the novelty of a big, silver Landrover took their attention
And it was some time before we could leave reception and head to our pitch without accidentally taking some of them with us!
We slept peacefully that night, at last having something new to occupy our minds and set our thoughts towards new roads…..
The Sidetracked Sagas 