bring on the animals!

As the sun was rising, we quickly packed all of our stuff and had one more look that we didn't forget a thing, coz today another brand new and exciting day awaited us.

A little after 7 AM we all finished breakfast, quickly cleaned everything up and jumped inside Chris for another ride on the many roads of Namibia. Today we were on our way towards Etosha National Park, the biggest park of the country and it must have been more or less an hour later when we finally arrived at the gate of the park.

Literally translated Etosha means "Great White Place" and I guess the salt pan which covers most of East Ethosha has something to do with that. Most of the year, the salt pan is dry and attracts not that many animals unlike when the wet season arrives. Since now we were in the dry season, we didn't expect to see that much wildlife, but there is always a chance that all the important people got it wrong.

As we left the gate behind us, we slowly drove towards our stay for the night, Halali, which took us about half a day. Needles to say the trip towards the lodge was so interesting that at times we just wanted to stay at one of the waterholes we met along the way.

It must have been mere minutes when we were in the park when we saw loads of springbok frolicking around and just minutes after that, that other cute animal appeared, the zebra. They were just a joy for the eye. As we followed the road we even came across my favourite animal, the wildebeest, who was accompanied by a few warthogs. The uglier the animals became, the more I liked them. I could gaze at them for ours, but sadly enough Alington, our driver, decided something different.

We had to be at our lodge by noon so that Rhyno could prepare lunch at the campsite and as we arrived and got our keys to the room, the both of us grasped the opportunity to have a cold and refreshing shower. It was just that hot that even the swimming pool of the lodge sounded appealing but sadly enough there wasn't time. Instead Rhyno offered us a delicious pasta lunch and afterwards it was back on the road and more gazing at all the different animals.

Just like in the morning we saw loads of springbok, zebra, ostriches, wildebeest and oryx. At the first waterhole we came across a giraffe and what an impressive animal this is. The fun thing about it is, that everything needs to be in peace and quiet otherwise the animals don't come closer. So, whenever we drove for a while, we stayed at one particular spot for half an hour. At the waterhole we even spend an entire hour and it never got bored. The closer the giraffe came, the more exciting everyone got. We were all mesmerized just because one animal decided to go for a drink.

The entire afternoon was like that. Drive a little while till we spotted some animals, wait till they get closer, take pictures of them or just look at them and so it went on for a couple more hours till it almost got dark.

When twilight came, we had to be back in the lodge and while Rhyno once again prepared a delicious meal for us, we were free to do whatever we wanted. Most of our group went to their room or to the waterhole of the lodge, which was in walking distance. Me and Tania on the other hand, just like 1 other member of our group hurried back to our room to change into some warmer clothes coz tonight we signed up for a night gamedrive.

As we arrived at the vehicles, we soon met up with the other persons and although it was hot when the sun was shining, from the moment it went to sleep, the cold arrived and it even got worse once we were on the road.

Our guide of the evening was very pleasant to talk to and maybe they have trained eyes because he saw everything. From small critters near the road to even the bigger ones a bit further inland. Driving in the dark is quite fun actually, you don't see a thing but still, when they turn on that infrared light, you see that you are not alone. So amazing actually.

Halfway into the drive, our guide suddenly speeded up the car. It turned out that another vehicle had spotted another big animal. In the beginning we thought it had something to do with a black Rhino. They are said to be rare, but for some reason today we already saw 4 of them and one almost charged our big truck Chris. Although this all sounded spectacular, we already saw them, needless to say, we didn't saw them in the dark. So bring on the rhino!

Speeding up for quite a while, we suddenly stopped in high grass and instead of seeing a rhino, we saw a leopard. She was hiding into the grass to hunt for some springbok. What a sight this was and immediately our guide told us that we were very lucky to see this.

We waited for a long while for the attack to happen, but because she was a bit vigilant, it took quite a while and in the meantime our guide took us a few kilometers further. Someone this time spotted a white rhino and let me tell you that is impressive as well.

3 white ones and 1 black rhino were ready to have a fight when all of a sudden our guide drove away towards the leopard again. It turned out that she just had killed a springbok and as we arrived at the scene, she was just walking her prey to a nearby tree. This is nature at her best, that's for sure.

The night gamedrive lasted almost 3 hours and we were completely numb of the cold, but we were all smiling. This was adventure, this was the thing we came here to see and we were lucky to have seen it.

Back at the lodge, we first went for a hot shower and than it was time to go to sleep coz another short night awaited us.

Thinking back in bed about what an amazing day this had been, I must be honest and say that all the animals we came across today were more than interesting. From the tiny millipede till the big giants like an elephant. Sadly enough, we only saw it from a far distance, but it is said that a large group are in walking distance, so I was looking forward to seeing them tomorrow.