Day 19-21 Etosha National Park

Day 19-21  Etosha National Park

The Etosha Safari Lodge sits on a ridge about 10 km outside of the Anderson Gate into Etosha.  If you aren’t staying inside the Park, this is a great location, and, as the fourth in the collection of Gondwanda Lodges that we’ve made our home, is right up there with the rest.  And, maybe the chef is even better!

The Dining regimen has become a habit for us at this point.  Breakfast is buffet, and if you want the full hot breakfast you simply tell the cook who prepares it.  Lots of fruit and yogurt for us, of course.  Lunches are served, but we’ve only had one in the 15 nights we have spent.  Dinner is a buffet, but not just any buffet.  It is excellent quality, more truly fresh veggies and salads than you would expect out here in Desolation Row.  The main courses have been interesting, eland goulash, oryx-kabobs, springbok sirloin, kudu stroganoff, plus pastas, lamb curries, couscouses, a huge choice of wines, South African mostly.  Fine dining, usually under the African stars.  

Just wanted to get that down before I forgot how nice the repasts have been.

And, I’m reminded how awesome, the original meaning, filling one with Awe, the night skies have been here.  The Milky Way glows so brightly overhead you get lost in it.  The Southern Cross easy to spot.  And the planets have been huge and luminous.   

A hugely pleasant surprise was the road from Damara Lodge to here, which was completely paved.  Such a joy.  No more rocky road.

For the first morning, we had booked a full-day guided game drive, figuring we would get the lay of the land and do the rest of the days on our own, self-guided in the X-Trail.  Wake up at 4:45, out the lodge gate at 6:00, well, a little late, it’s Africa.  After formalities at the Etosha Park gate and further in at the major Camp, Okuekuejo (Okay-kway-yo), we started cruising the dusty roads in the big-ass, sitting-way-up-there safari vehicle that sat 14, us and 12 Germans. 

A lyin' lion

Spotted a spotted hyena

There are lots of pros and cons to going this route.  You don’t have to worry about driving and can concentrate on spotting and shooting game.  Photos only, you silly goose!  I am NOT a dentist!  You are seated so high that you have an excellent vantage point over the scrub trees and bone-dry soil.  The guides know where the game is, so you don’t waste as much time in “the hunt.”   And, they have a wealth of knowledge only surpassed by Mimi-pedia.   

On the other hand, self-driving gives you a bit of the thrill and the roll of the dice that is the name of the game when spotting game in the wild and when you do come across something, it is indeed a thrill.  You can go where you want, stop when you want, where you want, for as long as you want.  It is quieter.  It’s cheaper. 

Awwwww.

Bush Yoga-Downward facing giraffe

In Etosha, we have found that game is sparsely distributed, so you drive, and drive, and the tedium seems never-ending, hot, dusty, and there was lots of dust and wind.  In Saudi we called them shamals, where the dust not only blows, but hangs suspended in the baking air.  Invisible horizon, very little of anything to break the hypnotic trance you fall into as you rattle and bounce km after km.  It is meditative, in the same was running a marathon is meditative, without the blisters.  On and on you roll.  And on.  And on. 

And THEN!  You spot it!  A lion under that tree over there!  No, it’s two!  Oh my god!  The driver kills the diesel engine.  Shhhhhh.  Click, click, click of shutters.  Adrenalin pounding through all the humans, fortunately not through Mr. and Mrs. Lion.  A cat yawn.  A shuffling of position as they totally relax in the midday, shaded from the scorch of the sun.  Chilling.    

Repeat.

This time it’s elephants at the waterhole.  And oryx.  And springbok, wildebeest, zebra, giraffe, wart hogs.  All sharing the same life-giving water.  Yes, we CAN all get along.  So many crowding in for their Big Gulps.   Etosha isn’t really sparse on the wildlife, it’s just concentrated at the waterholes, right where I would be if I were a wildebeest in this sun-baked environment.   

Dan, Mary, Lynn, David, Matt, Jacobi, THIS is a lion.

Whereas when my brother and sister and spouses and select offspring came to South Africa a couple years ago and we traveled to a lush safari lodge, we spent 4 days and nights in pursuit of a lion, which remained at large for their entire safari experience, here in Etosha, we saw our first lions in, ohhh, the first 45 minutes, the next three in the next 45 minutes, and two more later in the day.  Such is the game drive lottery, and the difference between the zoo and the bush. 

Speaking of fine dining, I have decided to swear off a favorite ice cream for the entire remainder of my life:  Rocky Road.  I am soooooo tired of these rocky roads that the mere mention sets my teeth on edge and puts a knot in my shoulder. 

On our self-drive the next morning, we entered the park and turned west, opposite to yesterday’s path.  Not so many people out this way, we noticed, though there were never crowds at any point like you might see in Kruger Park or Six Flags.  

My favorite shot in Etosha

As the dust devil hit us, I closed my eyes and aimed the camera and clicked.  

The dust was thick.  So thick that when a truck DID pass us on the road, the dust he kicked up was actually clearer than the surrounding gauzy haze.  But, we drove on.  Again, we were rewarded for our efforts and saw everything except rhino.  Lions who had killed a zebra and had his carcass under a tree in the distance.  Awesome elephants up close and personal, with their self-applied white powder sunscreen.  We watched them use their trunks to hose themselves off and then apply splatters of mud over and under and side to side, which, when dry turns to the bone china white of so much of the Etosha environment.  

At times, you could be convinced that there had been a snowstorm overnight that had covered the trees, rocks, and everything, even the elephants, out to the wavering mirages at the end of your vision in the white stuff. 

Except for the heat, of course.  A great day, 9 hours on the roads.  Private vehicles must be out of the park by sunset, 7 PM.    

Today, Day 3 in Etosha, we cruised all the way across the Park to the Naumatoni Gate on the east side.  Well, we didn’t really cruise, we made plenty of stops and got to observe more of everything, except lions. 

Large bird condos and giraffe

Fully sunscreened.

A very rare sighting:  Two White-Breasted X-Trails in typical mating ritual.
Can you tell which is the female?

With the help of the lodge manager, Simon Andreas, we opted to delete one night at Etosha Lodge in favor of a night over here, which puts us just 5 hours’ drive from tomorrow’s lodge, on paved (tarred) roads!  Plus we got to get a feel for the entire rest of the park, which wouldn’t have happened without the change.

We have checked in to the Mokati Lodge, a high-class place that even has a spa, a gym and tennis courts.  As if.  The pleasant surprise came when we went to settle the bill, and the kind gentleman said, “I see that you have signed in as both American and South African.  Would it be fine with you if I enter you as African…it will be half the overseas price.”  Wink, wink.  Fine.    

Good night, from Etosha.