Southern Africa - Day 15 (Part 1)

Monday, 27 January 2020 - Namibia 

Today we headed out early. As I’ve mentioned, we are staying in the National Park itself surrounded by animals of all sorts. So in the evening (5.40 p.m,) this area is locked shut and in the morning (6.40 a.m.) it is opened. So we had breakfast at 6 a.m. and headed out at 6.40 a.m. Before that, at about 5.30 a.m. I went down to the waterhole but not an animal in sight. 

We had the whole day today to look for animals, especially 4 of the Big 5 in Africa because the Cape Buffalo is not to be found in Etosha. I don’t even know why a buffalo is in the Big 5 🙄. The Big 5 are: elephant, rhinoceros, lion, leopard and the horrid Cape buffalo. Clever says the leopard is the most difficult to see, and the Cape buffalo is the most dangerous 🙄. I think the hippopotamus or even the giraffe deserve to be in the Big 5, not a buffalo!!!

In the morning nothing to be seen except the usual suspect: springboks. We saw a lioness in the distance taking a slow stroll, a leopard tortoise, a cobra, and a lonely giraffe. Giraffes are in the camel family, when they walk both their legs on the left move together, followed by both legs on the right. This is different from other 4-legged animals except those in the camel family. 

We also saw a lapwing (bird) with bright orange feet. They lay their eggs on the ground and their biggest predators are the jackal and honey badgers. We also saw white egrets sitting atop a tree, a thousand butterflies, dragonflies, ants, Cape crows, pied crows (with a white ring around its neck) and then we drove into the salt pan. It really is a massive area, I couldn’t see the ends. 

We then saw 2 blue cranes, which is the national bird of South Africa. They are always in pairs (how sweet). What they are doing here in Etosha I do not know. There was a puddle in the middle of the road and there were 3 small tortoises swimming there. We made a short stop to use the toilet and here Jack found a tiny scorpion and a spider known as the rain spider, both under rocks. 

By this time morale was really low because we had been driving around for more than 4 hours and not many animals around. Clever explained that animals are usually better seen during the dry season which is from August onwards, because then they have no choice but to go to waterholes to drink. Now there is rain and this means puddles everywhere, and so the animals can drink anywhere and remain in hiding.