I figure for my first real blog post I should tell you guys all about my favourite part of the trip: visiting Etosha National Park in Namibia. But first, I want to include a little summary of my entire trip.
My trip to Africa
2018 was a huge year for me, being my final year of university and the first year of my research project. Since my entire year revolved around echidnas, I decided I wanted to do something to celebrate when I finally finished. So about 3 days after handing in my thesis, I few to Africa! It was such an incredible trip filled with lots of wildlife and I travelled around with the most amazing people.
In total I was in Africa for a month, spending 4 days in Cape Town; taking Acacia Africa’s 25 day Desert Tracker tour through Namibia, Botswana, Victoria Falls and Zimbabwe; then spending one final day in Johannesburg. The trip included highlights like the Namib Desert, the Okavango Delta, Victoria Falls, and Kruger National Park. I chose to travel with Acacia Africa because my cousin had travelled with them the year before and loved it! (It was a good choice – I had an incredible time too just on a different route).
Back to Etosha National Park…
Etosha was the first National Park we went to with the express purpose of going on safari. We camped at the park for two nights, staying at the Okaukuejo Rest Camp which is famous for its floodlit waterhole. We all loved sitting at the waterhole watching the animals, especially at sunset! See that picture at the start of the blog? Yeah that’s why.
Game drives
Of course, Etosha NP was the first place most of us went on a game drive in Africa. This made it extra special being the first time we saw wild elephants, lions, rhinos… and so many more!
My favourite game drive was in the afternoon of our second day in the park. Only about half of the group came on this drive, with the rest opting to stay and hang out by the pool. I mean I get it. It was 40 degrees (celcius). But they totally missed out. It started out as a pretty normal game drive, seeing the basics like zebras, giraffes and rhinos around waterholes. Then a little further along there was this young male lion which walked up to our truck before crossing the road and plonking down in the shade.
To top off the afternoon, we saw our first elephants! Our guide had stopped to talk to another driver then immediately rushed off at top speed! We had no idea what we were going to see but we knew it must be good. Everyone was SO excited to see elephants for the first time, and we got to see loads! It was interesting to see all their natural behaviours (including mating!) and see them interact as a group. Unfortunately we had to rush back so we could get back in to camp before it closed for the night… but it was totally worth it. Oh! We also saw the CUTEST baby ostriches on our drive back! Loads cuter than the adults…
The waterhole
As I’ve already mentioned, we spent lots of time at the waterhole in camp, which was best in the evening. When it got cooler, all of the animals came out for a drink. One of the highlights for me was seeing three Tawny Eagles hunting for their dinner two nights in a row! Most people probably wouldn’t even notice them or care about them but I really like raptors. In the middle of the day there weren’t so many animals around because it was so hot! But we did see a few antelope species (some of which went for a swim!) and a heron eating another bird.
There were some less-good things…
It wasn’t perfect all round, though. The full day we spent at the park was so hot that my shampoo bar melted (I had to put it in the fridge when I got home). Then, on the second night I was trying to go to sleep and found a spider in my tent!!!! I never got out of a tent so fast in my life… Luckily one of the guys got rid of it for me before finding an identical spider in his own tent!! I’m pretty sure we must have set our tents up on top of a spider nest or something… Yuck!
The next night in Windhoek we had the option of upgrading to a pre-set tent complete with beds. Normally I’m not one to spend extra money but when my tent buddy asked if I wanted to upgrade I said yes to a spider-free tent!! Also it only cost $15 AUD.
So why exactly did I love Etosha NP so much?
I imagine that everyone likes the park where they go on their first safari the best because everything is so new and exciting. But there were a couple of other reasons I liked Etosha National Park compared to the other parks we visited. Most notably, the lack of people. Obviously there were other people around and the waterhole was packed at around sunset, but we didn’t have to queue up to see animals like we did in Kruger National Park. Overall it’s not as commercialised.
I also loved all of the waterholes at Etosha, especially the one at the campsite. This was something none of the other parks we visited really had. We didn’t actually camp in any of the other parks to be fair, but we didn’t see many waterholes either.
Finally, I loved the range of animals we saw at Etosha National Park. At Kruger we saw a lot of big cats; at Matobo National Park we saw white rhinos including a baby; and in Botswana we saw tonnes (haha) of elephants! But in Etosha we saw everything from the Big Five to Giraffe to Springbok to Ostriches and even Eagles. So it was very cool. Etosha National Park was also the only place we saw Black Rhinos.
It’s definitely worth the trip, I just hope none of you set your tent above a spider nest!
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