Living the wild life in Namibia

We have just driven out of Etosha National Park in north Namibia having spent the last week living the wild life there.

We got there a bit later than we had first anticipated due to our few car delays and then our change of plan to attend a local air show (more in a minute). We had wanted to get to Etosha before the rains came as apparently the game viewing is much easier and our car is only a 2 wheel drive; we made it and in fact there is still not much sign of rain.

Camping in Etosha National Park

Etosha is a massive natural salt pan and the place is just teaming with game. We camped at three different camp sites and just drove ourselves around the park in the mornings, swam in the afternoons, and then either did late afternoon drives or just sat at the camp site water holes (which were flood lit for night time viewing) to view the animals. We know how to live the wild life!

It was magic. We just loved anticipating the surprise of what we might see every day, and we were never disappointed. We saw dozens of giraffe, hundreds of zebra, springbok, oryx and impala, herds of wildebeest, several elephant, a few rhinos and lions on a daily basis. We did spot a couple of the smaller wild things and perhaps a bit too close for comfort. We had a snake go under our tent one night, and this morning Dave spotted a scorpion just as he was packing up the tent!

(We do hope to download some photos onto the blog site at some stage, but it is time consuming at internet cafes – perhaps when we settle back in SA we will get some organised.)

Otjiwarongo Air Show

Back to the air show. That was our first change of plan, and what a result it turned out to be. Dave had made email contact with some paragliders, and to cut a long story a wee bit shorter we ended up meeting up with them to see if he could get a flight. We had a great few days and got involved with helping set up and do things at the air show which was a fund raising activity for REST – Rare and Endangered Species Trust – with particular emphasis on the Cape Griffen Vulture of which there are only 12 remaining in Namibia.

Unfortunatley Dave did not manage to get a flight (condidtions were not right at the right time), but we had a great 4 nights eating and drinking at REST and met some lovely people and hope to meet up with a few of the flying guys again in South Africa.