The lions of Etosha

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Greeting from Botswana, we are sat in a airport waiting for our flight into the Delta

here is our Etosha blog

Like Kevin Myers’ life long dream of climbing killamjaro, Adam to has a long standing ambition. Ever since his dad bought him the video “The lions of Etosha” when he was 10 years old he has always wanted to visit this unique place, lets hope it will be worth the wait, as we all know that was a long time ago…

We drove to Etosha from Palmwag 350 km, the first 200 km were bump after bump, we hit tar road for the last 150km, whoever thought that a smooth road surface would feel like such a luxury!

We spent the fist two nights camping at Okaukuejo, and the next two nights at Halali which both had swimming pools again another luxury. I don’t think we have mentioned yet Africa is no longer cold it is sooooooo hot, and has been since we hit Brandberg, so the sunhats are definitely out! It is still a little cooler at night and up until about 10 in the morning so that gives you a little break from the heat.

We did a game drive when we first got to Etosha and finally saw an elephant along with lots of zebra, springbok, giraffe and wilderbeast. We then sat by the watering hole at the camp and saw lots more elephants and a family of giraffe and two white rhinos, so off to good start with the game spotting. Spent the next day by the watering hole again and I have never seen as many animals in my life, there must have been at least 500 animals there at one point, a mixture of different antelope, zebra and elephant. So by the second day had seen everything apart from the big cats, so that was our mission to find them over the last two days, so Adam did not leave disappointed. Day three 1 unclear sighting of a leopard at the watering hole at night after sitting there for 4 hours! Other highlights were a big family of elephants playing in the water, water hogs and hyeanas. Day four had to be the day we saw big cats but still nothing, do the lions of Etosha exist??

Given up all hope of seeing the big cats on our way out of the park when there were two female lions right on the side of the road, so shocked a bit delayed with the camera (which was put away in the bag, as had given up hope of seeing them, oops!, needless to say I was not the most popular person) A little into the distance you saw the male, he was huge with a beautiful mane. So maybe the lions of Etosha do exist. Then we saw another pride with cubs, so it is basically pot luck as to whether you see them or not, the scary thing is that they are so well camouflaged, you do not see them unless they walk across the road even at only 50m away they were impossible to see if one did not stand up.

Adam Finally got to see the lions that he had been waiting for (300 miles clocked up of game driving in the park, it is a huge place with a salt pan at one end that is so vast it stretches beyond the horizon)

Next stop the Caprivi strip on the Angolan border on route to Botswana where the off-road driving and the wilderness really begin!!

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Comments

[sarah]

stunning photos, glad your both ok really wish i was there but am not obviously!!!

[Kevin]

Life time ambition
Killamjaro still remains the dream! Not a day passes when I havent thought about climbing those rugged slopes. A life times ambition which began around last summer sat with you guys in a pub in Headingly... Carry on camping it up Ads, you look a natural!

[AdamandLouise]

Hello Mate You keep that dream alive it will happen one day (but only when it costs less than 200quid) you must be bored at work if you are reading my blog!!!!

[Jake Koopman]

Your photo's
Loving the beautiful photographs, especially the lone zebra, well done. Just so you know, the rhino's pictured are black rhino's not white, so a better spot than you thought? Won't get to see many of those in your lifetimes.