We have arrived in AFRICA!!!

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We have arrived in AFRICA!!!!



Still on a high from our afternoon of feeding cheetahs, we all woke up ready to hit the road bound for Etosha national park. We had a pit stop in a town called Outjo for internet and supply shopping which was followed by a short drive on SEALED road to the park. Etosha is the largest wildlife park in Africa and is located around a large salt pan. I’m not going to pretend like my expectations were low, I was picturing plains filled with elephants, giraffes and rhinos roaming around all together so when we began our game drive and the first thing to see was more frigging springbok anxiety kicked in. We were very soon rewarded though with herds of zebras and wilderbeast at the first water hole and some giraffes very soon after. It was at this point that I did the Worthington name proud. A quick lesson for all of you out there, the big 5 consists of: Rhino, Elephant, Water Buffalo, Lion and Leopard -- the giraffe is NOT a part of this group contrary to what a certain Zimbabwe born blogger will tell you. So my background at this point has not helped me one little bit and I felt it was time to stop being a know - it - all and start listening to our guide again. As we made our way to our campsite we stopped off at each campground along the way and excitement was certainly high as we saw an elephant, giraffes, zebra and springbok enjoying an afternoon drink together. Lions were also on the list of sunbaking animals presented to us which we were told made us very lucky. At the end of day 1 in the park we had seen 2 of the big 4 (water buffalo are not in Etosha) and had a lit waterhole to view at night. If I hadn’t decided this was the perfect moment in the tour to trip and rip open my toe it would have been a perfect day.



Day 2 in Etosha was welcomed with an early morning hobble, on my behalf, to see if any animals felt a 6am thirst at the waterhole. As this was unsuccessful we drove out for a morning game drive on the way to our next camp site. Sadly, the morning didn’t provide us with too many new sighting excepting a far off male lion watching over his lioness’ and a Rhino having a mid morning feed. Every campsite in Etosha has lit waterholes for the evenings but even during our downtime these viewing areas provided a peaceful spot to watch the African wild do their thing, so this is where I spent most of the day although not much wildlife came by. In the afternoon we headed out for another short drive to see if we could see complete the big 4 list, however the amount of impala, springbok and giraffe’s suggested that the leopards were waiting in the shadows of the thick bushland. We did have the pleasure of seeing a rhino carcass being devoured by some scavenging vultures for their afternoon tea. By the end of the day, the lack of sleep and constant pain had got the better of me and just as I was going to hide in my tent one of the girls came running up to report an elephant sighting at the waterhole. We spent our final night in Etosha watching a large male elephant feeding on the copious amounts of water reeds available which was pretty spectacular.

My words don’t do any justice so I will put up a few favourite sightings from the last two days.

Stay tuned for the Okavango Delta canoeing -- if we survive! Megan’s pretty sure we won’t!!!

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