Etosha

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From the packs of little baby mongoose and their mothers that ran around camp looking for food to working out by the waterhole before the afternoon game drive, doing leg lifts with curious zebra and oryx watching. Whispering around the waterhole at night while watching shy black rhino though binoculars, wishing my eyesight was better, Etorsha, the white dust.

My eyes may never be the same with all that dust in my contacts. This is the place we first saw lion, elephant and giraffe. I helped track my first lion (by following paw prints in the dust on the road from the truck window - really not as adventurous as it sounds). Here we played billiards at the bar and you could hear the cheers of soccer (football) fans 300 yards away back at camp as the first playoffs for the World Cup were shown on the bush bar TV. We found out just how bad Namibian TV really is and why everyone is a sports fan. Here is where Celine and I discovered that everything is bigger in Africa or at least so they say. We discovered the mysteries of the African night snake and we laughed all night long until both of us almost threw up the next morning. I laugh now just thinking of it. That may have been the funniest 9 hours of my life. We didn’t stop laughing until the end of the trip. We finally got all the way in the frigid camp pool. And this is where we finally parted company with old Uncle Ernie.

Hope you enjoy the photos. Please flip all the way through to the end as I saved the best for last with a great series of lion photos.

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Photos

legs
Sometimes the view from inside the truck is more interesting than the view outside.

Mates
We were incredibly lucky to come across this male lion and his mate lying right next to the road. He gave a few growls and then a mock charge and then settled down. About 5 mins later the female got restless and they got up and walked off towards the water. There is no explanation to the surge of adrenaline you get when you hear the low rumbling of a big cat like that. Your body immediately reacts and something very primal takes over. It's very cool (from a truck!)

Baby Zebra
We arrived in Etorsha just in time to see all the baby zebras. David said they were between 1 to 2 weeks. Very cute!

Etorsha traffic
We must have sat here for over 10 minutes as a huge herd of zebras crossed the road.

Lion cub with oryx skull
Late in the afternoon we came across this cub playing with an oryx skull. The legs of the oryx where still in the road. a large tour bus came and drove over the legs. The terrible sound of crushing bone. The driver didn't know what it was and backed over it, only to drive over it several more times. It was nasty!

Great lion hunter on the prowl
Tim in hunting mode

Springbok
The national symbol of South Africa.

Zebra behinds
Zebra love to show you their backside.