Day 15: Etosha NP

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Although we stayed within Etosha Park today, we are still moving campsites, so it was still an early morning. We planned to be out of the campsite when the gates opened so we could be the first truck out. Today was also Brendon's birthday, so we had two reasons to celebrate. It was extremely hot today, and being in the truck was not the best way to spend the day, but we did see some amazing things. We had a herd of elephants cross the road about 10m from us, saw lots of springbok and zebra, and best of all, we saw a lion stalk and kill a springbok!!! It was really special to be able to see that. We sat watching a pride of lions for a little while before they started to move on a bit. We followed them to a waterhole where springbok, zebras and wildebeest were all drinking. Interestingly each group of animals took turns drinking from the waterhole, it was as if they had a pre-arranged pecking order that they must adhere to. Anyway, as we were watching the animals go to the waterhole, we noticed a lion slowly approaching the others. Before we knew it, all hell broke loose, the lion came bouding out of the overgrowth and pounced on a springbok. All the other animals bolted for a bit, then came back to drink after the lion had dragged the springbok away from the waterhole. It was all over within a minute.

For lunch we went to a really nice campsite (where we were not staying, unfortunately), but we did indulge in an ice cream (or two) from the convenience store. It was so hot over lunch it became unbearable even to walk to the food table to get your food. After lunch, everyone was so full and hot, pretty much everyone slept on the next half of our game drive. I think Hettie said two people were awake when she looked around. Whoever those two were, well done (it definitely wasn't me)

After we arrived at camp, I decided to do a bit of washing, just to see me through to wherever our next chance to do washing was, I think it is still a few days away though. Damn. After dinner a few of us went to the bar to celebrate Brendon's birthday, as if we needed an excuse. I should point out that though we do go to the bar every night, we don't really go to drink too much. It's just a place that has electricity and is undercover that is more comfortable to sit around than our own camp. Tonight however, we did drink a bit. We asked the barman what spirits he had, so he pulled out 3 different types of whisky. When we pressed him, he finally decided he had some amarula lying around, and some teqila too. We were sorted for the night. By the end of the night he legitimately didn't have any amarula left, or any ciders either. Unfortunately I spilled half of the amarula I was meant to drink on my shorts because it seemed like every time I had a full glass, Kim would tell a ripper joke, so I'd laugh and spill it. We managed to stumble back to our tents some time after midnight I guess and get to sleep. Luckily for me, Riccardo is also usually at the bar, so I don't have to try and sneak into the tent. Some others don't have it so lucky.

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Photos

lion kill
up in the top right you can just see something sticking out of the grass, it is the lion jumping on the springbok