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Published: February 5th 2007
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Etosha Pan, Etosha National Park, Namibia Had baked beans on toast for breakfast on Tuesday, then drove to Etosha National Park. Stopped for a few hours at a campground & used their swimming pool during the heat of the day. Checked out their fort & water hole, which was devoid of any animal life, before departing on a game drive. I jumped in the truck cab with Romy driving, which was super fun & luckily there wasn't much wild life around because we spent most of the time gasbagging. Drove onto our campground in Halali, set up tents, had a swim & a beer before dinner which was pasta with olives & anchovies. Was supposed to take a walk down to the watering hole to check out the animals, but was shattered from all the heat so crashed out.
Up at the crack of dawn again on Wednesday for breakfast duty. Made porridge, which I found the idea of totally disgusting, but from all reports apparently tasted pretty good. Left around 6:30am & did another game drive to our new home for two nights, Oaukukejo.
Became distracted en route to the pool by the bar & finished up drinking with Rach & Blair for
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Nicolle at Etosha Pan, Etosha National Park, Namibia the next four hours. Was so preoccupied having fun, I completely forgot about my cooking duties & turned up when all the work was done. Felt terrible & offered to do the washing up so the others could get down to the watering hole early. Meant to go down too, but got waylaid winning my bet with Blair about the Southern Cross & spent the evening stargazing.
I reneged on Thursdays early morning game drive in favour of a sleep in, which turned out to be a good thing because they didn't see anything. Spent the day writing my journal at the waterhole, catching up on emails & swimming. We had an afternoon downpour, the first rains in the area for months. I made it into the tent just in time & sat there watching others chase tents around the campsite. What made the whole thing so funny was people standing outside their tents, holding them down so they wouldn't blow away. I kept yelling out to sit inside & stay dry, but the wind must have been too loud to hear me because they didn't move. Meanwhile, I stayed nice & dry, taking photos of them all
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Nicolle at Etosha Pan, Etosha National Park, Namibia standing in the rain like drenched rats.
Romy made her much anticipated lasagne, which was delicious & well worth the wait. I was quite tired after dinner & decided to nap for an hour before heading down to the waterhole. When the alarm woke me up, it had started raining so I just went back to sleep.
Departed campsite at seven & did a game drive on the way out of Etosha National Park. Hadn't seen alot until we got to the last water hole, which was filled with wild life. There was a massive heard of around thirty elephants, including three young babies about a month old.
Stopped in Outjo to do some shopping, then continued on to Cheetah Park. It was so hot we all immediately piled into the pool, then it poured with rain, threatening to cancel our cheetah feeding session. Fortunately the rains stopped & we all cramed into the back of a ute with a bin full of donkey parts. Because the ground was still soft & wet, the driver drove quickly to avoid getting bogged. I think he was showing off a bit & going too fast, because the tyres
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Nicolle at Etosha Pan, Etosha National Park, Namibia dug in when we rounded a corner & we got stuck. The cheetahs surrounded the truck, so it appeared to be a good time to feed them; either that or wait for them to jump us. There was about thirteen animals in total & once they had their piece of meat, they bolted off into the scrub. It was all over in a few minutes & we started back to the campsite.
The owners had a surprise for us all on the way back. They'd recently aquired a Leopard, which was in a small run to get him used to being in captivity. He obviously didn't enjoy this lack of freedom & was just running back & forth growling at us all lined up along the outside of the fence watching him. Back at camp I hit the bar & spent the evening playing pool over a few beers.
Visited with the Parks tame Cheetahs on the way out Saturday morning. I wasn't really scared like with the lions though. Probably because you knew these guys were tame & could make them purr like a pussy cat with a scratch under the chin!
Took a side
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Rach, Robert & Romy at Etosha Pan, Etosha National Park, Namibia trip to see the Bushmen rock paintings in Kamajab, which were pretty average. It may have been more interesting if we'd had a guide, but on our own it was a bit pointless as most of the images were indecipherable.
Drove on for the afternoon & had our first 'proper' bush camp, just off the 'main' dirt road. Apparently it is illegal to bush camp in Namibia & we could have been fined US$1000-, which is why we didn't pull over & set up until after 6pm. Robert opened the truck bonnet so if any authorities came along, we could claim we'd broken down & were waiting for parts.
After dinner we had a bit of a quiz based around our time in Africa. My team tied for top spot but were robbed of victory in a sudden death playoff when asked to name two of Kenyas three presidents. Lucky for the other team Phil knew the answer, but I was pushing for a recount of the main round because I was convinced there was a point somewhere that could have been added to our score or subtracted from theirs to change the result. I don't like losing
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Nicolle at Sunrise, Etosha National Park, Namibia when it's that close & the other team sure gave us a ribbing when the prizes were handed out; nevermind, there's always next time...
Woke up for an early exit from bushcamp on Sunday morning. We'd had a couple of scorpion visitors at the truck during the quiz session last night & the thought of them trying to share my sleeping bag was offputting. Romy assured us they were merely attracted to the light & nobody had any run ins overnight so she must have been right.
Stopped off at a smelly seal colony along the way & arrived into Swokopmund mid afternoon. Went straight to the airfield to watch another promotional video about all the activities available to us during our stay. Most people booked in for sandboarding & quad biking through the sandhills & about a half dozen also decided to skydive. Originally I was going to skydive, but it actually worked out to be more expensive than at home. I will probably go along to the drop zone to watch everybody though & may well change my mind on the day.
Booked into our accommodation, which is very nice & rested for a
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Sunrise at Etosha National Park, Namibia few hours before going out for a group dinner at Neopolitanas. This restaurant is famous for it's ribs, they do 1kg & 2kg servings! I settled on Springbok steak, which was possibly the best steak I've eaten ever, whilst a few of the group had rib eating contests; very funny. Robert & Romy bought us all a shot of Grappa, which tasted disgusting & we headed back to the backpackers & spent the rest of the night drinking & playing pool.
Up fairly early on Monday morning to be collected for Sandboarding. I was feeling a bit seedy from all the beer I drank last night, but started sweating out all the alcohol after climbing the sandhills a few times & began feeling better. My group did both stand up & lay down sandboarding, which was heaps of fun, but the amount of effort to get up the sand dune versus the time it took to get down was very disproportionate & I'd had enough after about four or five runs. It would have been nice if there was a lift to drag us back up, but concern for the environment blah, blah, blah, means it isn't possible.
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Sunrise at Etosha National Park, Namibia Spent the afternoon watching the skydivers & was tempted to go, but didn't. There was a tense moment when we watched Alex's divemaster cut away their shute & pull the reserve. Apparently the original hadn't deployed correctly, so she got two freefalls instead of only one. It was amazing to watch afterwards on the video because the divemaster had the camera attached to his wrist, so you could see exactly what he did to cut free. I don't think she was really aware of exactly what happened until after it had happened, which was good because if it were me I'd be freaking out...
Had a couple of drinks at Fagins pub & watched the sandboarding video, then grabbed KFC takeaway for dinner & fell asleep watching Hotel Rwanda on television; a nice quiet night.
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