Advertisement
Published: December 3rd 2006
Edit Blog Post
After Twyfelfontein we drove towards Ethosha National Park. We were due to stay at the Eagle Tented Camp, in Epacha Game Reserve, but there had been a mix up with our booking and we had stay in the luxury Epacha Game Lodge - and even though it was not our fault we had to pay the difference. Epacha Game Lodge was lovely, if a little stuffy and pretentious particularly at dinner time! We stayed in one of the rooms in the Presidential Suite - it was HUGE. We had a great view across the small valley and up the hill on the other side. We had a big balcony with two rattan lounger chairs - so we could relax and recline whilst looking at the view! During our three day stay at Epacha, because we had some rain, the view became greener as the bushes and trees started to grow leaves. We used the pool and the Jacuzzi and of course the bar too! Epacha offered a number of excursions - some of which we booked to do. However the first one we were booked on was a morning walking tour on the game reserve, but the ranger didn’t collect us
and by the time the people at reception found out where the group were, it was almost half way through the walking tour… so we decided it was not worth going. We went back to our room and sat on the balcony and were a bit down, especially me because I had really wanted to do a walking tour or really a walking safari. While sitting on our balcony, feeling disappointed, when we looked out we could actually see the group walking around the track just below the lodge - it did not seem that exciting, and I think they were really only looking at the flora etc and not actually doing a safari-type walk. So we didn’t feel like we had missed out on much really! David suggested that to cheer ourselves up and to ‘do’ something we could drive ourselves to Etosha National Park. This turned out to be a GREAT idea! So we drove the 70k to Etosha and drove around - it was easy and great fun. We entered at Andersson Gate and drove to one of the reception areas - Okaukuejo to pay our entrance fees. We could please ourselves about where we went and
Giraffe family
They were very comfortable walking along the road in front of us how long we stayed etc - perfect. We went to Gaseb, Gemsbokulakte, Olifantsbad, Aus, Ondongab, Kapuphedi and Nebrowni waterholes. We saw elephants, a family of giraffe walking down the road in front of and alongside us, not eager to get out of the way - so we followed and watched them for ages, zebra, springbok, oryx, black faced impala, black backed jackals and ostrich. The roads were easy to drive along, and it was also easy to find our way around - we did have a map and the sign posts were easy to follow too! It was great - I loved it. We drove back to Okakeujo and bought some food and had a little lunch before driving back. Once back at Epacha we decided that the following day we would again drive ourselves to Etosha rather than go on one of their organized trips. We did do their evening game drive, which was fun - especially as it started to rain, and because it had rained earlier in the day and we got stuck in some mud! We saw more giraffe, topi which had been imported from South Africa (I had thought before when we had seen one
as we drove in when we had first arrived that this animal was a red hartebeest - but I was wrong!), oryx, kudu, and from a distance we saw some eland, huge antelopes that are pretty shy. The next day we drove again to Etosha, and because it had been raining we did not see so many animals as they had gone back into the bush and did not need the waterholes. The waterholes we visited on this drive included Adamax, Okondeka, Wolfsnes and Leeubron - this part of Etosha was very flat and barren. We did see a hyena which walked right behind our car, and drank from a pool of water, and er hem - peed in it too! I don’t remember seeing a hyena before, and was quite surprised about how big it was. We think it must have just been eating because it had a full stomach from what we could see! We also saw vultures and some giraffe, lots of springbok - a couple of which were fighting, or practicing, and had their horns locked together with their heads down and were pushing against each other. We also saw some ostrich, black faced impala, black
backed jackals, a few wildebeest. Usually in Kenya we have seen wildebeest in huge herds, but in Namibia we only ever saw maybe a max of about 10 in a group, or more often just a lone beast. We also saw a hoopoe bird in a tree, a pinky coloured bird with a crest (officially the description of a hoopoe is a cinnamon-brown upper parts, with black and white colouring on the wings and tail, and a prominent crest ) - I was excited to see it, but was too slow to get a picture with my camera - sorry! Some of the zebras we saw looked so sad that it was rainy, their heads were down, and their coats were all wet and ruffled rather than smooth. We did catch a glimpse of two lions just as we were driving in from the gate to Okaukeujo - probably only about 5km into the park - they were quite a way off, but we could see them through our binoculars. Their tails were really long and they seemed to be female or juvenile males, I did try to listen for some roaring, but couldn’t hear anything. We again bought some
lunch at Okaukeujo and I bought some postcards too - they had a great choice. We drove back to Epacha and enjoyed our last evening there, especially as the rain was clearing, and the skies were becoming blue again.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.102s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 19; qc: 74; dbt: 0.0678s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb