Advertisement
Published: October 17th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Lioness on the road at Etosha
If only all game spotting was this easy 29 Sep - we drive through the Damaraland region today stopping off at Twelyfontein to look at Bushman rock engravings and a petrified fossil forrest....Yaaaaawnnnn. Sooooo boring, such a come down from yesterday's adrenalin rush. Great rock in the area just wish I could climb it rather than walking round it, lol.
It's Team B's day off from duties so we head to the campsite bar for an early start on the Savannah ciders 😊 Later that evening the staff perform traditional Namibian song and dance for us including some audience participation, go Bruno go!!! Head back to the campfire with the intention of going to bed but Ulf has appeared with a bottle of vodka so Jason (the English surfer dude) and Jason (Canadian juggling dude) and I keep him company...an extremely drunken night follows resulting in Ulf entertaining us by first of all falling off his chair...while still sleeping...then sleep walking to a bush which he's determined is our tent and attempting to unzip it...honestly, you had to be there, hilarious! The guys help me get Ulf back to the tent while I finish the vodka. Ding Dong has to wake us in the morning as both in
an unconscious state...think I might have proved I'm not a morning person when I bite his head off, lol.
30 Sep - we arrive at Etosha National Park today, one of the best places to view game in Southern Africa. It certainly lives up to its expectation...within 10 mins of entering the park we spot zebra, elephant, giraffe and lions, totally AMAZING. We've not even started the official game drive yet, we're just driving to the campsite! We have two nights here, the first at Okavkvejo...this is an insite into how those with money 'do Africa' rather than the back to basics of the overlanders like us! Posh chalets, restaurant, swimming pool, shops and floodlit watering hole. Wateringholes are great to visit at dusk and dawn when animals congregate to bathe / drink. We see giraffe and guineafowl...it's the strangest site watching a huge giraffe perform the splits so that it can duck down to the water and drink...it then seems to stand up again in one fluid movement, bizarre but fascinating! I have an early night following the vodka shenanigans of the previous night while the jackals prowl through the campsite and rake through the bins.
1
Giraffes at Etosha
Dusk at the watering hole Oct - another day driving through Etosha. We come across lions in the middle of the road, they just don't seem to be bothered by the vehicles. However, you MUST NOT get out of your vehicle, otherwise it's feeding time for the lions. We see more giraffe, zebra and ostrich. We stop at the Etosha Pan desert - a bleak place in the middle of nowhere which is 130km long and 50km wide in some places. Think it was another early night...getting a bit hazy, days pass before I write up my diary sometimes and I can't remember what we did!
2 Oct - drive to Windhoek, capital of Namibia. Supposed to be a long drive but Priscilla makes really good time so we have a few hours for laundy, internet and shopping at the nearby mall. Instead of doing laundry I just buy a new top to wear that night, lol...old habits die hard 😉 It's time to say goodbye to some of the guys and welcome new people to the group. We head out to dinner - v tasty meal of line fish, prawns, mashed potatoes & cheese sauce and 3 bottles of wine between Jason, Ding
Dong and new guy James. Between us I think we manage to scare James into wandering what kinda group he's joining with lots of stories of the trip so far, lol. Despite the stories, he eventually ends up being my new tent buddy!!!! A double kahlua for desert then some of us head to a dodgy karaoke bar. Far too many Windhoek lagers and Jagermeister results in a bizarre night of karaoke (all of us on stage singing Bohemian Rhapsody...badly!), me chatting to a cute-ish local, before Ulf steps in...being protective about 'his burd'....presumably. It all gets a bit hazy after that / not for discussion on the blog, lol. As this is the start and end of a part of the trip we're staying in a hotel tonight. However, yet again, Ding Dong has to wake Ulf and I in the morning....resulting in me being narky yet again, oh dear!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.177s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0833s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb