Etosha National Park

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After Swakopmund and a bush camp in the picturesque Spitzkoppe region, we entered Etosha National Park in northern Namibia. Our "campsite" turned out to be more of a holiday resort, a bit like Center Parcs, with no less than 3 swimming pools, which was a good idea since the weather had started to get really hot, especially during the day. The other great feature of the campsite is a water hole, which is floodlit during the night. Many animals come to the water hole throughout the day and is a great place to chill out for both humans and animal. There, I saw (black and white) rhinos, a group of elephants, and numerous giraffes, zebras, antelopes and jackals. We also went on game drives in our overland truck and managed to catch a pride of lions around another water hole; so now I have seen three of the "Big 5" (buffalo, lion, black rhino, leopard and elephant). There are no buffalos in Etosha but there are leopards, frustratingly though they managed to elude us on our game drives. Never mind, hopefully I get to catch them in other national parks that I'll visit (Chobe in Botswana and Kruger in South Africa).

I'm currently in Windhoek, capital of Namibia. The internet appear to be a bit slow so I'll upload the photos later. There doesn't appear to be much in this city, which only has a population of 500,000 (there're probably villages bigger than this in China). We're staying for one night and will head out to Botwana tomorrow. A few of our group are ending their tour here, so went to Joe's Beer House (one of Windhoek's best apparently) for dinner to see them off. I had a selection of ostrich, kudu, crocodile, zebra and chicken; I liked the zebra (very tender) but not the crocodile, which was a cross between chicken and fish, very weird.

In other news, there are thunderstorms in Windhoek. Namibia is one of the driest countries in the region, is suffering a long term draught and hasn't had rain since April; basically, the weather is very strange. So after Las Vegas, Cairo and Nice, looks like I've bought the rain to Namibia too!

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