Spitzkoppe and Etosha

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Hi
We managed to get on the internet quickly before we go back into the wilderness for the next week.

So after Swakopmund we travelled to Spitzkoppe via the Cape Cross Seal Colony where there is around 60,000 seals and it smells a tad to say the least! There were lots of babies though which were quite cute and a few jackals lurking to welcome the baby seals into the world!

Spitzkoppe is stunning - its a massive rock formation and on the approach we went up on the roof seats on top of Helena and the view was phenomenol!! Because its rainy season a few issues getting the truck up to the bush camp - Jimmy and some of the locals had to spend 2 hours digging her out of the mud. We climbed up onto the rocks and found a natural pool which overlooked all the rocks where we went for a swim as it was scorching and then had a camp fire. Some of the locals who had helped us earlier came back up that evening and did some traditional dances for us in the animal skins and got us to participate in one of their local drinking games 'Buffalo'. Needless to say I was terrible at it and we both had to drink some of the local beer as penance which tasted like brown sugar. That night when i got up to go to the toilet i unzipped the tent and as i shone my headtorch doen to the floor there were a pair of reflective green eyes watching me from the rock - I nearly had a heart attack - as did Rob as i jumped back into the tent on top of him at about 100 mph. Needless to say I held it - turns out it was only a jackal!

From here we went onto Etosha for the first of the official game drives - WOW!
It started off pretty slowly due to it being rainy season and so the game were a bit sparse but then we headed North into the park where Jimmy had read the animals normally go this time of year an it was amazing.
We saw Lion's, Hyena, Zebra, about a hundred Girrafe's, impala, kudu, Springbok, Black Rhino, Jackals, Wathogs and loads more stuff. We saw an amazing water hole where all the animals were together and took it in turns to go and drink in groups it was fascinating to say. Back at the camp's we also had a water hole that was floodlit and so we spent the nights sat with a bottle of wine looking out.

Last night we saw wilderbeast and a herd of Zebra - while i nipped to the toilet the others also saw Springbok with a Lion attached to it's ass trying to eat it ! - Doh!

We are in Grootfontein now and are going to see the San Buschman this afternoon, then onto a community project in Rundu where we get to visit the schools and there is some traditional dancing around the fire. After that it's off to the Okavango Delta and then Chobe for some more game drives - hopefully we should get on the net in Chobe - if not it will be just over another week

Love
Nikki and Rob xx

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