Friday 1st February 2013 +2.00 hrs GMT: A Final Game Drive Round Fischer¹s

For our last game drive Justin took us back to the Etosha National Park and then North East this time around Fischer’s Pan – one of the smaller salt pans at the extreme eastern end of the Park.  So different flora and fauna with more open grassland and lots of birds.  I haven’t brought you any of the birds I photo’d because at the best of times they are in silhouette against bright skies but let me assure you that the species we spotted were many and varied.

It was fun however watching the warthog families trotting across the salt pan and surveying the grass at the edge for predators before Mum or Dad, tails straight up in the air, would lead usually 4 – 6 piglets into the lush grass for grazing.  The upright tail is to enable the piglets to follow their parents in the tall grass.  In fact have you ever wondered why lions, cheetahs and many of the antelope have a dark ‘pom-pom’ at the end of their tails or white rumps – well the answer is much the same as for the warthogs.

We took a final look at the greater and lesser flamingos in their thousands, and black Ibis and spoonbills on one of the large saline pools, before making for a final stop at the Rest Camp at Namutoni and as if to give us one last thrill, as we rounded the corner into the rest camp there was a huge bull elephant right on the side of the road waving its trunk at us!!