Do I hear you ask, “Did you see any wildlife?” The answer of course “is did we just”!! The list is almost endless of animals as well as birds and I’m not really sure how best to show you although one thing is for sure I cannot transmit over 1200 photos!! So I will choose some of the very best together with one or two interesting facts about each animal.
The technically minded amongst you will also know that the each camera shot creates a big data file. If I tried to transmit these files it would take forever so I have to heavily ‘crop’ the pictures. Where I can do this without totally destroying the picture I will do so but where I can’t then I will use another method which may lead to a little distortion but at least you will get a better impression of the subject in its natural habitat.
OK so how did the Game Drives work? Well having recovered from the jaw dropping gasps of amazement at our first sight of the waterhole at the Fort we were given lunch and an hour to freshen up before boarding a ‘4x4’ (see the picture) with our trusty and truly wonderful ranger Justin – picture in another posting and set off for our first drive through the Etosha National Park. This in itself involved 13 km drive back to the Onguma Game Reserve main entrance and to the eastern gate of the Park. From the Gate to the Rest Camp at Namutoni was another 8 Km with some exciting encounters with what must be the most stupid bird in the world – guinea fowl – on the way!! They were every where but instead of running off the road they insisted on running in front of the vehicle and then at the very last moment explode into flight cackling all the time!! I tell you it was like the film ‘Chicken Run’ all over again.
Once in the Park we would drive to the various waterholes and rarely were we unlucky in fact over the 4 days even the hotel staff said that we were incredibly lucky to see all that we did.
The rainy season had already begun but so far the rains had been light so the animals were still congregating at the waterholes – most of which were natural but some man-made using solar power to pump water into reservoirs.
I promised I would explain the term ‘big five’. Contrary to what you might expect this is not about the size of the animal – e.g. elephant, hippo – but the difficulty of hunting such beasts on foot. The Big Five therefore vary from park-to-park and game reserve to game reserve but for Etosha and Onguma that means: elephant, lion, leopard, cheetah and rhinoceros – black and white. At one time or the other we saw all except the leopard although if we had gone on a night drive as other guests at the Fort did then we would have seen one – but no photos of course.
Apart from the first evening we went on drives through the Etosha Park every morning – each drive lasting 4 – 5 hours and covered probably best part of 100 miles on each occasion moving between the waterholes or responding to radio calls from other rangers as they spotted lions, rhino or elephant. Just recall that the park is 22,000 sq.km. so it is quite possible to drive for 5 hours and see nothing – but we did on every single day!
After lunch on each day and a much-needed siesta we left again at 4.30pm for a 4-hour drive in the Onguma Game Reserve that has a specialist interest in black rhino.
So sit back for the next few postings and enjoy the visual game drive!!
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