Etosha Game Park

Namibia, Africa
Location Map Namibia has one of the great African game parks. This was the highlight of our trip to Namibia in July/August 2001.
1: Location Map
 Gateway to Etosha We expected dozens of others to be queued up at 6.30 in the morning. We actually only saw around 20 other cars during our 11 hours in the park!
2: Gateway to Etosha
 Etosha Map From Namutoni to Okaukuejo for lunch and back for the 5.30pm closing deadline. We stopped at random waterholes along the way hoping to see everything - and we did!
3: Etosha Map
 Namutoni An old German site, Namutoni now serves as one of 3 tourist camps in Etosha. We were staying just outside - the park entry fees were only $A36 for the 4 of us!
4: Namutoni
Namutoni Camp Our hire car and camp buildings.
5: Namutoni Camp
 The Road In Etosha was flat, dry and dusty - being a salt pan meant much of the landscape was white. We had good views from the car so spotting animals was easy with eight eyes working hard.
6: The Road In
 First Waterhole Etosha has dozens of waterholes and at this time of year many were dry. We picked the waterholes randomly, hoping to see lots of wildlife.
7: First Waterhole
 Lions Dining A pride of lions finishing a week-long feast on an elephant that died of natural causes. You can just make out a tusk and some of the remaining skin and bones.
8: Lions Dining
Stalking 1 One of the lions decided it was still hungry, spotted a lone wildebeest on the other side of the waterhole and began to stalk it.
9: Stalking 1
 Unexpected Visitor As we focused on the lion, an elephant sauntered out of the bush. Heading for the waterhole, it was oblivious to the drama before exiting stage left.
10: Unexpected Visitor
 Stalking 2 Some zebras grazed closer and closer to the lion before seeing it and taking flight. In the end the lion was too full to give chase and the wildebeest lived another day.
11: Stalking 2
 Scavengers Hyenas were circling around waiting for scraps from the elephant carcass.
12: Scavengers
Wildebeest A magnificantly strong looking animal but not the prettiest. It was covered in salt from the pan.
13: Wildebeest
 Zebra Crossing A herd of zebras ran across the road in front of us and then along side us. It was wonderful to be visitors in their world.
14: Zebra Crossing
 Giraffe Through the tall scrub we saw a long neck with a small head atop. It was quite unexpected since we were looking at ground level for shorter animals.
15: Giraffe
 Springbok This loner casually stood in front of the car for well over 5 minutes before ambling away. One of the more delicate and beautifully marked of all the animals we saw that day.
16: Springbok
Bustard This is a Kori Bustard - as best we could identify from our guide book. There were birds everywhere but it was difficult to get good photos from the car.
17: Bustard
 Loo Stop! One of the 2 occasions we got out of our car in 11 hours - the loo was in a fenced compound. An inquisitive giraffe watched us from outside and we felt a little self-conscious!
18: Loo Stop!
 Zebras A herd of zebras on the edge of the salt pan - all animals we saw looked very healthy. Lots of grass everywhere and still enough working waterholes to keep everyone happy.
19: Zebras
 Etosha Pan Like white ocean as far as the eye could see - this shot is looking back to 'land' from 'offshore'. It's daunting driving into/onto the unknown - we just hoped it really was the dry season!
20: Etosha Pan
Ostrich Male ostriches are black... and very large. Another reason to stay in the car because suddenly it was just there! Seemed a bit like Jurassic Park.
21: Ostrich
 Giraffe Crossing We turned a corner and 5 or 6 giraffes were just dawdling across the road. You don't want to travel too fast in Etosha!
22: Giraffe Crossing
 Springbok And yet another beautiful springbok was spotted.
23: Springbok
 Zebra Another large herd of zebras was grazing along side the road, unconcerned about us. It meant we were able to get some more great photos.
24: Zebra
Young Zebra There were lots of youngsters among the group.
25: Young Zebra
 Hartebeest Our only sighting of red hartebeest - it was a rush for the guide book to identify them!
26: Hartebeest
 Oryx Also known as the Gemsbok, this is my favourite of all the animals we saw in Etosha. With beautiful markings and symmetry, it is powerful yet graceful.
27: Oryx
 Wildebeest Not quite so beautiful or graceful as the oryx, the wildebeest still grabbed our attention.
28: Wildebeest
Lone tree At last... a large tree near a waterhole with the salt pan behind. Zebras and springbok mingle together.
29: Lone tree
 Waterhole One of the few waterholes we came across with openly visible water. Not quite our flavour so we stuck to bottled.
30: Waterhole
 Jackal A black-backed jackal - looks friendly enough but I wouldn't attempt to pat one.
31: Jackal
 Okaukuejo Camp Time for a well-earned lunch break after 6½ hours in the car except for our loo break. This old fort also serves as a tourist camp: the Namibian flag is flying.
32: Okaukuejo Camp
Etosha Vista The view from the Okaukuejo tower back towards Namutoni. Gives a good idea of the landscape in all directions for many miles around.
33: Etosha Vista
 Luxury! In contrast to Namutoni this resort is much more up-market. We didn't swim but enjoyed the surrounds for ¾ hr before heading back to Namutoni.
34: Luxury!
 Impalas At our first waterhole after lunch we met these black-faced impalas - these would do well in any beauty contest...
35: Impalas
 Warthog ...and this would win in the ugly stakes. It was great to see one but it was a bit of a shock after the beauty of the impalas.
36: Warthog
Black Rhino 1 And out of no where, while we were watching the warthog, came this delight. We were rather excited to see one of the 'Big Five' of Africa.
37: Black Rhino 1
 Black Rhino 2 It was not in a hurry so we had plenty of time to enjoy while other animals wandered by. There was plenty of water but little obvious vegetation on the rocky ground.
38: Black Rhino 2
 Kudu A large male Kudu with its unique markings and very large spiral horns. Females are much smaller and they have only small horns.
39: Kudu
 A Mystery!! How many legs can you count?? And who owns them?
40: A Mystery!!
Elephants! You got it!! A herd of elephants - large and small (look closely). It was mid-afternoon and we had almost given up hope of seeing these African icons.
41: Elephants!
 Elephant Straws Elephants sharing a waterhole like humans sharing a milkshake with straws!
42: Elephant Straws
 Play Time Trunks serve many purposes - fortunately they are not quite long enough to tie into knots.
43: Play Time
 Animal Mix Male (large) and female (small) kudus and oryx mixing it with jumbo. All were getting on famously.
44: Animal Mix
Mother & Child It was a pretty warm day so why not use mum as an umbrella?
45: Mother & Child
 Time To Go And so the herd started to drift away - slowly so bubs could keep up and we could enjoy the spectacle for as long as possible.
46: Time To Go
 Mongoose 1 They are quite small so we were lucky to spot this Yellow Mongoose as we drove slowly away from the elephants.
47: Mongoose 1
 Mongoose 2 We stopped... it stopped... and we all stared. Yet another great photo opportunity!
48: Mongoose 2
Something BIG!! With a long way still to go we put on a burst of speed. We hit the breaks when our chief poo spotter said 'its very fresh - STOP!!'
49: Something BIG!!
 A Jumbo Jumbo! Around the corner jumbo was zig-zagging it's way along the road. We had a delightful but worrisome 5 minutes until it zagged off into the scrub.
50: A Jumbo Jumbo!
 Black Rhinos After dashing for the exit we had 10 minutes to spare for one last waterhole. What a way to finish the day - 'Hey mum, what are those strange animals?'
51: Black Rhinos
 Oryx & Rhinos 'Forget them kid - they'll go away soon.' Dusk is a great time to view animals - a plus for those staying inside the park.
52: Oryx & Rhinos
Three Giraffes We nearly missed these three because they were toward the sun. What a photographer's gift!
53: Three Giraffes
 Get Ready... Looking pretty awkward, this giraffe decided to have a drink. It's not quite as easy for it to have a drink as it is for an elephant!
54: Get Ready...
 ...Go! Finally bent to the water, we are provided with a memorable scene. No high speed cameras needed for these shots - and I also had time for a video.
55: ...Go!
 Three Birds The final dash for the exit saw me begging (endlessly) for 'one last photo' of the bird life.
56: Three Birds
Silhouette 1 It was a great time to photograph birds as the sky turned a superb golden yellow. No idea what species this is...
57: Silhouette 1
 Silhouette 2 ...nor this one - but this photo is one of my all time favourites.
58: Silhouette 2
 The Road Out Three cars together and we only saw 20 all day! The giraffe was surely glad to be getting Etosha to itself again.
59: The Road Out
 Day's End The end of a perfect day - we saw everything we hoped for... and more! A day we will remember forever - you really must go there!!
60: Day's End