Patti: Amy and I have been analyzing our last couple of days and are both feeling very fortunate that we had such amazing animal viewing and scenery when we were in Kruger Park a couple of weeks ago. Being in Etosha Park in Namibia was very different. The landscape was very flat and dry so there was lots of sameness (Amy described it as a gravel pit with the occasional tree). We spent a day and a half driving through the park in our safari truck and did see quite a few animals, despite it being so barren. It really is amazing that so much life can be supported in this area. We saw lots of zebra and antelope; a few giraffe, black rhinos, elephants, lions, oryx, and ostriches (along with their very cute young ones). Our most amazing sighting was the male lion that crossed right in front of our vehicle. We got some pretty good photos (have a look!). We also really enjoyed that our campsite had a flood lit watering hole so you could actually see animals at night when they came for a drink. We saw most of the same animals here that we saw on the game drives, but it seemed better because we weren’t in the truck and the animals were really quite close with only a short stone fence providing separation. The other difference between our experience in Kruger and Etoshia was that we were driving ourselves in Kruger so we could stop when we wanted, watch the animals for as long or short as we wanted, and had some pretty intimate moments with the animals when it was just Amy and I with them. With the safari truck, there were 22 people scrambling to get the best photo and there wasn’t a moment of silence to just “be” with animals.
Before getting to Etosha we had one night in a bushcamp (what our guides use to describe the times when we set up our tents in the middle of nowhere). The spot they chose was actually quite beautiful and very much reminded Amy and I of the red rocks in Utah that we are so familiar with. On the drive that day, we had a brief stop at the Cape Cross seal colony on the Atlantic Coast. It is this time of year that the pups are born, which was initially very exciting for me when I heard this but ended up being very upsetting. Only 27% of the young actually survive and we saw the evidence of this with many tiny black carcasses just lying on the beach and many other young obviously on their way to dying. It seems that the little ones simply wander away from their moms and can’t find their way back; nor do the moms come looking for them. There were thousands of seals and it was extremely noisy so it’s no wonder they can’t find each other. So they simply die from starvation. It was very sad to see.
We are over half way through the safari and still have a number of things to look forward to; the Okavango Delta, another game park, and Livingstone to see Victoria Falls. We are still undecided as to weather we will white water raft when we get to Livingstone. From what we’ve heard, it is very scary with several class 5 rapids so we will wait to see what the water level is like.
Hope all is well with everyone as the holiday season approaches.
