I can’t believe it is June already! Where has the time gone? We spent our first day in Etosha in the eastern part of the park. The west is open only for tour operators and our camp is in the middle of the public part. Unlike Kruger in April where the animals were apt to be anywhere because of the abundant water, in Etosha in June one heads for the waterholes and waits. Etosha means 'great white place of dry water' and our camp is just south of thedry Etosha Pan.
Our first stop was a place reputed to have both leopards and eland. We found zebras. The next stop did have eland, the largest of the antelope. We later saw the dog-size dik-dik, the smallest antelope. At the one waterhole we saw kudu, springbok, back-faced impala, zebra, giraffe, wildebeest, warthogs, and gemsbok.
Later in the day we saw cape vultures, and lappet-faced vultures, flamingos, Egyptian geese, red-knobbed coots, a herd of 13 giraffes, a pair of elephants, and numerous zebra but no cheetahs or leopards. So before dinner we went to our lighted waterhole to see who showed up. At first it’s like watching an empty stage. Then an actor or two enters, struts around and suddenly disappears. This happens throughout the show. Tonight we watched a kudu cow cautiously take ten minutes to cover 20 yards to the water. When three spotted hyenas entered stage left and kudu vanished. Altogether, eight hyenas showed up and just as quickly disappeared. We were about to abandon our vigil when an elephant appeared from the darkness, sauntered to the water, noisily drank his fill and departed stage left. Such is night in Etosha.
