14th May: Off to Etosha

Up early today to pick up our camping equipment and start the drive to Okakuejo camp in Etosha. Well, first piece of luck was the upgrade we got to a larger car, because when we saw the size of the tent, fridge and everything else we'd arranged to hire we realise we wouldn't have been able to fit it in the smaller one! I sort of expected the modern, light weight, pack-away-small kind of gear...definitely not that! The tent was army style, canvas with a metal pole frame you slot together, bulky and VERY heavy. The woman assured us it was easy to put together. I was dubious...

The drive from Windhoek to Okakuejo is about 560 kms, not too bad really, but we needed to set off early in order to be there before sunset at about 5:15pm, as the national park gates close then. Early on we spotted our first african animal other than a dog! A little brown warthog, munching away on something on the side of the road. Surprisingly very cute things with their squat little bodies, short legs and big heads!

We got to the gates of Etosha well before sunset, and took our time getting to the campsite as we were told we'd probably start seeing interesting wildlife straight away. As we drove on and on we began to think we might be unlucky, when suddenly, out of nowhere, a huge giraffe appeared just next to the roadside! I have no idea how a huge giraffe manages to appear 'out of nowhere', it was quite a shock!

We got to our campsite with no further sightings, unrolled our tent and actually managed to get it set up relatively quickly, after some initial battle with some uncooperative poles while managing to conceal our confusion from neighbouring "real" campers.  We were extremely proud.

We earn a beer or two for this

Later that night we went to the waterhole at the campsite to hopefully spot some wildlife. Jane says: The waterhole is apparently a natural spring, but it's been somewhat disappointingly over-developed with fancy accommmodation along one side and seats up close on a paved area -  makes for fairly good game viewing but the way they've done it here makes it all seem a bit contrived and unnatural.  Anyway, on to the animals!  

(Jane)Saw jackals first up. cute and busy - reminded me of Hudson in his better days, trotting everywhere on a happy little mission!  We found after that they're actually everywhere though, all through the campsite (the apparently gated safe campsite), which was quite a shock at first but soon became a normal possum-like experience - just had to watch for leaving any food around.

 Then: giraffes nearby! Some in the horizon too, looking beautifully silhouetted, but they seemed ages away from the other ones.  Somehow, suddenly the horizon ones were much closer and then managed to join the foreground ones in no time - again the giraffes amazed us with their uncanny ability to cover a huge distance with a seeming total lack of effort and time, when you look away for just a second - but when you watch them they move painfully slowly or not at all!! A constant game of What's the Time Mr Wolf.

They took ages to come over but eventually, after many false starts, came over for a quick drink at the waterhole.  Beautiful. Off for dinner – tinned spaghetti and meatballs on bread - yum! (Bread's a vegetable, right?) Then back to the waterhole again. Saw more giraffes, these ones doing the funny iconic a-frame split legs to reach down to drink, and two playful rhinos too.  First rhinos, cute!

Went to sleep after a hot chocolate, to the sound of lions in the distance, Ian's story of the german tourist being eaten fresh in our minds. Apparently the fences have been fixed since then...