Days 20 & 21 (and Bonus Day 22)

Dan’s comments are italicized

And so we continued west, driving inside the park, to the next camp: Halali. We saw many of the usual suspects on our way across…

… until we stopped at the last viewing point before the camp, that is. Here we saw LIONS! And there was only one other vehicle watching. There were 2 males and (we think) 5 or 6 females. They were fascinating to watch, though the long grass made photo taking nigh on impossible. That is until one female suddenly became interested in a scent and trotted off, hyper-focussed. We decided to follow her so trotted along behind (as much as a car can trot!) She went for some kilometers before stopping just shy of a load of cars surrounding an impala carcass. At this point, a load of safari vehicles full of passengers had finally caught up and started crowding about. 😡 Her plans foiled, the lioness stood stock-still for a while before (almost with a noticeable shrug of disappointment) turning around to retrace her steps, empty -handed.

The camp itself is a bit more run-down than the last, though the viewing point is much nicer …so we had high hopes. We sat from 3pm til 6pm with almost no animals visiting but then the zebra came along WITH A RHINO!!! Rhinos are highly endangered so this was exciting to us.

The next set of actors to enter stage left were, what were turning out to be, the ever-reliable elephants. Multiple groups came in, some with teeny-tiny babies who were an absolute delight to watch. We quickly learned when something was about to happen as, just before a ‘challenge’ or the entrance of another actor, the whole herd would stand absolutely stock-still! There was something ethereal about watching 20+ elephants standing without moving a collective muscle! And the silence was perfect!

Next, a rhino arrived and we were debating whether this was the same one as earlier when another one arrived. I learned that rhinos are strange creatures because they start challenging each other as soon as there are two of them!! They huff and puff and make a mewling kind of sound. The elephants don’t move a muscle during this display! I have never heard a rhino’s voice before. It is intense. I felt fear, and I was sitting safely in the stands.

We were astounded when another then another rhino arrived…until there were EIGHT (one being a baby), all challenging each other! I mean for goodness sake, you’re endangered so just get along!?! At one stage, two bull elephants and two rhino were going at it at the same time; it was entertaining to watch but…come on, boys!!!

As the last three rhinos were approaching, the elephants decided enough was enough so the next few hours were spent watching different groupings of rhinos huffing and puffing at each other.

At the end of the evening, we felt like we’d just watched a brilliant play. As the last few rhinos were leaving, one stopped, contemplated something then went back to the water hole to deliver his soliloquy and then he exited stage left. You almost felt like applauding!!

A special mention must be made for the backdrop painters as some of the backdrops were stunning!

The next evening, armed with snacks and a blanket, we stayed at the water hole for 7 1/2 hours. If the previous evening’s performance was a play, this was more like an Eisteddfod (Welsh friends) or AGT show (American friends). Acts came on individually, in pairs, small groups, or large groups to perform and would then leave. The host was a rhino who seemed to move to the wings when an act came on, then return at the end of the act. It seemed very well choreographed…

… except for the zebras! They matched onstage in a group of 100+ and I thought, ‘Oh good, a choir!’ But no, it seemed to be more of an interpretive dance act; and one that could have used a bit more practice!

In all we saw 103 elephants (the largest herd had 28 members), 100+ zebra (at one stage a herd of around 15 zebra got stage-fright and wouldn’t leave the wings!), 6 rhinos (who were very well-behaved, having got their huffing-and-puffing-dominance-act out of their systems the previous evening), around 15 hyenas, and some random individual/duo acts by kudus, baboons, jackles and impalas. It all made for a fantastic viewing.

One last note; as unruly (and ill-prepared) as the zebras were, their performance outshone that of the humans! Were the roles reversed and the animals were the audience, I’m sure many would leave totally disgusted at how rude, thoughtless, inappropriate, and obnoxious some of the humans were. I don’t judge people’s choices, though I wish they would more appropriately match activities with venues; if you want a night of drinking, go to a bar and not a theater!! But fair play, most of the viewers were respectful and quiet. I was shocked when I looked around and saw hoards of people watching…but the few can often disrupt things for the many.

BONUS Day 22

We’re adding this day to keep Etosha Rest Camp days together. We drove to the final camp BUT there was no room at the inn (until tomorrow). So we drove out of the park to find lodging. The lodging near the park was renting for around $100-$200 per night PER PERSON. So we drove 100 km to Outjo where we found lovely lodging for just under $40.

Of course, we saw some animals along the way, including a troop of ostrich (mostly males) who were spending time with springbok, and a herd (of about 40) oryx spending time with zebras. Up to this point, I had only seen single oryxes and thought they were solo animals.

But we need to talk about the drive from Halali to the next camp, Okuakuejo. It was only 75 km…on gravel road…that was SO bumpy…in a regular 2×4 car! It was horrible!!! My insides felt like they’d been through a blender, my back was agony, and Dan had got grumpier and grumpier until I couldn’t bear it any longer…and I burst out laughing until tears were running down my cheeks. I don’t think we’ll be doing that particular drive again in a hurry…or ever! Dan loves spotting animals but, on this drive, I said, ‘Oh look, there are some…’ and Dan interrupted, ‘I don’t f@$#@! care!!!’ 😵‍💫😱😂 I was working really hard at ‘being in the moment’, and ‘slowing down and smelling the roses’, and then I tried slow breathing exercises followed by concentrating on the experience of Driving On the Backroads of Africa, but the jarring bumps kept killing my groove. I really expected the road to improve as we approached the most popular rest camp at Etosha. But it got continually worse. At the end, I was advancing at 5 kmph… For those of you in America, that converts to 5000 meters per hour. Kids in high school can run the 5000 meter race in 16 minutes. It took us AN HOUR!!! So yes, I got grumpy; I’ll ‘carpe diem’ another day, thank you! 🤬🤬🤬

Thank goodness we have a nice room…with Internet! You can say that again.