Okaukuejo, Namibia

Yesterday we drove through Etosha National Park in Namibia. It was so so dry and dusty! Honori, our cook had placed all his crates in plastic bags to lessen the dust impact! Well, we drove and drove…saw lots of zebras, springbok, oryx and ostrich…a few giraffes and a couple of elephants. Just before lunch Lionel called “stop!stop!stop!” He had seen a leopard running through the grass. By the time we reversed it was crouching very low in the grass, eyeing off a limping springbok. We waited and waited for it to pounce, but for some reason it didn’t and the springbok lived to see another day…maybe! What a magnificent sight. Personally I was glad not to see a kill, but that’s the way it is. Today we set out again, after spending last night watching for wildlife, at the waterhole next to our lodge. We didn’t see much to start with and were ready to leave, when we looked up there were a couple of huge elephants approaching and they just kept coming…about twenty and a few rhinos and hyenas…amazing. Our best sight today was a lioness, resting in the sun; Lionel took some fantastic close-ups and we were able to watch her for about half an hour just stretching, cleaning and relaxing. We also watched two oryx battle for domination. Their horns are so sharp, gives the phrase “lock horns” new meaning! They fought for about fifteen minutes, then just stood eyeballing each other. Finally one backed away, the fight was over and they walked off together…who knows what they were saying to each other!