Arriving just outside Etosha to spend a night before we headed into the park, we were greeted with a downpour.The next day, we set off nice and early. Upon entering the park, we immediately saw this fox-like critter! At this point, we were pretty excited.This guy made an appearance as well.Checking into the park, you’ll have to visit one of the campsites to pay your park fees. The nearest camp to us had a sweet tower to climb which gave a nice overview of the immediate area.Not long after setting off, we got our first close up sighting of some Zebra!A rather empty watering hole. Because we were there during the rainy season, the animals don’t congregate at the watering holes as much, because there’s plenty of water everywhere.There aren’t just mammals to see in Etosha, but birds too!Big, big, birds.And plenty of these guys.We’d seen a giraffe from the highway from Windhoek to Swakopmund, but seeing one up close was very cool! Such weird looking animals!
The landscape. It’s pretty flat out this way, so you can see for miles, and hope that the weather systems you’re seeing aren’t coming your way…The ever present Oryx.More giraffe.This looks like a landscape shot, but if you look closer, you can see the silhouette of a herd of giraffe dotted along the horizon.As we got closer to our campsite, we came across a large herd of zebra and springbok. We could get right up close to this guy.
So. Many. Springbok.The watering hole near our campsite.
The mighty salt pan in the middle of Etosha. This thing is massive.I mentioned that there were cool birds, right?These guys were surprisingly large. We mostly saw them on the ground, but when they flew, they were hugely impressive.Elephant!On our second day, our number one goal was to spot an Elephant. Mission successful!He was a big guy, and looked kind of grumpy. We were ready to scarper if he showed any sign of charging us.Even more giraffes! We didn’t get sick of this.
Another herd of springbok, with some wildebeest dotted amongst them.Many of the animals just didn’t care about standing along the road.Our final evening, we visited the nearby watering hole, to spot some sparring springbok.
An Emu. Pictured here, not getting in the way of traffic.An Echidna. This guy looked a little drunk, he kept walking around in circles.The fabled Australian drop bear.A hairy Kangaroo, and a not so hairy Kangaroo.We were there in the middle of the day, on a day which reached around 38 degrees Celcius, so these guys weren’t moving much.Natalie observes.Some kind of lizardy guy. It looked pretty aggressive.A cute little croc. He looked much less aggressive.Speaking of aggressive, there was a crowd surrounding this guy, which must have prompted him to start displaying his stuff.A snake in the grass.Another lizard guy. This guy looked high as a kite.Flying foxes! (aka Bats)One of the stupidest looking birds. Look at that ungainly beak!
