Etosha Day 3 (7-24)

Sunday morning I went to the waterhole on the way to breakfast. Two springboks came to drink. 

Then I saw the most red-breasted bird I’ve ever seen. It certainly showed that “robin red breast” doesn’t have a red breast.

After breakfast we started on our return journey out of the park and back to town. We took the alternate route that we hadn’t taken Saturday. After forty minutes, we saw a bunch of cars parked, which means something exciting is happening, and there was space for us to park right up front facing inward so that we all had a great view. Two lions were lying about fifteen feet from the road. I was surprised that they were lying there exposed in the middle of the flat, treeless, grassless land. Morne pointed out that they were keeping warm in the sun. And I realized that they didn’t need to worry about cover to protect them from predators because they are the predators. 

In our fifteen minutes watching them, they got up 

and walked a short distance. 

Then he humped her, 

and they laid down again. Pretty exciting!

The first waterhole had an abundance of springboks, kudus, impalas, red hartebeests, and zebras.

It seemed to be zebra gathering time at the next waterhole, as lines of them were arriving in great numbers from three directions.

Next we drove along the Etosha salt pan with its eerie mirages.

We came to two cheetahs resting under a bush while guarding their freshly killed springbok. 

Some of the people in other cars must have seen the killing, which would have been exciting. Clearly, nothing was going to happen soon, and we were on a schedule to get Kate to the airport on time. So on we drove.

We had lunch at the Namutoni restaurant before heading out of the park. On the way, we stopped at the last waterhole before the exit. We hadn’t seen any animals there on the way in, but now there were many zebras and giraffes and some gemsboks in the distance. 

After several minutes, Morne noticed that the animals were on alert as a lion had come around the wall. 

All activity stopped as they stood still and watched her. 

She walked in front of the wall and then back to a ditch where she was joined by three other lions, one male. 

They all walked down into the ditch and settled to rest. 

Then the other animals relaxed and started drinking and moving again. As Morne said, something was going to be killed later in the day. But now it was rest time. When we exited, he told the guards about the lions, and the car behind us turned back. It would have been difficult to see them without knowing exactly where they were, as the heads that were visible blended in with the rocks from the distance.

We got Kate to the airport on time, and Morne delivered me home. The safari was over all too quickly. It was like being in another world. We saw a huge number and variety of animals: 7 lions, 2 cheetahs. 5 rhinos, 1 hyena, 2 jackals, 1 fox, 1 honey badger, a group of banded mongoose, and uncountable elephants, zebras, giraffes, gemboks/oryx, springboks, red hartebeests, wildebeests, kudus, impalas, and elands. A huge success!!