Etosha

This will be a first - a blog entry with no photos.

At the moment we're sitting in the back garden of a cafe in Tsumeb. We arrived in town early as it's only a 45 minute drive from our campsite literally just outside the northern gate to Etosha. The town is far bigger than I expected - and the cafe back garden is like sitting in a garden jungle. AND they have coffee!!!!! Woohoo - with a menu in German and then English as is quite normal here in Namibia.

They also have community craft shops, which I am sure will be glad we've been to town. We filled up at the garage and have come away with the cleanest windscreen we've had since leaving Cape Town - it's like driving around with no glass in front at all, it's soooooo clear. It may not stay that way for long because we're back on dirt/gravel once we leave town.

Yesterday in Etosha. I know I've been in game parks before, and we did have a whole week in the Kgalagadi, but yesterday the terrain was different and we were thoroughly spoilt. The campsites either side of Etosha have been almost full, and the lodges would be doing good business too, but driving around Etosha you'd never know. We hardly saw any vehicles and at most waterholes, we were the only ones there.

We were spoilt having a male lion all to ourselves again, just not for as long as we had in the Kgalagadi. Still, an awesome experience to be sitting at eye level next to a lion!

Giraffe drinking at the waterholes - they are very skittish and take a loooooong time to decide where and if to drink. And the variety - at the Chudop waterhole we were treated to Giraffe, Wildebeest, Impala, Springbok, Kudu, Gemsbok and Zebra ALL drinking there at the same time. What an absolute spectacle. We sat there for ages just drinking it all in - pardon the pun.

In the heat of the day, we went to our campsite to pitch our tents. That meant we could spend longer in the park in the afternoon and not have to worry about pitching the tents in the dark. You have to leave the park at sunset, but that's really early at this time of year, around 5:30 and then by 6 it's dark.

We went "elephant hunting" in the afternoon - very successfully of course. My 'elephant photo ban' had officially been lifted, but Jen's was still in place. I made the most of it.

When we left the park in the afternoon, I thought to 'save time' I'd put my big lens away. Then I reminded myself that it ain't over till the fat lady sings, and decided to wait until we got to camp. Thank goodness - we were treated to a sidewinder snake, Dik Dik, Zebra, stunning giraffe in silhouette at sunset - and then the best feature, a leopard just trackside. What a way to finish Etosha.

This morning we had a sleep in till 6:15 and then down on a tar road to Tsumeb. After I've finished this, we'll be checking out the craft community shops and then heading up to Tsinsabis and tonight we're staying in a Bushman camp, with a village visit this afternoon.

Two more days in Namibia - this time.

Hope you can imagine the scenes we saw yesterday. I am open to coffees and meals to show you the photos and my book once I get it done and to answer any other Qs