Namibia Part 7: The Salt Pan

August 29, 2013

Zebra in Etosha National Park

A trip to Nam would not be complete without a visit to Etosha National Park. At least this is what we were told, and who are we to argue with the locals? And so, Etosha made our itinerary. The name means "Great White Place of Dry Water", as there is a massive 5000 square kilometre salt pan in the middle of Etosha. One of the incredible things about Etosha is that unlike other places where you strain to see a zebra here or an elephant there, the herds are hundreds strong, and they all congregate together at the water holes (think Noah's ark, except rather than two by two they come by the dozens/hundreds). Because the environment is so dry and barren, the watering holes are the life-lines of the animals here. Here are a few of the highlights of our Etosha experience:

Black-backed jackals- these two came running from opposite directions and seem to be greeting each other as if they hadn't seen each other for awhile. 

On the off chance that you're still interested in seeing pictures of elephants after Damaraland's play-by-play... here's one in Etosha. 

One of the coolest things about Etosha is the fact that so many different types of wildlife come together at the watering holes.

 It was as though there was a stand-off between the giraffes and the elephant...then all but one of the giraffes decided to move on, leaving one the fend for himself!

Between the cover shot and this one, I couldn't decide which one I liked better (and this guy appeared to have both ears in-tact, unlike the poor soul in the cover image). 

 Making his way across the plains...it's not often that I'm able to get a clean shot of a giraffe as they are often obscured by trees and bushes, so I felt the need to share this small victory.

Playing with the late afternoon light (me, not the giraffe).

We stayed at a rest camp inside the reserve, and they have a little watering hole that visitors can sit at 24-hours a day. Visitors are not generally allowed to wander about game reserves after dark for obvious reasons, but the viewing spot here is tucked away and the animals would have to work pretty hard to get to it, so it seems they make an exception. It was a cool spot to sit and wait for whatever happened to come by...we saw several black rhinos over the course of our two days here (note the token black rhino in the photo, above), so we weren't complaining!

We cracked open a bottle of wine and watched the sun set over the watering hole...

I couldn't get enough of the Namibian skies...so many colours.

This family of white rhinos came by for a drink shortly after the sky turned black (I struggled with taking photos of moving animals in the dark...these two images are the closest I could get to clear shots).

Three spotted hyenas trying to see what they could scrounge up in the early morning.

One kazillion zebras all trying to drink from the watering hole at the same time. 

Putting my telephoto lens to the test!

Clockwise from top: the "beach" on the horizon is actually the ginormous salt pan Etosha is named after; zebra crossing; these clocks were at every rest camp and gate to the reserve, as they only allowed self-drivers into the reserve once the sun was up, and everyone had to be back out by the time the sun set; how could I not capture M and I in our ridiculous ponchos? It was a cold game drive...; watch out for pumbas; and in case we ever forget which reserve we were in....

Having a few German beers in Nam's Capital city, Windhoek (English: the Corner of Wind) before heading back to Joburg! So long Nam, it was an absolute pleasure!