We were travelling today to stay overnight at Okaukuejo camp site which is on the bottom left hand side of the Etosha map below with the morning to be a game drive to have lunch at the Halali camp site in the middle .
After a late start to the morning with a full breakfast we went to the water hole just outside the park to find mother giraffe and her 2 kids having a drink although it did take them about 15 minutes to muster up the courage to actually drink some water whilst keeping a close watch on us
2 kids watching mum first to make sure everything is safe
They look really funny when they spread their legs out to get reach down to drink given they are so tall
We did a number of inland drives however there wasn't must game around at all so a lunch break stop at Halali camp ground restaurant for burgers and then decided to drive straight to Okaukuejo camp site which is about an hour away as most animals aren't out during the middle of the day with the heat however as we came out there was a rhino feeding on the grass
A few Oryx where out and about as well
The difference in environments just in the park was amazing with this camp ground being like staying in a desert as there was no grass and it was bloody hot.
Here's a view out from the tower you can see above and how dry it is
They have allocated spots like last night so we were right next to the biscuit factory however we did have a shady thorny acacia tree to set up the tent under for some shade
The site beside us had a massive social weaver birds nest in the acacia tree
Then straight to the pool area to relax and cool down for the afternoon whilst Jo brought some expense( by Namibia standards) wifi as her prepaid GBs had run out on her plan and she couldn't recharge the plan until the weekly plan had finished ? Yes that's right she wanted to give MTC Telecoms more money but they wouldn't allow this until her weekly plan had run out even though she had used all her allowance before the week was over - great marketing strategy that one!
After it cooled down to 32 degrees by 4.30 we were off for our afternoon game drive which we had thought about skipping when we were rewarded with a couple of loins lying in the shade of the tree on one side of the road
Joey was keen for me to wind up my window given they were so close
Jan and Amanda had also been out for a drive when we got them on the 2 way to let them know about the loins. Jan wasn't keen to stick his head out too far for me to take a photo of him
Back home for a quick shower whilst Amanda prepared the fire for our eye fillet steaks for dinner which was interrupted by what we first thought was a thunderstorm that turned out to be a sand storm so madly packed everything away and battened down the tents
Moved Steph into the next camp site to give us some buffer from the wind and sand whilst we sat out the storm
The camp ground has a water hole just in front of the villas so we decided to go for a short walk to see if any animals had gathered there during the storm to find some giraffe and zebras escaping for shelter as well from the sand storm
Another social weavers nest from the water hole viewing seats
On the way back we came across jackals which had been at both camp sites looting bins for food
We finally were able to settle down to dinner about 9.30 and then everyone in bed by just after 11.30 so I thought I'd go back down to the waterhole as they have special spot lights on the hole to see what was on show to find 5 rhinos and 3 giraffe either swimming or drinking so a quick scurry back to camp to grab a beer and return for an hours viewing of the animals with no one else present from the whole camp- amazing to see so many rhinos at the same time
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