The excitement of heading north to Etosha National Park and our first game drive helped to ease our sadness at leaving our oasis at Damaraland Mopane Lodge.
The drive north was a pretty easy one, with a first stop by the side of the road while Sandile explained the growing number of large mounds we’d seen scattered in the landscape. Termites build these using secretions to bind the soil together into these upside-down cone shaped mounds. The mounds generally lean toward the west somewhat and the Bushmen use that as a direction indicator. Some of them encapsulate trees and eventually kill the tree. There are tunnels and compartments for various uses within the nest
Each mound has one Queen, who can live to be 50 years old and can lay up to 30,000 eggs a day when necessary. There are different kinds of ants, some of which are builders, some that defend the mound, etc. Chemicals they emit when they die let’s the Queen know when she must lay more eggs to replace those that have died. Their predictors are aardvarks who use their long snout to forage in the nest.
We stopped for 45 minutes or so in a town named Outjo, to stock up on provisions for lunches for a couple of days and then headed on to our lodge just outside Etosha National Park, Anderson Gate. It was too early to check in but Sandile and Innocent dumped the bags to be put into the rooms when they were ready and off we went into Etosha and our first game drive.
After registering at the park offices we went into a campsite to have lunch. It was a really well furnished campground, and made me homesick for my little trailer. While lunch was being prepared by Sandile and Innocent, they pointed us in the direction of the water hole to check out what was there. My heart leaped with joy as we rounded the bend to gaze upon the back end of a couple of real live and free elephants just meters away! Well, to say our experience started off well, was a major understatement. One of the four of the Big 5 (Elephants, lions, rhinos, leopard, and water buffalo) that live in the Park, ticked off our list already! Water Buffalo are not found here, so hopefully we’ll see them somewhere else in our travels. We watched while 6 elephants came and went, stopped for a drink, or a bath. There were a couple of giraffe in the far distance, springbok, and all sorts of birds flying in formation. A feast for the eyes. Needless to say, none of us was interested in lunch and Sandile had to come and practically drag us off.
After a quick lunch and wash up we were back on the bus, this time with all the windows down and seat belts off as we started out on our first game drive. We selected this time of year to come to southern Africa because it’s nearing the end of dry season which means that the wildlife are more concentrated around the water holes and you don’t need to go looking for them as much. Well the first watering hole after the camp area was packed with so many different types of wildlife it was hard to decide where to look. Zebras were the first favourite and there were even some cute juveniles and Springboks were plentiful. We watched and took pictures for a while and then were off to check out some other areas and water holes, stopping wherever someone wanted to in order to get a picture.
We had to be out of the park by sunset or receive a huge fine, so after putting in as much time as we could, Innocent headed for the gate and back just a few minutes to our lodge. We then set off in search of our individual rooms with the map, room key and whistle provided anxious for a shower to get off the dust of the day. It was a bit of a hike and we were glad they had put our bags in our rooms for us.
In anticipation of taking a lot of pictures in the park, I had switched memory cards so I’d have an empty one and I was anxious to look at their pictures from the day. I had taken almost 500. I haven’t even downloaded them all yet, and just selected a few of what I thought would be the best to post. I’ll have a big job when I get home to go through and pick the best and purge the rest.
Dinner was lovely, served in a rondovel with a partially open to the stars, partially thatched roof, and there was much chatter about the animals we’d seen, pictures we’d managed to get, etc. But it was early to bed because we had a whole day game drive in the park the next day.
Lois' Adventures 