Game Drive!

1/16/12

Today was the day that I was looking forward to the most- Safari day!  Alyssa and I got up at 2 am to check the water hole. We didn't see anything, but we did hear what we thought was a baby lion. Oh well, back to bed for us.

We were up at 6:00 to grab breakfast before our early morning game drive. After piling into the vans once again we set off. The first animal we saw came up quickly; a small herd of Springbok. This was followed by more springbok, springbok, and just in case you missed them…Springbok. It’s no wonder that this is the national animal, they’re everywhere! While we were on the plains we also saw a few zebras and two giraffe’s way off in the distance. 

As we moved more into the park we got into more of a bush/small tree area. We saw less springbok and zebras and more small animals and birds. This went on for a few hours. Just when we were all starting to fall asleep Wilfred, our driver extraordinaire, slammed on the brakes. He mumbled something in Namlish(a mix of Afrikaans and English) which we somehow translated to RHINO! AH! Hidden behind some bushes were two black rhinos! We could just barely see them. They only hung out with us for a couple minutes before diving deeper into the bush. It was just enough time to take a couple pictures. 

Now much more awake we had all eyes peeled for more animals- a leopard? Elephant? Lions!? They must be out there somewhere! Sadly we only saw the flooded roads from last night’s thunderstorms.  Because it is currently the rainy season the animals don’t have to go to the waterholes to find water so they’re much harder to spot.

Once we got out to more grassland we were back in the land of springbok, black-backed jackals, black faced impalas, a Damara Dik Dik, Steenbok, and blue wildebeests. We also spotted a flock of ostriches.  As we were heading back to Okaukuejo we came across one more gem- a family of giraffes!  There was a dark male, three lighter females and a little baby! 

After lunch we had a 2 hour break before visiting the Etosha Ecology center. There we learned  about some of the principles and projects that the park does. Apparently Etosha completely allows the animals to live as nature attended. They do not try to control diseases or mess with the dynamics of the habitat. They do use some of the diseases that are prevalent as research to gain further understanding of diseases but they do not vaccinate or treat anything. .  They do track elephants and rhinos to help fend off poachers and track their migratory patterns. They’re also working on reintroducing the wild dog. But they haven’t had much luck since the wild dogs that they’ve tried to introduce didn’t know what to do with the lions…meaning they got eaten. Ooops. 

We had once last game drive after that presentation. We left in high desire of seeing lions or elephants- but with the knowledge that both of these are extremely rare to find during the day time. We first drove to Wolfsnes where the lions typically hang out. Unfortunately there wasn’t anything in sight. Ah well, there went our dreams of seeing lions.

We went back to the search. Kilometer after kilometer passed with only springbok in sight. Maybe a zebra here or there, or a couple wildebeests, but mostly just springbok as far as the eye could see. On we went. At one point the van in front of us stopped but we couldn’t see a single thing out on the plain.. Until we looked down. There a GIANT lizard was hanging out in the sun. It looks like a komodo dragon, but I don’t know if they actually live here.  As we were all taking pictures it started going back in its den. At this point Wilfred leaps out of the van and chucks a rock at the poor lizard. I think Wilfred probably went a little crazy from all of the springbok.   Needless to say the lizard did not take this as an invitation to come back out.

Thankfully Wilfred got back in the van we started off again. Eventually we spotted what looked like ostriches on the horizon and a jeep parked on the side of the road. So Wilfred stopped for us. We quickly realized that the people in the jeep weren’t looking at the ostriches but rather at something under a tree.  Whatever it was was too far to see with the naked eye. But those of us with decent zoom on our cameras quickly turned them towards the tree. There we saw tan haunches, a rounded ear, and just once a tail flicked up…. It couldn’t be! But it was!  We found our lions!  Two females were sleeping in the shade. At first they wouldn’t raise their heads at all. Which was fine; in our pictures we could still tell they were lions. Then Wilfred lost his head again and started throwing rocks at the lions! This might be the worst idea he’s had yet.  Luckily for Wilfred the lionesses were more interested in sleeping and merely raised their heads to look at the crazy man.  The one rolled over  and went back to sleep laying out  with all four feet up in the air while the other stayed awake to keep an eye on the crazy man.

Now thoroughly content with the animals we had spotted (and very happy to have Wilfred get back in the van) we headed back to the resort for dinner. Tonight our meat choices were Lamb or Kudu. I went for the Kudu and it was DELICOUS! 

I have a ton of pictures from today but the internet is dying rather quickly on me so I can't upload anymore. I will make sure to upload them in their entirety once I get home.