Lions and rhinos and giraffes, oh my!

Hello all!

Last I wrote, we were at the Porcupine Camp. One of the great things about that camp was the outdoor showers. I had never showered by the light of the moon, looking up at the stars before! It was magical! Loved it! But, onto the next day...

Day 12/Aug 11th

There is pretty much no recycling from what we've seen. Occasionally we see a place that recycles glass or metal, but that's pretty rare and nobody seems to recycle plastic, which of course is everywhere. Plastic sucks.

We started our day by visiting a Himba village. The village is comprised of all women and children - boys aged 12 or 13 get sent to tend animals with the men, who don't spend their time at the village at all. The women do everything by themselves. They live simply, build their own shelters, grow food, take care of the children. They only cover the lower-half of their bodies and apparently they love to style their hair which looks like a form of dreadlock with clay infused into it. They encouraged us to take photos (this felt a little strange at first, it seemed so invasive), and the Himba women and children loved to see themselves on the screen. They'd actually give you a "thumbs up" sign if they liked the photo; otherwise they would ask you to re-take it so that they could pose again. The best part was when Carole & Vyv filmed the kids jumping around and goofing off for the camera, and then played it back for them. The kids all crowded around Vyv and he laughed as they shrieked with joy at seeing themselves. So cute. We were asked not to give anything to them - no handouts of any kind, but we could buy their crafts once they set-up a market. Most of us girls got a bracelet.

Then we headed to Outjo to stop in town for groceries and lunch. We tried the internet cafe in town but it was down. Soon we were off on the road again. We saw huge nests in the trees and telephone poles, and we found out that they are made by birds called social weavers, and there are sometimes a ton of them in one nest. Colin says that if it rains or gets damp, the weight of the huge nest can break the tree. There are also termite mounds everywhere.

Then we entered Etosha National Park, and our African experience was about to get a whole lot more African. Almost right away we had to stop our vehicle for a giraffe crossing. A giraffe crossing!! Those animals are so amazing and majestic. I could watch them and watch them and watch them. They are mostly skittish but we had one who just stood in the middle of the road and stared us down, as if he was saying, "you wanna go? you wanna piece of me? let's go!" We waited him out. We want no trouble.

Right on the heels of that amazing experience we drove past lions who had made a fresh kill. They weren't too close to us but you could see the sunlight glint off the blood of the dead animal they were relishing. It really reinforced for us early on the rule, "Do Not Leave Your Vehicle." Then, as we approached our camp, which is in a gated area inside the park, we had an elephant crossing. Elephants are easily my favourite African animal and I was over the moon. It was SO COOL! Can't wait to see more - and we did.

The camp set up a viewing platform at the edge of the camp (protected by barbed wire) where they had floodlights trained on the waterhole. So much action happens there at night! And there's quite a pecking order. We saw a ton of animals at the waterhole. And since the waterhole wasn't too far from our tent, and sound travels like crazy, we heard the rumblings of wild creatures all evening and as we tried to sleep. There were also jackals throughout the site and we were warned to put our shoes inside the tent or they'd be stolen by the furry little guys. They were just scavenging around, but always ran away from people. Size of a small/medium dog? Nothing worrisome anyways. We were looking forward to going "hunting" the next day. :)

Day 13/Aug 12th

We got up early and did a game drive for several hours as this can be one of the best times to see animals before it gets too hot. We saw springboks, more varied birds I've ever seen in my life, wildebeests, ostriches, ground squirrels, zebras, antelopes... none of the big game yet but it would show up.

The big 5 are as follows: Elephant, Leopard, Lion, Buffalo and Rhino. We wanted to see them all of course, and we'd already seen the Elephant and Lion. We saw Leopard if you counted Lisa the Leopard from the Conservation Center (which we didn't, really), and we still had to see Buffalo and Rhino.

I really wish I'd brought binoculars. Dumb dumb dumb.

We had lunch at the campsite, and headed to the pool where Shawna took a dip and I read my book poolside. However there were a zillion kids and before long we wanted to get out of there. So we took Carol & Vyv up on their offer to join them for drinks before dinner and had a good visit in their chalet (as they were not camping in tents at all, they were doing the full luxury package which, believe me, we wish we'd done too! Then we wouldn't have lost a tent pole - d'oh!). We went to the resort buffet for dinner, which was decent, although not much variety. Shawna and I both tried kudu meat. Not my fave.

After dinner we headed to the waterhole where quite the drama unfolded. First, two elephants clashed/crashed into each other and started a bit of a fight. Woo! The drama! Then they seemed to engage in a threat display which actually looked more like a dance where one would advance and the other would withdraw, and then the other would advance and the first one would withdraw. They went back and forth like this over and over. Quite comical. :)

Then we noticed a disturbance on the side of the waterhole and our guide, Colin, directed our attention to two female lions that were trying to attack a porcupine. Unsuccessfully. They'd approach, and the porcupine would spin around and shake his booty at them. It was loud enough to be heard across the waterhole. As predators, lions cannot afford to get injured and so they are very cautious when stalking prey. After a few failed attempts, they gave up. Lucky porcupine!

We went to sleep that night to the noises of a big male lion. Our campsite was fenced and protected, but there was national park all around us and animals everywhere. His nighttime song was kind of like a deep, catlike, staccato groan. Yeah, that's it. Sweet dreams!

Day 14/Aug 13

We started with breakfast at the campsite, before quickly packing up and heading for the other end of this huge National Park. Etosha had failed to disappoint so far, what more could we possibly be in for?

First stop was to play paparazzi to a big male lion that was lounging in the sun. Nothing quite like seeing that orange mane of hair frame his big head. Soon he caught wind of us and took off at a snail's pace, and we trekked on to see what was happening at another waterhole.

Young lions sat at the edge of the waterhole and sized up the action. Zebras and springboks and gnus all around. One lion was off like a shot, but the unwilling victims were hasty and he didn't stand a chance. It tried again, stalking, and they moved away. The prey certainly don't make the predator's job easy. Colin said that the lions were too young and were just "practice" hunting and that they would not catch anything yet. They still had to learn to work as part of a pride.

A few more stops had us viewing springbok, kudus, zebras, giraffes, and so many birds that I actually started looking up the names. I'm not normally a birder but they are SO diverse here in Africa that they're irresistible.

We stopped for lunch in Halili, a halfway point through Etosha National Park. Then we headed on to our next campsite at the other end, called Namutomi. Just before Namutomi we saw some amazing sights. First, we saw a Black Rhino right by the side of the road. We pulled up next to him, and he was totally unconcerned. Just kept eating his leaves and bushes and foliage. He posed rather nicely for several photos. :)

Then as we started down the last stretch before the campsite, we saw two giraffes standing opposite each other so that their necks made an "X" when we looked at them from a distance. It looked even romantic. However, when we got closer we saw that they were anything but amorous. Suddenly one of the big necks swung around and the giraffe used his head to hit the other one in the neck. Quickly, the other one returned the same blow. They were fighting!

Colin explained his theory: a little ways off in a distance was a smaller, presumably female, giraffe. He said that they were fighting over her. His theory seemed plausible when she started running straight at the two of them as if to break up the fighting... but then, she just ran straight past them as they turned to look at her, goggle-eyed. Sure enough, the fight was over, and they followed her into the bush. Colin made some comment about how all women act like that but we didn't let him get away with that one. :P

As we passed other tour groups we'd get the scoop on what wildlife was out there and we got a primo scoop - a cheetah mother and her two cubs were just up ahead! We hightailed it down to the best viewing spot and were just able to make out the mom and babies having an early dinner. Cheetahs have to consume their prey quickly because they often get bullied out of their kill by larger predators like hyena and lion.

We set up our tent and tried to help with dinner but remembered that Colin works better when you leave him alone since sometimes he doesn't know what he wants to cook until he's already doing it - which makes it a difficult scenario when you want to delegate. We'd love to get internet but availability is basically non-existent in these National Parks.

Until next time...
xo
E!