Etosha: Making Americans Jealous

This is an email full of bragging so brace yourselves.

Etosha National Park is a huge game reserve/conservancy- the biggest one in Namibia. This is where you find a lot of Europeans and Americans on holiday, there are a lot of beautiful resorts within the park and daily safaris, etc. Etosha is on the way from Khorixas, where we had our homestays, and the northern region, where we'd be spending the next week and a half or so. So we stayed for 2 nights at a conservancy education guesthouse and went on a few game drives. Etosha is an enclosed park but it's so huge that you can not tell it has barriers. Sometimes, though, animals get out- especially the elephants. They stomp through the electric fences and wander around the town outside. The park employees either let them go or try to get them back in. Meh, whatever they feel like that day I guess.

We took 2 combis and split up for the rides. I chose to be in Passat's combi because he is absolutely hilarious and I knew it would be a unique experience.

When we first drove through the park to our guesthouse we saw really close up giraffes, zebras, kudu, springbok, wildebeast, and little rabbit/deer animals called Damara Dik Dik. Everything was so beautiful and the park is so vast that they all have an incredible amount of room to move around. Also, it had just rained and there was a double rainbow in the distance which drove the experience further into the surreal. It was close to sunset when we got to our lodge where we had dinner and showers for the first time since we started our homestays.

The next morning was a very early game drive. I guess it's more likely that you'll see a variety of animals on the morning drives because it's cooler. Plus if there's ever a chance of seeing a lion (which is really rare) it'll probably be in the morning because they are nocturnal hunters for the most part. This drive was my favorite- I was really sleepy so I slept in the front seat with Britta and was woken up every time there was something good to see. The highlight of this drive was a hyena that was trying to cross the road where we were driving. He saw us and ran next to the combi for about 30 seconds. Passat put the brakes on and the hyena stopped and stared at us. We followed this pattern for a long while until the hyena got a little bit angry and gave a very frightening face. Passat wildly laughed the whole time. We finally left the poor thing alone.

Another signature move of Passat's is to herd the animals that happen to be on the dirt road. My favorite instance of this was when there were about 3 giraffes on the road. Passat drove the combi at an angle that kind of trapped them and herded them to where he wanted them to go. He kep this act up for a bit, once again wildly laughing. I thought it was funny because Passat describes himself as being a giraffe yet he got great pleasure out of giving them a little trouble.

That afternoon we went on another drive and we saw an elephant! It was right near the road so we stopped to watch from a distance. He changed directions, though, and crossed the road right in front of us. I was in shock. It was so beautiful and I felt like the combi was shrunk because of his massive size.

Another interesting thing about my homestay farm that I forgot to mention is that while I was there all of their crops were smashed and killed. I asked why and they told me it was the annual elephant tromp through their farm. They absolutely hate elephants because of the destruction they do but I guess when it's dry season the elephants wander looking for water and always go at least nearby if not through their farmland. I was really disappointed it wasn't dry season when I was there. They thought I was crazy to want to see the elephants.