Etosha National
Park – Namibia – Nov. 1 – 4
We make our way to
Etosha National Park, our last large wildlife park on our tour. Once inside the
park, we only have very dusty, very bad gravel roads to drive on. Everything
inside the camper get’s covered in dust, even inside all the drawers and
cupboards. The RV rattles like crazy, we find little screws and hardware on our
floor, but we don’t know where they come from. We get up right at sunrise,
start driving out the campground gate (closed from sunset to sunrise), make our
way to some waterhole, park and wait. They say early morning is great to see
the animals, but after experiencing Kruger and Chobe Parks, we find that you
just have to be just lucky and be at the right place at the right time.
Etosha is very
different from Kruger and also from Chobe. It is very dry, not so much
vegetation. It takes us some time to start seeing some animals, but we did see
them. Large herds of antelope, zebra, wilder beast. Some giraffe, very few
Elephants, and we saw a few really large rhinos.
We do not see a
leopard, it was not to be. But for three days I am on the lookout for lions,
and we were lucky. The first day we saw two female lions at a water hole, just
lying around, one on her back with one leg sticking up, the other one was
drinking. It is so difficult to see them, they blend into their surroundings
incredibly well.
The third night in
the park, we went to the campground water hole after sunset. It was the most
beautiful thing ever. First a rhino in the water, bathing and drinking. It
left. Then a giraffe started approaching slowly, it took about 45 minutes for
it to get to the hole to drink. Then all of a sudden a very large elephant, and
then a second one. They were right in front of us. Then another rhino, and another.
It was heaven. Made up for the long day of driving and hardly seeing anything
“big”.
We left Etosha a
bit said, because the big game parks are done.
Entering Etosha...
First water hole we go to...
We cannot believe our eyes, a rhino, on the very first day!
Here is that lion, drinking water....
And here is they both, one on it's back with a leg sticking up...
Zebras drinking...
One lonely Elephant....
This is a Kudu...
Zebras and Wilder beast in the background...
Happy Tourists (us!) on the edge of the Etosha Pan! Nothing grows there, its flat as a pancake. It used to be a lake a long, long time ago.
For the Traveler ~ John O’Donohue ~
ReplyDeleteEvery time you leave home,
Another road takes you
Into a world you were never in.
New strangers on other paths await.
New places that have never seen you
Will startle a little at your entry.
Old places that know you well
Will pretend nothing
Changed since your last visit.
When you travel, you find yourself
Alone in a different way,
More attentive now
To the self you bring along,
Your more subtle eye watching
You abroad; and how what meets you
Touches that part of the heart
That lies low at home:
How you unexpectedly attune
To the timbre in some voice,
Opening in conversation
You want to take in
To where your longing
Has pressed hard enough
Inward, on some unsaid dark,
To create a crystal of insight
You could not have known
You needed
To illuminate
Your way.
When you travel,
A new silence
Goes with you,
And if you listen,
You will hear
What your heart would
Love to say.
A journey can become a sacred thing:
Make sure, before you go,
To take the time
To bless your going forth,
To free your heart of ballast
So that the compass of your soul
Might direct you toward
The territories of spirit
Where you will discover
More of your hidden life,
And the urgencies
That deserve to claim you.
May you travel in an awakened way,
Gathered wisely into your inner ground;
That you may not waste the invitations
Which wait along the way to transform you.
May you travel safely, arrive refreshed,
And live your time away to its fullest;
Return home more enriched, and free
To balance the gift of days which call you.
Thanks Cheryl, what a wonderful poem, so fitting! Glad you are reading the blog....see you soon!
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