Next stop, Namutoni

With hyenas howling and lions roaring round the camp  it was another restless night for Hils and me! Today we are off to the final camp in Etosha, Namutoni. 


 There are some spectacular vistas this morning...one in particular which has taken my breath away and which I will always remember is a vast wide open view across the golden savannah of thousands of animals grazing - springbok, zebra, giraffe, wildebeest, hyena, jackals and various birds amongst them.  It is a gorgeous, National Geographic, kind of scene, but impossible to capture in a photo. We come to a waterhole where two giraffe are involved in a vicious fight, bashing their  necks together so hard we fear they will break them.  Ronney says that the two males are fighting over a female who stands nearby looking rather pleased with herself.

 We see an adorable baby zebra and, in the distance, an eland, the largest of the deer family. The male eland typically measures around 183cm to the shoulder We arrive at Namutoni,  around midday.   This camp is set in the grounds of a handsome and imposing old castle-like fort, snow white against the blue sky. It is stifflingly hot again today, in the high 30s, and unpacking the truck and setting up the tents is hard work in the heat so after lunch we go to the pool for a cooling swim.  I am a bit freaked out by a snake crawling around our camp site but the gardeners at the camp tell me it is harmless.  I'm not entirely convinced. though, so we keep our tent securely zipped.

 

 Late afternoon we set off for a safari.  Having seen the largest of the deer family this morning, we see the smallest this afternoon, the dik-dik.  Fully grown it is about the size of a  dog, around 40cm tall, an adorable minature bambi. The two giraffe we had seen fighting this morning are still fighting at 5.30pm, they must be exhausted! We are watching the giraffes when we notice a herd of elephants coming through the trees towards the waterhole.  They start to run with excitement when they  near the water and we watch entranced as they happily wallow and drink and squirt water over themselves.

 

 

There are 21 in the herd and the very small babies are delightful to watch.  They haven't yet learned how to use their trunks so just bury their faces in the water to drink.  The older females treat them tenderly and carefully and all assist in bathing them. The juvenile boys yahoo and frolic and generally make nuisances of themselves.  The adults  take a dust bath and, once satisfied and with babies in tow, walk off again into the bush.  The "teenagers" keep fooling around for a while and then suddenly realise the rest of the herd has gone.  They leap out of the pool, trumpeting and flapping their ears and run full pelt to catch up with the herd.  It is thoroughly entertaining. We can just imagine them shouting "Hey, wait for me!"  We are driving back to camp when another safari guide stops to tell us there is a leopard further along the road so we go to investigate but get only a brief glimpse of it as it darts through the bushes.

 

We go back to camp for a refreshing shower, a glass of wine and a delicious meal of sweet and sour pork and mashed potatos.  It is Ronney's 32 birthday today and we honour him by singing Po Kare Kare Ana and presenting him with a big happy birthday banner we have all signed and a calendar of New Zealand birds.  He seems touched.  Jonas has baked him a chocolate cake and we put candles on it and sing happy birthday.  We are in a celebratory mood and it is an especially happy evening.  We are pleased to see Ronney enjoy himself, he works so hard and never seems to get any time off.  This afternoon while we were resting he had to take the truck for repairs and then it was straight out on safari again. Hils and I are in bed around 9.30 and have a hysterical, laughing conversation with Gary in the next tent on one side and Ruth shouting "shut up" every now and then from her and Murray's tent on the other side.  We can tell she is secretly enjoying it all, though.

 Photos: (1) Herds of many different animals surround the water hole, (2) A Kudu and Zebra, (3) Namutoni Fort Camp, (4) The tiny and adorable Dik-Dik, (5) Elephants running towards the water hole, (6) And then enjoying a bath.  Note the baby elephants and the fighting giraffes to the left.  The female they are fighting over stands to the right looking rather smug, (7) Springbok, (8) All that is left of a Kudu,