On to Halali

It wasn't the lions that woke us this morning.  It was the  Spanish group in the next camp site who got up at 5am and were very noisy  packing up their site.  We have to pack up today too so we get up at 6am anyway  There is a high stone tower in this camp which provides wonderful panoramic views of Etosha, so we climb all 108 steps  after breakfast and admire the wide open landscape.  Then it is off to our next camp  safariing on the way.  

We visit several water holes and spot vultures, wildebeest, a huge herd of zebra and many impala, including one injured animal who,sadly,  will be lucky to see the day out...there are always lions on the alert for the weak and injured animals. I am enjoying observing the behaviour of the animals at the water holes and working out the pecking order.  The zebra and the wildebeest drink happily together, the springbok and impala have to hold back and wait their turn while warthogs, and jackals just suit themselves. We also see a chameleon, handsome egyptian geese and a variety of other birds.  There is a small library of reference books on the truck and each time we spot a new animal or bird Ronney finds the appropriate page about it in a book and passes it around the truck.  It makes the safari so much more interesting. We come across a herd of springbok springing backwards and forwards across the grassland.  It is a very entertaining sight but Ronney tells us they do this  to look bigger and confuse predators and that there must be something stalking them, probably a lion.



 We travel along the edge of the Etosha Pan, a 4731 square kilometre inland ocean.  It is completely dry at the moment but fills with rain during the rainy season, something that  is hard to comprehend, the rains must be torrential. We arrive at Halali Camp around midday and set up camp.  Halali is very well appointed with excellent facilities,  a shop, restaurant and best of all, swimming pool. We have lunch, do our chores and swim.  At 3.30 we are off on a game drive.  Very soon we come across two young male lions lying together right beside the road.  Young males are banished from the pride as they compete with the mature males for mates.  We watch them for a while and then drive further around the water hole. 

 

Ronney spots a leopard on a tree in the distance and also a mature male lion stalking the young males so we head back to watch them.  The mature male is about 20 metres from us and magnificent.  We hold our breath as he paws the ground, roars and sprays urine around to claim his territory.  The young males play it cool and just ignore him.  We notice that one of the young males has a swollen wound on his back which he keeps licking, no doubt the result of a fight.  We watch them for a while and then drive further on  to look at the leopard.  It is basking on a tree trunk, looking very relaxed,  but, as we watch, a large army of mongoose scuttle past the water hole in the direction of the leopard.  The leopard springs from the tree, like a flash of lightning, and leaps on the mongoose which run screaming in all directions.  Although this is the natural order of things in the animal kingdom it is still chilling to hear their screams of distress.  We can't see how many the leopard has killed but Ronney thinks he would have got at least a couple.  He tells us we are very lucky as many people come on safari and never see a leopard and to see one make a kill is very rare.






  Next Ronney drives us out on a causeway into the Etosha Pan.  It is  vast and dry and dazzling in the sun.  It is hard to believe that  during the rainy season this becomes an inland sea.

We take the obligatory tourist photos of each other jumping in the air and then high tail it back to camp before the gates shut. 



Spaghetti bolognese and a carrot and pineapple salad for dinner and then off to the camp waterhole.  We walk along the sandy, lantern lit path and sit on stone walls waiting for the animals to appear.  Eventually some rhinoceros arrive and a hyena and we watch them for quite some time but their movements are slow, as if frozen in time, and after the excitement of today this water hole seems a bit low key.





Photos: (1) Kori Bustard and black backed jackals, (2) Etosha Pan, (3) Young male lions play it cool....
(4)...while the older male stamps and roars and shows who's boss, (5) Leopard lurks in the shadows before making a kill, (6) Vultures finish off a kill, (7) On Etosha Pan, (8) Our group on Etosha Pan,
(9) Mother Rhinoceros and baby, (10) Lilac Breasted Roller, more beautiful than this picture shows