Etosha: 29th Aug 09

This morning was spent driving through the park in our truck looking for game. We passed a car which signalled for us to go down a side road – lucky as we were about to drive past it. After about 10 minutes drive we came to a watering hole and were stunned by the scene. About 60 zebra standing round all looking in the same direction – we followed their eyes and saw what they were looking at – 4 male lions sitting around the carcass of a baby giraffe - fresh kill! It’s really rare for male lions to hunt – they normally leave it to the females, so this was a rare sight indeed. Also, we’d only seen one male lion in the Serengeti, and that was from afar, so to see 4 close up was ace. We sat and watched them for half n hour or so and got loads of great photos.

Funnily a people carrier at the scene stalled when the chap tried to start the engine – three of the passengers had to get out and push – this is a complete no-no in a national park, the lions can attack at a moment’s notice – you’re never meant to leave a vehicle – you have to call for help. So when they got out of the car with 4 lions only 20 metres away we were all a bit dumbfounded. We were more shocked when one of the lions jumped up staring at them – we honestly thought they were going to be gonners, but they managed to start their car and drive off before the lions could co-ordinate themselves. What divs!

At lunchtime we reached another campsite and after lunch went to see their water hole – When we arrived we saw 6 elephants coming towards it, then a few more, then more and more and more. I reckon there were between 60 and 70 elephants there in all, really spectacular. One of them displayed it’s ‘5th leg’ for us too – enormous! In the afternoon we drove again and saw another rhino at the side of the road – it was good to see one in the day time. I spotted it first so was awarded a Wurthers Original. Yay! We also saw a Black Mamba snake in the middle of the road – it‘s Africa’s most dangerous snake - a bite can kill a man within 45 minutes.

After reaching our campsite in the evening we had dinner and then went to the floodlit waterhole to chill and watch for a few hours with a box of wine. Again we saw loads – this time THREE Black Rhinos coming and going, 7 giraffe, 6 elephants and loads of springboks. AT one point 2 of the Rhinos had a stand-off – they started grunting to each other and kicking up dust – we thought we might see a fight but one of them chickened out and legged it. One of the most exciting things was that we could hear a pride of lions roaring quite close at hand – we were convinced they were coming in for the kill, but after three hours bedtime beckoned so we left – I think the lions went to bed too!

A NOTE ON Giraffe: Because they’re so tall, Giraffe have real trouble reaching the water at the watering holes. They have to spread their legs really wide so their heads can reach down low enough. Unfortunately as Giraffe get older their skin gets thinner so the most common way for a giraffe to die is for it to get to a watering hole, spread it’s legs and then split open! Gross!