Day 10 – Etosha National Park

The Etosha National Park in Namibia is one of the largest nature parks in southern Africa. After the war between the Germans and Herero's, the park was founded in 1907.

Etosha consists largely of a huge salt pan, surrounded by dry bushveld.

Characteristic of Etosha are the large numbers of wildlife that can be spotted like elephants, zebras, lions, different types of antelopes, etc. Natural and artificial waterholes help the wild population to survive in dry times. Originally, the Etosha pan was inhabited by the San.

Etosha is in malaria territory. Therefore, yesterday the most important action of the day was the start of taking the malaria pills.

You can also get your quinine drinking gin tonic, but you would need hundreds of liters. You might see pink elephants walking around in Etosha instead of the big African elephants.

One of those African elephants is waiting for us this afternoon on arrival at the park. But he is not really happy to see us.

He is already an old one, over 50 years old. Elephants only get around  65 years old. At a certain age their teeth start to fall out and they can’t eat anymore. That is the beginning of the end. He tries to intimidate us, but continues his way towards the waterhole. A little further down the road is a herd of zebras grazing in the afternoon sun.

The springboks walk or run around. I really want to see them jump, the so-called show off, but for the moment they don’t  do that. They are so cute with their thin legs, made to jump gallantly through the savannah or steppe. You can’t miss them.

You see them walking around everywhere. They are undoubtedly with thousands in the park. We also see the impala's for the first time in Namibia. The McDonalds of the jungle is also here present. Finally, the oryx also shows itself at its best. In the distance, we see a lion looking for shade under a bush. We don’t see much more than his head. A bit further, the giraffes eat peacefully acacia leaves.

At the large water pond we meet a family of elephants. They play like small children. There are also a few little ones. Also, the jackals need to drink something.

Just before sunset we leave the park. But tomorrow we'll be back for a full day safari