Cheetahs, Etosha

We hadn’t been in the park long this morning when we saw cars stopped watching something. Luckily for us two cheetahs were walking along then decided to stop in the shade of a termite mound in direct line with our car. It was like watching cats as they kept standing up, turning round and lying down again. I got better shots of other wildlife today but we felt very lucky to see a pair of cheetahs so that’s what I’ve blipped.

We had an early start and drove to Etosha National Park which was just 20 mins from where we were camping. We managed to get a place at one of the NP campsites for the next two nights. Etosha is a huge National Park ( about 260 km wide and 100 km north to south) and visitors are allowed to self drive around the park. We opted to drive in the east gate and will leave by the south in two days. We spent six hours driving around the park covering the 75 km to Halali campsite and saw so much wildlife in that time including zebra, elephants, blue wilder-beast, giraffes, springboks, elands and oryxes. You are not allowed to get out of the car but there are fenced off areas with two toilets and a picnic table dotted around the park where you can stop. We all needed the toilet but they were disgusting, not that we had a choice!

Another highlight was a huge bull elephant right at the side of the road. I will try to post an extra of him next to a car to show the size (wifi permitting!)

After arriving at the campsite we had a couple of hours relaxing in the sun (the boys went for a run around the camp ground and went swimming in the pool) before heading to the watering hole that is adjacent to the site. It was packed with people with drinks and crisps waiting for the sun to set whilst watching for wildlife. Needless to say they were disappointed as there was too much noise and most people left as it went dark. Then the action started and we were treated to 8 black rhinos that arrived over the course of the next hour and a half. There were two sets of mothers and babies and it was fun watching them interact with each other, gently touching each others faces. The others just stood around and watched and eventually wandered off. We also saw four spotted hyaenas, a black backed jackal and a small spotted genet. It was an amazing evening.