Namibia day 12 - Etosha

The wifi is still out of service, so this is another ‘toilet visit upload’, haha! 

After a delicious breakfast we left at about 7.30am to drive back into Etosha park, which is only about 20 minutes away. This lodge lies next to Etosha but because of the fences we have to drive around to enter in the Namutoni gate. We had such fantastic sightings today, starting with black backed jackals (first extra), elephants crossing the road, zebra, wildebeest, giraffe and even a cheetah although he was lying too far away to get a close up shot. As this is a public wildlife reserve you cannot drive off-road here so your sightings are restricted to what you can see from the side of the road. We saw so many birds, we have been keeping a list of the species and I think we have now seen well over 100 species so far. The best bird sighting were of the pale chanting goshawk which we saw a few times, and the grey hornbills which are less common than their popular yellow billed cousins. Lilac breasted rollers are like sparrows here as you see them everywhere, and when they fly you see a flash of iridescent blue which is very beautiful. This eastern side of Etosha is known for its extensive bird species and thankfully Toni knows her birds so can identify any bird we see or hear. My blip is of the wildebeest as they were drinking from a rain puddle, I liked the way they are lined up. There is much water around at the moment and all the animals are looking so healthy and well fed.

We left Etosha at about midday to return to Onguma for lunch - the food is excellent here and they make such an effort for my dietary requirements, I had the most delicious freshly baked gluten free bread rolls at supper last night. We decided to spend the afternoon chilling at the lodge as we can watch birds and animals come to the water hole while sitting in the comfortable open lounge area drinking something cold. It was very hot again but there is usually a breeze in the late afternoon to help cool things down.

At 4.45pm we went on another sundowner drive organised by the lodge. We tried to find cheetah as there had been an earlier sighting, but no luck. Then we came across an elephant. Officially there are no elephant in the Onguma reserve and it is fenced as the neighbouring farmers can shoot any wildlife that may stray onto their farm due to the threat to their livestock. However the bull elephants from next door Etosha National Park regularly break down the fence, even when it is electrified, to get to the nuts from the indigenous palm trees that grow on the reserve. Strangely it is only the bull elephants that do this and never the females. The staff then have to repair the fence as soon as possible, and a week or so later when the elephant has had his full of these palm nuts he breaks it down again - in the same place as they have brilliant memories - to return to Etosha. We were lucky enough to see one of these ‘visiting elephants’. He had come to the (man made) water hole, but as they are so intelligent, he did not want to drink the muddy water from the water hole but he instead went to the source pipe and sucks water from that. The third extra shows him spraying out the muddy water he had previously drunk from the water hole, as he wants clean his trunk before he drinks the cleaner water from the water pipe. And please excuse the ‘fifth leg’! He had toiletted shortly before he came to the water hole and it took at least 15 minutes before his bits were tucked away again so there is this ‘addition’ in all my photos!! The elephant got scarily close at one point, displaying in a threatening manner and we all got a bit nervous as just a couple of days ago an elephant in a Zambian reserve flipped a safari vehicle, twice, and one person died and two are still critically injured. The vehicle had got too close to that elephant and the ranger was unable to back away in time.

We had sundowner drinks overlooking the most spectacular sunset tonight. Nothing like an African sunset with the call of the wild birds around you. We finally got back to the lodge at about 7.45pm and went straight to supper. It has been another great day with some very good sightings, especially the birds. 

Thank you for continuing to look at my journal and your comments and hearts, I cannot look at journals at present with no wifi other than the few minutes in the loo to upload! I do feel quite disconnected at the moment.