18 Ongava, Etosha park

zebra contest in Etosha National Park
zebra contest in Etosha National Park

 18.03.14, Ongava, Etosha National Park

The first safari drive in the surrounding private game reserve was quite rewarding, with a sighting of a rhino with a baby, as well as gnus, zebras, giraffe, red hartebeest, steenbok, a hornbill and a roller. I then had dinner with a Dutch couple who had also been in the Damaraland camp. They returned home the next morning.

The next day I set off for the Etosha Park together with 2 German couples, who were from Berlin. The park proved to be quite commercialized with big control gates and a very large visitor centre 17km into the park. We soon encountered a traffic jam caused by lots of people trying to look at a lion on a kill hidden in the bushes. There were coaches, private cars and tourist groups in big lorries as well as the usual Land Rovers like ours. This was all a bit of a shock and not at all like my experience in Botswana last year. We did then loose the other vehicles but there was not as much of interest to see as I had expected: ground squirrel, zebra, springbok, oryx, ostrich, the noisy black korhaan (helicopter bird) and again a roller.

 

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