Giraffes are ace

Windhoek & Etosha National Park, Namibia

Namibia was for me probably the country I wanted to visit above all others - and not just because they have great cider!. Ever since I had seen a friend's photos of the Namib desert I really wanted to go. So although we were nearing the end of our trip, I was excited to finally get there. I am delighted to say that it exceeded all my expectations, and here's why.

After a long, but unexciting 20 hour bus journey from Cape Town, we arrived in the Namibian capital of Windhoek. In the late 19th century Namibia was colonised by ze Germans, and despite gaining independence almost half a century ago, there is still a heavy German influence. It was, however, controlled by South Africa until 1990 and subsequently English has become the official language. Most white Namibians speak either German or Afrikaans as their first language, while the African population speak their own tribal language as a first language. One of which is Damara with it's clicks and whistles, making it very difficult to learn. For us anyway!

Upon arrival we navigated our way round German named streets and found our way to our hostel. It was the one surrounded by by an electric fence and razor wire. I'm sure it was an effective way of keeping people from breaking in but it just didn't give you that warm fuzzy feeling of safety!

We spent a couple of days in Windhoek getting tours booked, and due to timings, we set out on a four day tour of Etosha National Park first. The desert, and my main reason for coming, would have to wait.

There were 7 people in our group and we all piled into our 4x4. After introductions we discovered that travelling with us were, a Canadian, a Chinese (now living in Canada) a Finn (now living in Tunbridge Wells) and a couple from Epsom. No language difficulties there then. It turned out be a great group and we all got on really well. It made the trip.

Now, being on a safari meant that we would be camping each night - something Mik and I had managed to avoid pretty well for the whole trip until now. It was a long drive up to the Park from Windhoek but the stop for lunch made it worth while and we realised there and then we had chosen a great tour company. Out came the camping chairs (which made excellent fart noises as you sat down), a table complete with table cloth and loads of lovely fresh breads, salads and meats. My favourite piece of equipment has to be the wash bowl, which was in fact a sack of plastic material hung around a small stand. Attached to the wash bowl was a bottle of liquid soap and a towel, so we could all wash our hands before eating. Simple things, simple minds.....

Joel was our driver and guide and he was accompanied by a camp assistant, a quiet man whose name none of us could remember so we just referred to him as 'yer man'. Upon entering the park, Joel slowed his speed right down so we could see if we could spot any animals on the way to camp. To be quite honest, I can't remember what we saw in that first hour, but I'll get to the wildlife soon, don't worry. We arrived at camp and set up our tents, and we were delighted to discover that they were longer than us, and we even had fairly thick mattresses to sleep on. Now that's my idea of camping!

The plan was to make our way through the park over the following three days, staying at three different camp sites and doing game drives during the day. Now as most wildlife gets out of the sun for the most part of the day, this meant the best times to see the animals was of course at dawn and dusk. This meant three 5.30am starts in a row - selfish animals. This turned out to be harder than anticipated as at each of the camps there were floodlit watering holes which would keep us from our beds at night.

On our first night, after a sumptuous dinner of BBQ lamb steaks, sausage and gem squash, we headed to the watering hole and waited patiently to see if anything would make an appearance. WE WERE SOOO LUCKY. As we sat there a black rhino came down and drank at his leisure from the pond. He eventually disappeared only to be followed in by another one. He in turn was followed in by two elephants. We all watched with baited breath. Then we got a real shock as the rhino turned to take on these two massive elephants. 'Pah' we thought, what do you think you are doing. But much to our surprise the elephants backed off. By this stage we are all silently screaming at the elephants to stop being such wimps and push on past the rhino. I mean, the rhino looked a fair size initially, but next to these elephants he was tiny by comparison. Eventually the elephants stood their ground and the rhino disappeared. Wow. By this time it was getting on for midnight so we headed back to our tents for a delicious 5 hours sleep.

The following morning we stopped at the watering hole briefly on our way out of camp and saw our first giraffe. I was over the moon as they are my favourites. There is just something about the way they move. So elegant. Not, however, when they are drinking. See photos. Despite looking all legs and neck it's amazing just how quickly they can pop back up to standing should they feel threatened. I was having a great day already, and it was only 7am.

We then set off to the next camp, doing our game drive along the way. Joel would drive around 40km/hour and the seven of us would constantly be scanning the roadside/horizon for wildlife. We had one of those cool trucks with the big pop up roofs so we'd stand on the seats and snap away without having to open a window. Not something you necessarily want to do when there are lions nearby! It was invariably Joel who spotted all the good stuff. I guess that was his job after all. When I had been on safari before I hadn't managed to see a lion so that was my main hope, aside from lots of giraffes obviously. Joel found us many lions. Big ones, cubs, two lazing close to the road and a few hiding from the sun under trees. God only knows how he saw them as most of the time the rest of us spotted the backside of a springbok (deer like animal found in their thousands in Etosha) or worse still, just a bush. We would swear that the shadow made by that tree over there was a rhino and that the bare branches of trees were in fact giraffe heads. Another animal which is very common in the park is the zebra. They are just little painted horses but not just black and white as you would expect. Many a time we confused them for something else as they can actually have brown stripes mixed in too. We saw hundreds of them and soon became blasé and barely even slowed down for them.

We saw zebra and springbok, gemsbok and impala, wildebeest and lions, tortoises and hyenas, and and spent ages watching beautiful giraffes munching on tree tops. Brilliant. That evening we once again went to the water hole and sat patiently waiting for the show to start. As if on cue a rhino appeared at 10pm, exactly the time we had seen one at the last camp. Maybe they think most people will have gone to bed by then. He was followed by a second rhino and they left together, as we watched for the rustle of bushes!

We were about to head for our tents when suddenly a massive old bull elephant wandered all the way round the watering hole and straight to the pipe pumping in the fresh water. I guess he'd been here before. The water pipe actually ran right past where we sat just 25 metres away from him, and we could hear him sucking away on the end. Very entertaining for the first 10 minutes but he was there for 45! He must have literally drunk twice his own body weight in water. In the meantime, however, a whole family of elephants hit the water hole. And I mean hit it. One minute the bull was alone, the next there were seventeen elephants drinking from the pond. They ran in like they hadn't had a drink for days (which we later found out was probably the case as they sometimes drink enough to last them three days - that would explain the bull's thirst) It was an incredible sight and I couldn't stop whispering 'oh wow' over and over again. The elephants all lined up, always protecting the babies on their inside. When they moved toward the old bull and tried to drink the fresher water with him they were shooed away. One elephant then wee'd at the waters edge close to the bulls coveted pipe in protest!

That family had had their fill and wandered off. Then another family of elephants showed up. Just six but still, we couldn't believe it. The show went on until well after midnight and we really had to drag ourselves away. On our way back to camp we also encountered an African wild cat and a massive scorpion. We were loving this safari lark.

Five hours of sleep later and we were up again taking down the tents, eating brekkie and off for our early morning drive to the last camp. It's hard to remember everything we saw but you get the gist of how our days were panning out. The highlight of the day came just as we set off that morning when Joel spotted a cheetah. Of course like most animals it turned and started to walk away from our truck. We snapped off pictures thinking we were lucky to even have caught a glimpse of one, when to our surprise he came back onto the road and continued to walk along it in front of us. Brilliant. The icing on the cake came when he walked nonchalantly over to a road sign, wee'd on it and sat down next to it. The sign read "SLOW. 40km/h" Now that's a kodak moment. The low light of Mik's day came when Joel spotted a rhino just about to cross the road as we came alongside it. He slammed on the brakes and as Mik had been squatting on his seat he was thrown forward and into the cool box. Would that be another broken rib? Luckily not but I'm guessing it was pretty painful. Just to help things along I accidentally stood in his crotch area when trying to get a photo of said rhino. Oops. They have a lot to answer for do rhinos!

Herds of elephants at a watering hole and loads more giraffes made our last day once again a ripper. The watering hole at the final camp was a bit of a let down though and despite Mike from Epsom swearing that he could see a rhino it really was just a bush. Still, the wine flowed (at £3.50 for 3 litres it was going to), we had another fantastic meal, and slept the last night in our tents.

Our drive out of the park on our way back to Windhoek allowed us another couple of hours of game spotting and as far as I recall the last animal we saw was a giraffe - highly fitting. We stopped for lunch on the roadside, visited a market where we were unfortunately pestered so much we left rather quickly, and finally reached the comfort of our hostel in the capital. We'd been given a fantastic room but I have to say I would have swapped it for my tent in an instant if I could have stayed in Etosha. It was one of the most amazing experiences ever and I loved every minute of it. Safari is a truly magical experience - when you get as lucky as we did. Thanks Chameleon and thanks to the guys on our tour. And of course a big thanks to the giraffes.

Cara

(we found out afterwards that a group behind us had not seen a single elephant - luck and a good guide really can make or break a safari - go Joel!)