Namibia - Etosha national park

The Etosha national park is famous for its herds of elephants. What a disappointment then that we did not get to see a single one! I remember that ten years ago I saw a herd of 42 elephants. It is probable that the rains were plenty enough for the elephants to remain far from the waterholes and the roads. Indeed, the park with its 22000 km2 is almost half the size of Switzerland, so the animals have space to hide. At least we saw a rhinoceros and many antelopes. The first animal we saw is the smallest antelope, the dik-dik.

During the drive, we had the chance to see many groups of animals. The most numerous ones were without doubt the very common springbok. The most elegant were the giraffes.

We obviously saw a lot of gemsbok.

Etosha, which means "white soil", is famous for its 4700 km2 salty pan. This was a large inland sea which evaporated more than 2 million years ago.

While driving in the park, we got a puncture to our front right tyre. A big moment of stress. We checked if there were no animals in the vicinity and got out of the car. We took out our luggage from the boot and started changing the tyre. Even though we worked under the midday sun, i thought we did a good job of changing the tyre in 50 minutes. At least, the tradition of having a puncture per trip in Namibia continues. The sad thing is that at the camps in the park they could not repair the puncture, so we decided not to take chances to drive more than necessary on the parks dirt roads. Which meant that we were confined to the main camps and could not do an evening or a morning drive. Fortunately, the main camp of Okaukuejo is one of the best in the world as it is organised around a well frequented waterhole. So we spent our evening and early morning seated on benches overlooking the waterhole and could watch animals (zebras, wildebeasts, springboks, impalas, warthogs, jakals) come for a drink.