Namibia 4: Etosha National Park Part I

   We left the next morning, to go north to the Hobatere Lodge.   We stopped at a gas station in Kamanjab, for its adjacent supermarket.  We parked at the side of the building and were immediately approached by people selling trinkets, along with someone who wanted to guard our car.  We picked up some snacks in the Spar.  Back outside, I quickly used the bathroom.  Brittany was nervous about going back to the car because two women had remained there, with large bowls of items they wanted to sell us.  Going back toward the car, we reiterated that we weren't interested.  I gave a token amount to the "car guard."  We got in, and the two women leaned their heads right up to the car window and stared at us.  We didn't feel inclined to fill up our tank with gas, so we left.

  Two kilometers north of the Galton Gate was the entrance to the Hobatere property.  The gate to the grounds had to be opened manually, so Brittany got out, opened it, and then closed it behind me.  Just near the entrance, we saw our first pack of zebras.  We drove slowly for fifteen kilometers, but did not see any other animals aside from birds.

  We had reserved an afternoon game drive, which would begin at 4:00.  Meanwhile, Brittany hung out by the pool and rescued a large insect.  

  I spoke to my parents on the phone, spotted some animals at the watering hole, and then chased around some small lizards for photos.  We were the only ones on the game drive.  Unfortunately, we saw pretty much no wildlife.  We visited a spot that the lions often use as a hunting grounds, filled with bones.  We passed a treehouse lodge room near the lion's den, where you could stay with supplies for the night and then be picked up the next day.  I would have chosen this treehouse had I known about it. I asked our guide about the lack of animals and he was of his opinion that two hours was just not enough time for a game drive.  If it were four hours, it would allow for a more thorough exploration, in case the animals were not close to the lodge.  The property is thirty four square miles in size.

The only action was at the end, when we saw some running baboons.

  The next morning, we woke up early for breakfast and decided to watch the watering holes at the lodge.  Three of the hotel workers were fascinated with Brittany's Fuji Instax self printing photos, similar to the style of polaroid.  They had never seen one and were very excited to have their picture taken and then watch it develop in front of them.  They went on and on about the photos and how they looked in them

We sat outside and were lucky enough to see a lion, who was growling and walking across the field near the farther of the two watering holes.  Additionally, I watched the baboons climb the trees and use the watering hole.

 

  We saw a pack of zebras again as we exited the grounds.  

  Just down the road from the Lodge exit was the Galton Gate.  We stopped, in order to register our five night stay in the park.  We spent the rest of the day driving eastward to Okaukuejo Camp, the first of three government camps we would stay in.  Originally, the tour provider that I coordinated with had put us in more luxurious camps just outside the park, but that would require entering the park through the gate each day.  No thanks!

Although the entirety of Etosha is fenced in, Jeremy pointed out to me that the area is larger than the state of New Jersey.  We stopped at as many of the watering holes as time would allow.  While driving through the park, I kept two cameras, each attached to a separate lens, on my lap.  This was not comfortable, but was necessary.

This is what we saw:

Namibia 3: The dull drive up to Khorixas, an incompetent elephant tracker, and up towards Etosha

  We spent the next day driving up to Khorixas.  A good portion of the drive was on a paved road, which was pleasant.  There was no wildlife on this drive, and very little worth looking at.  One exception was a small set of miniature villages crafted with life sized puppets and rocks.  We got out to explore the first one.  

  By early evening, we pulled up to our lodge, just outside of Khorixas.  I would have liked to stay near Twyfelfontein, but I booked too late.  We arrived, Brittany booked herself a massage and went off to do that.  I ordered coffee and sat near the pool in the back.

  That first night we tried exploring around the hotel grounds, for photos, but only found lizards(was hoping to find scorpions).

  After dinner, Brittany wanted to sit near the fire, so we sat down on some pillows.  Shortly after, two older couples sat nearby and began a conversation with us.  One of the men explained that he had been coming to South Africa for decades, but this was his first time to Namibia.  He had travelled the world, including India.  I asked him a bit about how the north and south of India compared to each other.  I enjoyed hearing about his experiences.

  The next day, we had a late afternoon reservation for elephant tracking, at Twyfelfontein.  We drove west, planning to visit one of the petrified forests on the route.  A government sponsored petrified forest received bad reviews, so I chose one of the private ones.  We arrived, to an empty parking lot and an office shack that looked abandoned, with only garbage inside.  We waited for a minute or two and then decided to leave.  We were running a little bit late anyhow.  A man ran up to us as we were leaving, but I had no interest in turning around.  He seemed sad, which upset Brittany.

  This area is known for its tourist Himba villages, the local tribe.  They often stood by the side of the road, trying to wave people in.  Sometimes it was the women, sometimes it was children.  Some tried dancing on the side of the road, which made me think of Greek Sirens.

  Southwest from the main road, we arrived at Twyfelfontein.  We parked the car under a tent cover, where a guard took down our information.  We walked a short path to a building and signed up for a tour of the nearby rock carvings.  A lady walked us through five sets of rock carvings near the mountainside behind the camp.  She explained that the main building had been made out of recycled material.  She showed us the rock carvings nearby.

Seen along the main road.

On the path south.

A bird, hanging out in the building.

  As we finished the walk, we were nearing our appointment time.  We returned to the car and the guard was there, waiting for us to tip him.  When I searched online for tipping practices, "car guards" was one of them.  Just around the  corner was the magnificent Twyfelfontein Country Lodge.  It was built into the side of the mountain and had its own carvings on campus, though we did not have time to view them.  The receptionist asked if we were from Khorixas, and I stated yes.  We were placed onto a vehicle along with the two couples that we had met the previous night by the fire.  

  The driver initially made a show of pointing out elephant tracks.  I have a feeling that he didn't really know much about tracking, however.  He quickly got stuck in sand, and took a good five minutes to get us free.   After about an hour of driving around, we finally came upon another vehicle, which was already watching an elephant.  

  After this, he asked the two couples when they needed to be back, and they said within the hour.  He responded that the next area with elephants was forty five minutes away, so we would have to turn around.  We had paid for a four hour expedition, I responded that we had no need to go back.  The reception desk must have made a mistake and put us together since we were all from Khorixas.  The vehicle had begun making a loud whirring noise.  He rushed us back to the camp(in the opposite direction of the other elephants), put Brittany and I into a new vehicle, and sped us in the right direction as quickly as he could.

  We arrived at the elephants just in time for pictures during golden hour light.  There were four other vehicles watching nearby.  He explained that the elephants are generally always in just a few locations, since they pump water for them.  This reinforced my belief that the "tracking" was just for show.  We drove back and I spotted a wild cat sitting on a tree branch.

  When we received our vehicle, back in Windhoek, they warned us that we were not allowed to depart in the dark.  We were only allowed to drive in the dark if we had already started driving in daylight.  We departed with a small amount of light still in the sky.  No part of the main road had streetlamps, so I drove with the high beams on.  The experience was surreal.  It was a fairly wide dirt road, with uneven ground, and many hills.  What made the experience even more bizarre was that despite the pitch black conditions, there were still a handful of people beckoning from the road for us to stop.  Others were just walking the road, presumably to reach places far away, without the heat of the day.  Walking...without any light source.  It was like something straight out of a horror movie.