Rock On

Wakee came at 5:30 - bleh! It was a very cold evening. I took the long trek to the long drop toilets at 2:30 am - that was fun. I think I need a new battery for my headlamp.
We packed up quickly and will eat on the road. We have quite a bit of distance to cover (as usual) and the park we're going to has a very strict gate locking policy. If you miss the closing time, you get fined.

We stop briefly in a village of sorts to shop for stones. I bought a garnet, yellow floride anda green floride with amythst. Brad picked up a very nice tiger's eye. One of the women selling the stones whispered to Kerrie and asked her if we had any food for the children (two young boys looking cold and underdressed). She gave them some muesili bars, pens, paper and jumpers.

Our next stop was a small town for a drink, snack and top up. The landscape keeps changing from nothing to maybe a few bushes, sometimes rocks and trees, sometimes grass. You will catch a glimpse of people standing on the side of the road like they've emerged from no where.

A family of baboons crosses the road ahead, there are signs showing wart hog crossings and bridges that indicate rivers but all you see are long stretches of dry ground.

We did see 4 warthogs, lots of birds with interesting beaks, and Dik diks (deer like, all brown with really big ears). There is so much land and so little habitation.

We finally reach Etosha National Park entrance at the Anderson gate. We stop here for lunch. The campground with the gate closing policy is deep in the park. That is where we have to reach by dark.

In recognition of the next World Cup being in Africa, Acacia is sponsoring bringing soccer balls to villages on its overlanding routes. Our group purchased a soccer ball for $20US and gave it to the children that were gathered around when we reached the gate. Their parents work in the park and they live in a small village at the gate. They had great fun playing soccer and kicking the ball around. They also managed to give Claire and Kerrie new hairdo's and Jeneen was piled high with kids.

After lunch we headed into the park towards our camp (Halali). As soon as we drive through the gates we spot zebras, giraffes, lots of springbok and elephants just hanging out by the side of the road! COOL!!!

We stopped at our first watering hole and it was jammed with 24 elephants including babies. We drove on and spotted a lion sleeping under a bush. It was too far away for a photo. We drove on and saw more elephants, antelope, zebra, secretary bird, and the corey bustard... to name a few.
I guess the point of a wildlife reserve is for there to be lots of wildlife! Etosha is 20 thousand square km - lots of land to try and find some of the elusive critters.

We made it to camp by nightfall and set up. We are staying here for two nights. This is a seriously high end camp. There is a bar, nice swimming pool, a shop, lots of showers and toilets. Its very clean and tidy. Its also filled with campers hoping to see the "big 5" (elephant, lion, cape buffalo, leopard, rhino). There is also a watering hole (Moringa watering hole) near our campsite that has a viewing area and is lit at night so you can watch the animals all night if you want.

Brad and I strolled over to the watering hole after dinner. We had been sitting for 20 minutes or so when a rhino strolled in quite slow and non-chalantly out of the surrounding bush. We watched him for 15 minutes. Brad tried taking some photos but it was dark, the lighting is very orange and he was on the far side of the water so hard to capture. I started to get cold so we headed back to our tent. Tomorrow we do a game drive nice and early to see what we can see.