Annika who wrote last weeks blog about the Baboons at Cape Point followed on the South Africa tour with a Cape to Victoria Falls CV21 camping safari and had the following to write about Etosha.

On our 21-day Cape Town to Victoria Falls camping tour, you get to experience a variety of Southern Africa’s beauty, including the “mother city” of Cape Town, stunning landscapes and natural wonders such as the dunes of the Namib Desert and Victoria Falls, as well as great game spotting opportunities as in Etosha National Park or the Okavango Delta.
I recently returned from the Cape to Vic tour and our group experienced wonderful sights and waterhole scenes in Etosha National Park.

 

Due to the fact that Etosha National Park consists of a Salt Pan that almost covers an area of 5000square kilometres and another ca 15000 square kilometres around it, the Park is very dry and does not have rivers flowing through it. Therefore, all animals living in the park are highly dependent on the mostly man-made waterholes.
If you are in Etosha National Park, you can enjoy the waterholes in different ways. You can either visit the waterholes that are directly located at the three main camps of the Park or you game drive through the park and try your luck at each of the watering places. If you chose to stay at the camp, you will be able to sit in a quiet area around the water hole and just wait patiently for rhino, Oryx, lion and Co. to quench their thirst. You can even wait for nocturnal animals such as hyena or porcupine since those water holes have flood lights shining on them. Either way you are most likely to experience wonderful sightings as on our last tour. We got to see thousands of springboks, giraffes, elephants, ostriches, Oryx, zebra, and lion at one water hole at the same time! Different species interacting with each other is very interesting and you can learn a lot about the animals’ natural behaviour. An example is the careful way that antelopes or zebras approach a water hole when predators such as lions are around or the rough fight for territory by impalas.

 

Going to Namibia, the Etosha water holes are definitely one experience that you should not miss!