A new adventure begins

Windhoek to Etosha National Park
 

The start of my adventure tour through Namibia was a little hectic- I wasn’t given a time to arrive at the starting hotel, and I just so happened to arrive at the exact same time that the tour was pulling into the hotel. My tour through Namibia was the final leg of several tours that had travelled across Africa, so some of the 19 strong group had been travelling together for nearly 6 weeks.

 

I quickly learnt that whenever we were told a time to be at the bus, we would always be at least half an hour late-our 2 guides could not time keep to save their lives! The guides were nothing like I was expecting, both of them were young surfer types! I spent my first day on the back seat of the bus, which I soon found out meant that I would spend approximately 50% of my time with my arse off the seat- and that was on the tarmacked roads. 

Perched on top of Waterburg Plateau

Thankfully it wasn’t far until our first stop at Waterburg National Park. This park is dominated by the Waterburg Plateau, which is a beautiful 200m high rock structure, containing fossilised dinosaur tracks, petrified sand dunes and hundreds of native flora and fauna species. Before dinner most of us set off to climb the plateau, which from a distance looks like a sheer cliff face. The guides told us it would be a gentle climb but it was more like an extreme scramble over rocks! But it was well worth it for the views from the top. The food every night was so good- we cooked on the braai which basically means cooked on an open fire. We had steak, salad and a special kind of South African bread called roosterkoek, which is cooked on the fire. 

Springbok

Black rhino

The next day we left early- every day we would get up between 5 and 6am (depending on how far we had to travel) in order to take down the tents, have breakfast, pack up and leave. We travelled north to Etosha National park, the biggest national park in Namibia and the third biggest in Africa. As we entered the park I spotted a black rhino, which we were incredibly lucky to see. We went on a quick game drive through some of the park and I got to see my first elephant, but unfortunately not a lot else.

A pretty huge group of 13 elephants!

We spent 2 days in Etosha National Park, and on the second day I paid a bit extra for a day's game drive through the park with our own guide. We got to see plenty of springbok, impala, kudu, wildebeest, zebra, giraffes and elephants and a few bird species too. We were on the hunt for some of the lions that we knew were hanging about but unfortunately we didn't get to see any. I was more than happy though, as at the end of the day we came across a group of 13 elephants (including lots of babies) coming up to a waterhole for a drink. 

Zebra

That evening we stayed at a campsite where there was a lit up waterhole so we could sit and watch the animals at night. I got to see plenty of rhinos, giraffes and some elephants too. Apparently there were even a few lions who made an appearance; I did hear a lion roar but I was in bed and thought it was someone in the tent next door snoring!