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The centrepiece of this immense park is Etosha Pan, a 5,000 sq km flat dust bowl, denuded of vegetation, that transforms into a vast shallow lake during the rainy season. The park is at its best, however, in the dry season, when the pan dries up and a series of fringing waterholes form the only source of drinking water for miles around, attracting prolific herds of wildlife, and providing easy snapping for keen wildlife photographers. A feature of Etosha that appealed to me is that the combination of affordable rest camps and good roads means it is one of the few great African parks easily explored on a self-drive basis. The wildlife is also very impressive and I had great sightings of black rhino, lion and elephant, despite visiting in the wet season, when animals tend to disperse outside the park’s boundaries. It was also exciting to see the black-faced impala, a distinctive subspecies endemic to the Namibia/Angola border area, and whose global population is estimated at around 1,000.
Black Rhinos, White Pans and Wildlife at Waterholes in Namibia’s Premier Park
Etosha is a “must-see” on any trip to Namibia. Covering nearly 23,000 sq km, almost a quarter of which is the silvery Etosha Pan, it’s home to over a hundred species of animals including most of the Big Five (except for buffalo) and is one of the best places to see the endangered black rhino. One magical evening at Okakuejo Rest Camp, sipping a glass of wine, we watched a black rhino and a white rhino drinking at the floodlit waterhole, both with tiny calves. Ten minutes later, two lionesses arrived followed by five playful cubs.
Etosha is the perfect destination for first time self-drivers. We spent three days there using the Park’s excellent maps, routes were clearly marked and we would park by waterholes waiting for wildlife to come to us. If this is to be your first self-drive, take a good field guide with you - although self-driving allows a lot of independence, you might miss the expert knowledge of driver/guides. It is possible to book guided game drives at the rest camps, so you could have the best of both worlds.
Keeping Watch at the Waterhole
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Two other places you might wish to consider staying at are Onkoshi, a camp with stunning views across the Pan, and Dolomite Camp in western Etosha.My personal favourite is Ongava Tented Camp, set in a 300km2 wildlife reserve on the southern edge of the park. Maybe it’s because I saw an aardvark here in broad daylight!
Big Game Galore at Namibia’s Flagship Park
With the exception of buffalo, the Big 5 are all here. There’s probably nowhere better in Africa to see black rhinos. I’ve seen more lions here than anywhere else except the Serengeti. And to my mind the elephants are the biggest I’ve ever seen.
For the big game, Etosha is best visited in the cooler and bone dry winter months (roughly between May and October), when the waterholes become a bustling oasis in the otherwise parched landscape. The floodlit waterhole at the centrally-located Okaukuejo Camp is a special feature, though the camp itself, like various others in the park, is in need of a facelift.
Personally, I prefer the greener, hillier and less-visited western section
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of the park, which is a very good bet for black rhino sightings and the rare black-faced impala.Poking Around a Pan
Etosha is centred on a pan – a white, featureless, dry salt-bed that shimmers into distant horizons. The real beauty of this unique park lies in the ease of its wildlife viewing – sightings here are virtually guaranteed. Animals congregate around waterholes and it’s a case of putting your feet up and letting the wildlife come to you. I saw an intriguing collection of herd animals around the hole that I staked out, including the elegant gemsbok, wildebeest, springbok and elephants. Also in the park are giraffe, often seen as silhouettes travelling across the flat plains here in search of food. But Etosha’s biggest delight is the black rhino. One of Africa’s rarest mammals, I saw two at night at a waterhole close to an official camp. I was alone when I saw a large female emerge from the bush – she was joined a short time later by another and they had play fights around the water. It was one of my great wildlife highlights of Africa.
Life in the Heat Haze
Come in the dry season though and things are very different. Huge numbers of animals of all shapes and sizes congregate around water holes: elephants, rhinos, giraffes, lions and endless zebra, oryx, kudu and springbok mean that the wildlife viewing is simply superb. To add to this, other huge plus points for Etosha are the ease of access, the decent road system and, compared to East Africa or Botswana, very affordable accommodations. All of this makes a self-drive
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budget safari to Etosha an easy and enjoyable prospect. In fact, this is arguably one of the best parks in Africa for a first – or tenth – safari.The Big White Pan
Etosha is Namibia’s jewel in the crown and should be on everyone’s itinerary when visiting this alluring country. Etosha means “great white place” and the vast calcrete pan dominates the reserve. Etosha is a photographer’s dream with the shimmering pan, golden grass and lilac-hued skies. In the dry season, there is lots of game with many elephant, zebra, gemsbok, lion and perhaps most special of all, black rhino. The dry season is particularly rewarding when a non-stop procession of animals visit the water holes, and you can spend hours just sitting in one place. The water holes in the public rest camps are illuminated at night, and it is magical sitting there waiting to see what will step out of the shadows onto the flood-lit stage.
I’ve also visited in the wet season, and although I only saw a single elephant, the pan was flooded and covered with pink flamingos. I will never forget watching the flamingos “dance”, strutting in formation to the left and right, like American line-dancers.
Where the Wild Things Are
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In fact, our animal wish list was getting ticked off quickly, but it was the black rhino which proved most elusive. That was, until the very last day when a determined rhino barrelled out of the thick bush behind us almost colliding with our vehicle as we were driving out of the park and disappeared just as quickly into the bush on the other side of the road. Oh well, perhaps on our next visit!An Abundance of Life
One could easily assume that such an unforgiving location would be unable to support large amounts of wildlife, but this is far from the case thanks to the huge (and I do mean huge) salt-encrusted pan that dominates the landscape of this magnificent wildlife reserve.
This barren and sun-blasted plane (which has a surface area of 4,700km2, or 21% of the whole park) is typically as dry as British humor and looks rather like a great frozen ice sheet. It’s pure white and requires sunglasses to look at.
So how on earth does a barren, dusty, saline moonscape support such an abundance of big game? After all, Etosha is famous for its elephants and large herds of zebra.
Well, it’s all to do with water, and although Etosha seems scorched and mostly devoid of moisture, fresh H2O is pushed up to the margins of the pan, and thus, nobody goes thirsty.
The park authorities also maintain a series of pumped waterholes at strategic locations, such as right next to the rest camps of Okaukuejo, Halali, Namutoni, and Dolomite.
One of my favorite things to do in Etosha is to sit and watch the comings and goings at these waterholes, and I have never failed to be enchanted by sightings of black rhinos, elephants, lions, hyenas, and long queues of zebra.