Rules of Sari going on Safari
Rule #1: Sari is a klutz.
Rule #2: Sari is an even bigger klutz when sick and sleep deprived.
Rule #3: Murphy’s law applies in Namibia, too.
I woke up this morning at sunrise, after a cold night spent shivering in a thoroughly inadequate sleeping bag. Unfortunately, my cold was not pleased with me for treating it in such a manner, and decided to make a comeback in full force.
After coffee and washing up, I was packing up my bags to get ready to depart when I somehow managed to swing my head around just at the right angle to strike myself in the eye with the sharp metal hook dangling from the tent’s zipper. Yes, those of you who know me will surely be laughing right now at how only I could manage such a thing. It was pretty frightening for an hour or so when I couldn’t see anything at all out of my left eye, but I put ice on it and gradually my vision cleared up. It still hurts like hell, and probably will for a few days, but at least it’s distracting me from being sick.
Welcome to Etosha
The day was quickly getting warm, and turned out to be quite the scorcher. The extreme difference in daytime and nighttime temperature here is taking some getting used to; it can be over 30 degrees in the heat of the afternoon, and drop down to near freezing overnight. That’s the desert for you.
We hit the road early, and made another supermarket stop in the first town by the highway. It being the Saturday after the last Friday in the month (i.e. payday), the shops were crowded and the lineup for the ATM was a mile long. We did our shopping and headed north, to Etosha National Park.
Etosha is one of the foremost national parks for wildlife in all of southern Africa. It’s over 4,700 square kilometers, and contains more species of mammal and bird than you can shake a stick (or camera) at. Most of the animals I’ve seen so far have been either in captivity or only semi-wild, so Etosha is my “real” safari experience on this trip. We arrived in the Namutoni section of the park, in its eastern side, at around lunchtime and set up camp.
The campsite here is significantly more crowded than the one we stayed at last night. It also has full facilities, and there’s a lodge area for people who want to sleep in real beds (softies) and even a swimming pool.
And of course, there’s lots of chance for game viewing. After lunch, we set out in our safari truck on a sunset game drive. It was pretty spectacular; we saw a herd of elephants just walking along by the first watering hole, lots of kudu and springbok, some tiny little antelope called dik-dik, jackals, warthogs, lots of birds that the bird-watchers in my tour seemed to know about, and a whole bunch of giraffes. At one point, we stopped by a watering hole and stayed quiet, and a giraffe wandered over right near the truck. After judging that it was safe, it leaned down and had a drink. Pretty awesome stuff.
More Murphy’s Law
Murphy’s Law continued to be in full force when I got back to the campsite after the game drive and went to take a shower only to discover that my towel was gone. In the confusion over packing things up this morning, it must have gotten lost somehow, though I can’t imagine how. Anyway, I managed to scare up a borrowed towel from the swimming pool area, and I suppose I’ll have to buy a replacement when we get back to civilization.
After dinner, some people wandered over to the viewing area next to the watering hole, but they didn’t see any wildlife. Animals rarely come so close to the campsite when there are closer watering holes within the park. Others went to bed early, and some people just sat around the smouldering fire, playing cards and talking.
Camping in a national park full of wildlife is interesting, let me tell you. The campsite is a protected zone here, so we don’t become lion’s lunch, but even so, every time someone snores, there’s a split second of double checking that it’s a human and not animal noise. The good news is that it’s not quite as cold here as it was last night. The bad news is that there seems to be some sewage leaking from the bathrooms somewhere, and it stinks to high heaven. But this being a more populated campsite, there’s full mobile data coverage, which is how I’m managing to update my blog. But it’s getting late and we have a 6am wake-up for an early morning game drive, so I’m off to bed.