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namibia

Kingdom (Part Six)

By Carolyn Chon

October 19^th, 2019

The drive from Hoada to Etosha was nice and easy as it was tarred road all the way. I took probably around 3-4 hours to get there.

I arrived at my lodging that's situated just outside the park's entrance around 2pm. The drive into the reception and the accommodation units were surrounded by trees and some wildlife, which was nice, obviously. In my short 5mins drive to the reception, I already spotted Zebras and Kudus roaming around.

I was greeted by a herd of Kudus at the car park. They stood about 30-5oms away from the parking and lots and I obviously kept my distance. But it was definitely nice to be greeted by wildlife first before the humans from the lodge. Heh.

Etosha village

Etosha Village was the last accommodation booked because I couldn't confirm the days any earlier, so glad I got a tour company to sort this all out for me. Needless to say, I was super happy to be booked into this place. After three days and night of not eating and sleeping properly, this was a treat!

Breakfast and dinner was included as with most lodges in Namibia, and Etosha Village in particular had the best variety! There were even the exotic meats of Zebra, Impalas and the likes. No, I'm a pescatarian. Exotic meats are most definitely not in my diet.

After I settled my bags into my lovely sun filled room, I chilled in the garden by the reception as that was where wi-fi was available. The air was cool and dry and lil' ol' Pumba was roaming around the garden. Funnily with all the wildlife I saw during my trip, the Warthog was my favourite. I think it's the cutest of them all, it also really reminded me of one of my dogs, Rocky.

Game drive morn'

Next morning, just before dawn we set out to head to the national park for a game drive. It was freezing sitting in the safari vehicle! So glad the lodge stocked upon thick ponchos for unprepared travellers such as myself.

The first wildlife we saw in the park was a lioness! Whoopee!

While it was amazing looking, observing and watching the animals, it was painful to see how the drought had affected the environment for these animals. Our vehicle would bring us to waterholes to watch the animals, but even then the water levels there (some were man made) were depressing.

them ellies

After seeing the elephants up in Purros so up-close, seeing them at the park didn't wow me as much anymore to be honest. But the third photo here was the real wow for me. It was a brown hyena scavenging on whatever there was left off a carcass of an elephant. The brown hyena was huge! I would have loved to stand next to it just for a size comparison. heh. The white streaks you see on the carcass are vulture poop.

wildebe wildebeest?

When my other half went for his first safari in Tanzania, he said he saw too many wildebeests, almost like it wasn't special. So, throughout my time in Namibia from beginning to end, I was expecting to see many of them anytime and anywhere while on the road trip, but it wasn't until my second day driving through the national park did I finally spot the blue wildebeest. Yup, in Namibia, there's blue and black wildebeest as shared with me by Raymond, the guide in my first post.